Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2013 Issue 1

Smart Grid Opportunities for Qatar Summary Smart grid is defined as the next generation of the electricity grid that meets the following objectives (according to a recent NETL study funded by the DOE in the USA): * Enabling informed participation by customers * Accommodating all generation and storage options * Enabling new products, services, and markets * Providing the power quality for the range of needs in the 21st century economy * Optimizing asset utilization and operating efficiently * Addressing disturbances through automated prevention, containment, and restoration * Operating resiliently against all hazards. This paper will explore each of the above objectives focusing on some generic technical issues and challenges, as well as some specific circumstances defined by geopolitical and strategic Qatar enablers. The generic technical issues will focus on the technology, new applications and implementation issues related to smart grid solutions. The technology discussion will focus on advanced sensors, communications, data processing, and visualization solutions that are relevant to the new smart grid applications. Topics that will be discussed are big data and their role in smart grids, as well as the importance of cloud computing and pervasive web applications. Special attention will be placed on the issues of interoperability and standardization. The discussion of applications will be related to advancements in outage management, asset management and demand side management. The implementation issues will focus on the IT infrastructure, availability of good power system models, and future trends in EMS/DMS deployment. Special attention will be placed on the cyber-physical security and privacy issues in smart grid deployments. The specific Qatar circumstances that will be of interest are the ability to exploit the solar energy and to introduce large scale use of electrical vehicles, as well as an ability to provide hardened power grid for ultimate reliability and security of power supply to the end customers. Integration of such solutions into the existing power grid in Qatar will also be discussed. The research issues that need to be pursued to better understand circumstances of how to get the best use out of such advanced technologies will be the final point of the paper. The paper will end with some examples of smart cities developed around the world to offer an inspiration about possible smart grid projects in Qatar. Examples of recent developments in the USA, Europe and the Far East (Korea, Japan and China) will be mentioned as examples. The need to define unique Qatar approach to the smart grid development will be emphasized at the end.

Desalination of Arabian Gulf is intense. But the environmental issues as not yet addressed on regional scale. Key issues are the concentrate and chemical discharges to the marine environment, the emissions of air pollutants and the energy demand of the processes. For sustainable use of desalination technology, the impacts of each major desalination project should be investigated and mitigated by means of a project- and location-specific environmental impact assessment (EIA) study and long term impact based on the global climate change. In this context, this study is aimed to address the impact of desalination with global climate change on a regional scale. A hydrodynamic model covering the Arabian Gulf driven by Arabian Sea tidal levels was setup to establish the hydrodynamic condition of the Gulf. The model was driven with level and velocity components from the global tidal model TPXO. The results are compared with the predicted tides from ATT (Admiralty Tide Table) of standard ports as well as secondary ports and available tidal streams at the Diamond Points. This is an attempt to make a calibrated working model that drive the coastal Qatar hydrodynamic model which ultimately drive dispersion model with long term climate parameters to assess the impact of climate change on the dispersion of concentrated brine. The model validity compares well with the ATT predicted tides and tidal steams of Admiralty Chart No. 3787. The regional model is shows very good agreement on predicted tides along the regional model and velocity vectors at the admiralty diamonds on chart. Free surface of the model was compared with the ATT predicted tides at ports Mesaieed, Al Wakra, Doh, ras laffan, Jabal Al Fuwarit, mina salman, MINA Saud, Khowr E Musa Bar, Bharder E Shaid Rajai and Port sultan Qaboos. As the bathymetry and coastline near south east part of Qatar were not well resolved, model comparison could not be carried out at this site. The model was run with an updated bathymetry from the navigational charts to resolve the tides of coastal Qatar. Except at Al Wakra, the predicted levels were in good agreement with the model results. Tidal streams on BHO Chart No. 3787 were also compared against the model velocities during spring and neap stages of the tide. The velocity values obtained from Admiralty Diamonds during spring and neap tides are based on very short-term observations. Since the estimates are based on data collected during different periods, it could be used as an estimate of the tidal currents only in the absence of other data. Comparisons between model current speeds and BHO chart values of tidal streams indicate good matching during spring tides while during neap tides the model over-estimates the current speeds at all Diamond points. Variations in tidal current velocities between peak flood and peak ebb at different parts of the gulf convincingly indicate diurnal reversal of the tidal streams.

