Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2013 Issue 1

The northern limit of Qatar represents a unique depositional environment, reflecting the interplay of coastal processes and sea-level history along the windward margin of the peninsula. The coastline faces directly into prevailing winds, creating distinctive subenvironments. The ecological and geological history of this area is documented for the first time by integrating autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) surveys and dive-based sampling and documentation of existing maritime data. An AUV collected side-scan sonar imagery, bathymetry, water temperature profiles, sub-bottom profiles and underwater photo mosaics data. Divers followed AUV transects making observations and collecting forty unconsolidated sediment and non-living coral samples. The area of study extends from 500 meters offshore from the island of Jazeerat Reken (Ras Rakan Island), clockwise for 10 kilometers southeast, offshore of the village of Al-Mafyar (Umm Tays Island). North of Jazeerat Reken the seafloor shows a steep margin from shallow subtidal to depths of approximately -7 meters. In contrast the eastern margin of the area, near Al-Mufyar shows a gentle slope, dipping to -6 meters over a 2 kilometer distance. The steep margin along the north coincides with the limits of a fringing reef system that built seaward during the Holocene. Radiocarbon age dates indicate reef growth initiated as early as 5000 years before present, when sea level was 2 to 4 meters higher than today. Two isolated sub-Recent patch reef (reef bommies) trends were discovered offshore of the main fringing reef slope, west of Jazeerat Reken. These offshore isolated patch reefs start at a water depth of about -7 meters and rise up close to present day sea level. The steepest slope of the fringing reef was observed at the northern tip of Qatar, north of Jazeerat Reken Island, where the base of the reef is at about -6 meters. Side-scan sonar imagery and sub-bottom profiling was carried out, revealing a fringing reef slope, the isolated patch reefs and the thickness of the unconsolidated sediment cover of the seabed. Samples from non-living corals were taken for radiocarbon age dating analyses. A sea-level drop approximately 2000 years before present may account for the end of fringing and patch reef growth. Since the sea-level fall, the reef top has been characterized by mobile, coarse coral-algal sands and beach-rock stabilized islands, like Jazeerat Reken. The unique grain size and shape of coral-algal beach sands provide a unique nesting ground for hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). The seabed east of Al-Mufyar (Umm Tays Island) is dominated by carbonate sand bars, separated by brown algae beds attached to the underlying bedrock or hardgrounds. Sediment samples were taken along a 2000 meter long transect perpendicular to the shoreline and side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling were carried out in this area. The results of our study provide new insights into changing carbonate platform geometries and related sediment distribution through time; controlled by sea-level fluctuations, as well as wind, tidal, wave, and current conditions. It also provides a template for conducting cost-effective, easily executed ecological and geological studies.

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the most distributed and well-adapted fruit crops in the Middle East, and plays an important role in the history and diet of the Arab world. Dates constitute the primary exportable agricultural product in Qatar and current efforts are being made to improve its production. Over the years, clonal propagation has been used to maintain selected varieties with desirable morphological traits, leading to the establishment of uniform palm orchards. This, however, significantly reduces genetic diversity among palm plantations, making them potentially more susceptible to pests and diseases. Improvement of date production through date palm breeding is highly challenging due to the long regeneration times and the lack of knowledge about the genetic markers responsible for desirable agricultural traits. In commercial plantations, one hundred fruit bearing female trees can be pollinated with a single non-bearing male tree. Still, half of the date palm offspring planted from seeds are expected to be male individuals. One of the biggest challenges that date production encounters is that female trees can only be distinguished after flowering, which occurs five to eight years after planting. Previous cytological studies have suggested the presence of heteromorphic sex chromosomes in date palm, however enzymatic approaches intended to anticipate gender determination have been unsuccessful. The recent genome sequencing of different individuals from the commercial varieties Khalas, Deglet Noor and Medjool, allowed the identification of a gender-linked genomic region. This single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-rich region was shown to segregate with gender, and is predicted to extend to 24 scaffolds. Only a limited amount of information about this region is currently available, and this study proposes the use of a deep-sequencing approach to significantly improve the date palm genome assembly, with an emphasis on the male/female segregating region. A bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, with a 12x genome coverage and an average insert size of 125 Kb was constructed. BAC-end sequencing of at least 96 clones, associated with the polymorphic sex-linked region, will allow the generation a complete physical and sequence map of the sex-determination region. Our main goal is to detect the critical mutation that gave rise to male and female separation. This is the firs time such level of detail in a dioecious plant will be achieved. Furthermore, standardization of this sequencing procedure, will also allow us to characterize other genomic regions associated with desirable commercial properties of these fruits. This in turn, will provide a valuable tool for the development of marker-assisted selection programs, for the improvement of date palm production.