The advanced technologies presented in this paper are based on a low-environmental-impact, energy-saving,and health-fostering approach, able to fit to the extreme climate and environmental conditions of Qatar. They are addressing 3 of the 12 Cross-cutting Grand Challenges within the Energy and Environment thematic pillar. 3. Sustainable food supply: c (Explore the feasibility of hydroponic, aeroponic and new greenhouse technologies). The advanced technology proposed is applied to a greenhouse which is able to grow hydroponically fresh vegetables in the desert under extremely controlled conditions taking care of water, air, waste management and energy production. Based on previous aerospace experience, the greenhouse proposed is something that surpasses the current state of the art: the energy production for all the hydroponic greenhouse facility is ensured by the use of flexible and transparent solar panels which allows for solar light to illuminate the hydroponic cultures; simultaneously electricity is produced by an integrated PV system made of high-tech conductive polymers embedded inside the plastics of the external walls of the greenhouse. 1. Water reuse: f (Develop and adopt safe and efficient methods of wastewater reclamation and reuse). The water for the alimentation of the hydroponic cultures will be used in closed circuit avoiding losses through a constant monitoring of its key parameters. A series of ion-selective electrodes connected with microelectronic hardware, follows through metering pumps the concentration of nutrients in the water to integrate those depleted during the circulation. Water circulation in the hydroponic culture implies also its enrichment by metabolites such as oxalic acid coming from plants, and the water can accumulate and grow undesired micro-organisms which can build up undesired and noxious biofilm or which could be dangerous for the plants. To eliminate these risks, a patented in-house technology permits to destroy selectively the undesired metabolites released by the plants using the photo-ozonolysis treatment, which not only destroys metabolites like oxalic acid converting them into CO2 and water, but destroys completely all noxious micro-organisms which may grow in the hydroponic water, preventing the undesired bio-film to build-up. 5. Sustainable Urbanisation - Doha as a smart city: d (Develop state-of.the-art technologies in infrastructure systems and materials unique to Qatar but adaptable to global industry) and i (Design and build environments that foster healthy behaviours). A technological transfer from the above-described systems to the thermal mitigation of urban confined spaces is envisioned in this third part of the presented proposal. The greenhouse selective solar ETFE envelop can be applied to outdoor confined spaces in order to realise thermal comfort conditions inside through solar radiation control. The close circuit water pump system is used to sprinkle water from the ceiling of the envelop inducing passive down-draft evaporative cooling. The aeroponic technique allow for vertical vegetation growing on the facades of buildings which become the inner walls of the outdoor confined spaces, thus increasing the cooling effect by transpiration and low-emissivity irradiation. In addition, ground cooling is applied to inlet naturally cooled air from floor vents connected to serpentines of buried pipes under the urban space pavement.

Abstract: Preservation seeds of wild plants for longest period with high viability is a great challenge in gene bank. Germination test is one of seed viability tests methods to determine percentage of seeds in an accession will germinate under favorable conditions and generate normal seedlings capable of development into reproductively complete plants. Different methods have been developed successful to determine germination of seeds especially for endanger and rare species. Germination test is an important factor in order to determine the ability of seeds to be preserved in gene bank for long term. This study showed initial germination of some wild plants which collected from wild habitat and were processed for ex-situ conservation in short-term conservation and long-term conservation units at plant genet resources unit. Seed germination tests were carried out in seed viability unit, under favorable environmental conditions for each species. The aim of this work was to evaluate the seeds germination in the first stage of ex-Situ conservation processing. Seeds were collected according to the principals and guidelines of plant genetic resources collections set by Biodiversity International and international gene banks. The germination tests process according the international conservation rules, and International Seed Testing Association. Results showed that some species gave highly germination percentage without any treatments for example: Anastatica hierochuntica (100%), Lycium shawii (85 %), Ochradenus baccatus, (65%), Blepharis edulis (70%). On the other hand other species gave low germination percentage for example: Acacia ehrenbergiana (41%), Prosopis juliflora (50%) and Citrullus colocythsis (0%). Key words:Viability, Seeds, Germination, Wild plants, Gene Bank, Qatar.

The rapid increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases requiring constant monitoring has created a major impetus to developing scalable Body Area Sensor Networks (BASNs) for remote health applications. In this paper, to anatomize, control, and optimize the behavior of the wireless EEG monitoring system under the energy constraint, we develop an Energy- Delay-Distortion cross-layer design. This cross-layer design aims at minimizing the total energy consumption subject to data delay deadline and distortion threshold constraints. The source encoding and data transmission are the two dominant power consuming operations in wireless EEG monitoring system. Therefore, in the proposed cross-layer design, the optimal encoding and transmission energy are computed to minimize the energy consumption in a delay constrained wireless BASN. This cross- layer framework is proposed, across Application-MAC-Physical layers, under a constraint that all successfully received packets must have their delay smaller than their corresponding delay deadline and with maximum distortion less than the application distortion threshold. In addition to that, to decrease the computational complexity, a distributed algorithm that finds the optimum encoding and transmission parameters for each sensor node is proposed.

Multi-phase IM drive systems are nowadays seen as a possible alternative to the three-phase drives due to their features that are especially suited for high power applications such as Oil & Gas industries, electric vehicles, traction drive, ship propulsion, robotics and mining and huge number of application. The main advantages of the multi-phase machines are higher power density with reduced volume, lower torque pulsation at higher frequency, lower dc link current harmonics and lower noise and keep going. This fault tolerance capability of the multi-phase machines makes them highly attractive for safety critical applications listed above. The trend in the drive industry is to employ sensorless topology to make the system more reliable, robust, lower hardware count, reduced cabling, reduced cost and less maintenance. The purpose of this project is to design and develop five-phase speed sensorless induction motor drive system with inverter output LC filter. The drive system are supplied using PWM voltage source inverter and the growing switching speed of IGBTs pose additional problem of high dv/dt. The high dv/dt of the inverter output leads to several problems in the drive systems such as doubling of motor applied voltage (especially for drive with long cable), high voltage stress on motor, leakage and bearing currents leading to the bearing failure and high electromagnetic interference (EMI) etc. To mitigate these issues particularly passive filters are used. This paper focuses on using an LC filter at the output of the five-phase inverter. This paper investigate the design issues of output LC in conjunction with five-phase drive system. The LC filter causes delay and phase shift in the output voltages that affect adversely the motor control especially in sensorless vector controlled drive system. The presence of LC filter is to be incorporated in the speed estimator system. Hence the modification is necessary in the control structure. The effect of inverter output LC filter on the behavior of a sensorless vector controlled five-phase induction motor drive system investigated in this paper. Modification in the control structure and algorithm will be implemented. The whole approach based on theoretical study, simulation verification and experimental implementation. The work on existing Five-phase induction motor drive system at QU. The effect of LC filters on long cable length drive system and the use of composite type of filters will be evaluated in future project cycles.

MODIFICATION OF WOOD BY RADIO-FREQUENCY DISCHARGE PLASMA aIgor Novák1, a,bAnton Popelka1, aMarian Valentin, aIvan Chodák1, a,cIgor Krupa dVladimír Vanko, dJozef Preťo aPolymer Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia bCenter for Advanced Materials, Quatar University, Doha, Quatar cCenter for Advanced Materials, QAPCO Polymer Chair, Quatar University, Doha, Quatar dVIPO, Partizánske, Slovakia Email: [email protected] Abstract The modification of wood surfaces is of considerable interest with the respect to construction of the strongest wood adhesive joints. Great efforts have been made in developing various kinds of furniture using wood or plastics veneers in adhesive joints wood-adhesive-veneer. The radio-frequency (RF) discharge plasma is currently an efficient method for modification of surface and adhesive properties of wood, and is considered as the 'green' ecologically friendly method. For a common industrial wood application various woods have to possess a large set of various surface characteristics, including polarity (hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity), dyability, scratch resistance, tailored adhesive properties, antibacterial resistance etc. In experimental work we have been focused to study of surface and adhesive properties of beech (Fagus sylvatica) wood modified by RF-discharge plasma. There are two reasons why in the case of wood to apply discharge plasma modification. Firstly, discharge plasma in air itself significantly increases hydrophilicity of the wood, because of formation various polar groups (e.g. hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl, etc), and, the wood macromolecules are also cross-links (up to a few microns) what leads to the increase in scratch resistance and to the improvement in barrier properties of the wood material. Second reason for the plasma use is an increase of adhesion in adhesive joint between wood substrate, that is important for industrial applications. The contact angle of re-distilled water drop on the beech wood surface was measured immediately after drop deposition. The contact angles showed a steep decrease from 66 deg (pristine sample) to 40 deg after 120s activation of wood by RF plasma in air. The decrease of the contact angles of polar testing liquid (water) can be explained by an increase of the hydrophilicity of beech wood surface due to the treatment by RF plasma in air. The hydrophilicity of the surface depends on the formation of polar oxygenic functional groups on wood surface during the plasma modification in air. The surface energy and its polar component of beech wood increased with time of plasma activation. The surface energy of beech wood treated 120s by RF plasma in air increased from 66 mJ.m-2 (pristine sample) to 78 mJ.m-2, and the polar component of the surface energy increased from 17.4 (pristine sample) to 27.2 mJ.m-2 (120s). The shear strength of adhesive joint beech wood modified by RF plasma in air-epoxy adhesive vesrus activation time increased non-linearly from 5.2 MPa (pristine wood) up to 7.8 MPa (120s activation by CCRF plasma). Acknowledgements This contribution was supported by project No. 26220220091 by Research & Development Operational Program funded by ERDF, as well as the project „Application of Knowledge-based Methods in Designing Manufacturing Systems and Materials", project No. MESRSSR 3933/2010-1.