Total of 47 Date palm samples representing 15 cultivars from two germplasm collections (Rodat Alfaras Germplasm field and Germplasm field of Qatar University Experimental farm) were collected to study the genetic diversity among and within date palm cultivars grown in Qatar. 29 samples representing 11 varieties were collected from Rodat Alfaras Farm. Eighteen samples including six varieties were collected from Qatar University Experimental Farm. DNAs were extracted from fresh leaves by using commercial DNeasy Plant System Kit (Qiagen, Inc., Valencia, CA) Total of 18 (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) ISSR single primers were used to amplify DNA fragments using genomic DNA of the 47 samples. First screening was done to test the ability of these primers to amplify clear bands using Date palm genomic DNA. All 18 ISSR primers successfully produced clear bands in the first screening. Then, each primer was used separately to genotype the whole set of 47 Date palm samples. Total of 4794 bands were generated using 12 ISSR primers for the 47 Date palm samples. On average, each primer generated 400 bands. The Number of amplified bands varied from cultivar to cultivar and differed from area to area for the same cultivar. The highest number of bands was obtained using Primers 2, 5 and 12 for the 17 cultivars over all locations (470 bands), while the lowest number of bands were obtained by Primers 1, 7 and 8 where they produced only 329 bands. However, variation within each individual cultivar as number of polymorphic fragments was considerably smaller than the inter-specific variation among the studied cultivars. Markers were scored for the presence and absence of the corresponding band among the different cultivars grown in different locations. Data were subjected to cluster analysis. A similarity matrix was constructed and the similarity values were used for cluster analysis.

Paraffin wax deposition from crude oils at low temperature is one of the critical and long standing problems in petroleum industry. An addition of pour point depressants (PPDs) has been proved to be an efficient way to inhibit the wax deposition. The chosen group of PPDs in this study are poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate(EVA)) and (Meth)acrylate Ester (MAE) polymers. The molecule geometry structures were labelled as illustrated in Figure 1. This research focuses on the investigation of van der Waals intermolecular interaction between the major wax component molecule C28H58, with the inhibitor molecules via molecular dynamics simulation (MD) technique in Material Studio 5.5 software Package. The simulation system has been equilibrated under NVE essemble at 200ps followed by NVT assemble. COMPASS force field is applied to analyse the desired structural property Radial Distribution Function (RDF). The results show that the functional groups introduced by EVA were benefit to inhibit the self-agglomerate of the wax crystal compared to MAE as reported in a published literature. Simulation output also provides a better understanding on the interaction between wax crystal and inhibitors. The oxygen atoms in EVA play a significant role to inhibit the wax formation through the van der Waals interaction between hydrogen atoms in n-Octacosane molecule. As a conclusion, MD is a promising tool method to recognise the wax-inhibitor intermolecular interaction which is much fast, environmental friendly and economic for further inhibitor screening work. Keywords: poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate(EVA)),(Meth)acrylate Ester (MAE) Polymers, COMPASS, van der Waals

Qatar's one of the biggest problem in processing its natural resource, which is natural gas, is the often occurring blockage in the pipelines caused due to uncontrolled gas hydrate formation in the pipelines. Several millions of dollars are being spent at the process site to dehydrate the blockage safely by using chemical inhibitors. We aim to establish national database, which addresses the physical conditions that promotes Qatari natural gas to form gas hydrates in the pipelines. Moreover, we aim to design and test novel hydrate inhibitors that are suitable for Qatari natural gas and its processing facilities. From these perspectives we are aiming to provide more effective and sustainable reservoir utilization and processing of Qatari natural gas. In this work, we present the initial finding of a big project, which deals with the natural gas hydrate formation characteristics of Qatari type gas in both experimental (PVTx) and computational (molecular simulations) methods. We present the commissioning of the new fully automated gas hydrate autoclave and measurements of hydrate equilibrium curves including growth/dissociation conditions for multi-component systems for several gas mixtures with and without the presence of well known kinetic and thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors.

The achievement of air quality standards (AQS) is the main concern of air quality managers. In the semi arid and arid areas such as Qatar, dust storms release large amounts of particulate into the atmosphere every year, which can cause serious health problems such as lung irritation, allergic reactions, eye infections, meningitis. The present research aims at simulating PM10 concentrations distribution in Tehran by lognormal statistical distribution method during a bit more than 2-year period (2011-19 January 2013). With respect to statistical properties of air pollutants, the number of exceeding daily average concentrations from assigned air quality standards (AQS) can be estimated, as well as the level of reduction in current emission sources of PM10 required in order to meet the AQS. The results show that the distribution of PM10 concentration could be in?uenced by local meteorological conditions in di?erent seasons .In addition, the emission sources reduction of PM10 concentration to meet the air quality standard (PM10> 50µg/m3) for Fath's station is successfully predicted.