In Qatar, more than 1000 mosques can be concerned by the results of this study to improve their energy performance, save energy and consequently reduce their environmental footprint Five mosques have been investigated and indoor environment have been monitored. There are compound mosques and large neighbourhood mosque. The measurements and interviews results indicate that thetemperature setting are adequate but can be slightly increased to save energy in cooling. The simulation study indicates that an energy saving of 30% can be achieved by optimizing the cooling setting time and an optimized insulation level.

The 18th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention to Climate Change has taken place in December 2012 in Doha and brought some fruitful results in defining the future climate regime strategy. The parties acknowledged that, during the first phase of the implementation of Kyoto Protocol from 2008 to 2012, there had been a number of truly important achievements, in particular in setting up mechanisms aimed at the reduction of emissions locally and involving strong participation of the private sector. The lessons learned in the first phase of 2008-2012 provide valuable pointers for the future and will hopefully make an even stronger contribution to sustainable development in the years to come. This article offers an overview of the international climate policy framework and analysis of the probably most successful and promising instrument - clean development mechanism (CDM) - that has really boosted clean technology transfer, sustainable development and climate change awareness in the Middle East over the last 5 years. This article also reviews the implementation of several Global Environmental Fund (GEF) projects on renewable energy technologies diffusion in Tunisia, Egypt and other developing nations. It specifically addresses the inclusion of private actors (banking sector, equipment producers, private developers) throughout the definition phases and implementation of the projects. This paper analyzes the compatibility of the stakeholders' interests and the adaptation of public regulations and mechanisms in developing a fertile framework for the creation of private initiatives. The choice of cases allows for the study of the most relevant set of domestic parameters (such as legal, political and cultural variables) to unsure the capacity building and sustained contribution of private actors. The author worked for the United Nations Environment Programme during the development of the initiative and introduces in this paper a range of theoretical and analytic tools to underline the success and shortcomings of public-private partnerships in environmental technologies diffusion programs The article concludes by extracting the best practices that provide insights on how to develop similar projects within the GCC in general and Qatar in particular. Analyzing the shortcomings of some of the projects and the achievements of most, it will provide leads as to the establishment of a framework of public policies and program developments that could serve as a relevant foundation for the sustainable development of the country and the region.

Gulf Countries have an arid/hyper arid climate with little precipitation, a low groundwater recharge rate and no reliable, perennial surface water resources. The total consumption of ground water resources in these countries exceeds with times its natural recharge capacity. However, urbanization expansion and the need for green landscapes in most of the Gulf cities increase the demand on the irrigation water. This puts great stress on the limited water resources in the Gulf Countries. One way for the sustainable use of the limited water resources is through the use of native desert plants in landscaping the cities. Native plants are those that have evolved naturally under the harsh environmental conditions of the GCC countries. They can tolerate very high temperatures, drought (water deficit) and high salinity. Native plants provide a beautiful, hardy, drought resistant, low maintenance landscape while benefiting the environment. Besides that they are adapted to the local climate, geography and hydrology and should require little or no fertilizers and water for growth and maintenance, given that native plants have adapted and evolved to local conditions over thousands of years. In addition, the beauty of native wildflowers and grasses creates a sense of place. The native plants increase our connection to nature and provide a beautiful place to relax. Native plants are also resistant to most kinds of local insects and resistant to most pathogens. Consequently, using native plants would reduce the use of the hazardous chemicals and hence save the environment in a sustainable way. In the present study, we screened more than 100 plants native to the GCC region to select the most potential in landscaping. Plants are selected based on their appearance, texture and tolerances to drought and salinity, fit as ornamental plants. Priorities are given for species that have wide ecological amplitudes. These species can tolerate wide range of environmental (especially soil factors) and hence would be more successful under new conditions in of the urban environment. The main challenge facing the use of native plants in landscaping is the great dormancy in their seeds, which results in very low germination rate. In addition, there is a lack of propagation information for most of the native desert plants used in the urban landscaping. Our results showed that large number of studied plants have little dormancy and can germinate in a wide condition of temperatures and light. However, many other potential plants have very deep dormancy. Treatments with different growth regulators, such gibberellic acid, kinetin and thiourea and fusicoccin are currently in progress to break physiological dormancy. Other treatments, such as sulfuric acid, are also carried out to break physical seed coat dormancy. In addition, seeds are stored under different conditions to break the morphological dormancy.