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a key technology for converting syngas (H2/CO mixture) into a variety of hydrocarbon products via the gas-to-liquid technology (GTL) process. Although this technology has existed for decades, commercial development remains limited to a few reactor configurations (e.g. fixed bed reactor, fluidized bed and slurry reactor). On the lab-scale, the utilization of supercritical fluids as reaction media in FTS was shown to combine the advantages of both the gas-phase (fixed bed) and the liquid-phase (slurry) reactors, while simultaneously overcoming their limitations [1]. Our previous studies in this field reported the challenges facing the design of a novel supercritical fluids FTS reactor technology [2,4]. The current study focuses on modeling the in situ behavior of typical SCF-FTS reactor bed ('macro-scale' assessment) as well as catalyst pellet ('micro-scale' assessment). This research has several objectives; however its main scope is to provide both qualitative and quantitative assessment of the in situ behavior of the non-ideal reactor bed relative to the conventional gas-phase fixed bed reactor technology, as a first step towards industrial scale-up. The specific aims of our paper are as follows: to simulate the heat and mass transfer behavior inside the reactor bed; to identify operating conditions using near- or supercritical fluids capable of overcoming mass and heat transfer limitations inside the reactor bed; and to quantify the role of the main controlling parameters on the reactor bed behavior as measured by the catalyst effectiveness factor. A typical mathematical modeling technique for the fixed bed reactor was applied to simultaneously simulate the concentration and temperature profiles inside the catalyst pores (micro-scale modeling) and inside the reactor bed (macroscale modeling) [5-7]. For the micro scale simulation of the in situ behavior inside a spherical catalyst pellet a second order ordinary differential equation was used to describe both the mass and heat balances. For the macro scale modeling a 1D steady state pseudo homogeneous plug-flow model was used. In addition, in both models the mass balance equation was expressed in terms of fugacity to account for the non-ideal behavior of the reaction mixture in the SCF reaction. The thermodynamic properties of the mixture were calculated using the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state (SRK-EOS). Using this methodology, the effect of pressure in the (near)-critical fluid (SCF) assisted reaction, and the effect of the (near)-critical fluid on heat transfer and temperature distribution within the reactor was investigated. We also investigated the effect of the particle size on the overall catalyst effectiveness factor for both the SCF and gas phase FTS. Figure1 and Figure2 show the temperature and conversion profiles under comparable conventional gas phase reaction and SCF reaction conditions. The most dramatic effect can be found in the temperature distribution profile. Due to the presence of the solvent the generated heat is absorbed, leading to a much smoother temperature profile. In general, this study will provide a comparison between the in situ behavior and the catalyst effectiveness factor for the proposed novel process versus the conventional gas-phase FTS reactor bed under equivalent operating conditions.

Climate change, caused by excess green house gas (GHG) emissions from human activities is becoming a pressing problem as the Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C since the early 20th century (America's Climate Choices, 2011). It is now widely accepted that investment in renewable energy sources is one of the most effective solutions to amend the emission of GHGs. Yet renewable energy technologies only account for a small fraction of the world's primary energy supply. Several technical, economical and behavioral reasons hinder market diffusion of these technologies; among these we note the lack, inadequacy or instability of the governmental policies to promote sustainable energy solutions. Various policies such as subsidies and tax reductions have been implemented to facilitate the diffusion of renewable energy systems. Yet, there is limited research on which policy is optimal, taking into account the complexities and externalities in the supply chain of such renewables as Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Using a stylized economical model, this research aims at identifying optimal policies for adoption of PV systems. We develop a model with a 3-player environment, which includes a grid operator responsible for meeting electricity demands, a PV manufacturer, and customers who are sensitive about their investment payback time with heterogeneous 'discount rate', reflecting their attitude toward the time value of money. The grid operator is responsible to meet all electricity demand, while aiming at increasing PV penetration. The PV manufacturer as well as the customers seeks to maximize their own profit/utility. The decision variable for the customers is whether or not to adopt the system, affecting profit of the two other parties by determining the demand as well as the amount and variation of the electricity fed into the grid using the PV systems. The decision variable for the PV manufacturer is the price to charge for each PV unit, while the grid operator decides on the incentive schemes for adoption including feed-in tariffs and subsides. We investigate the equilibrium outcome in this intertwined decision environment as a sequential game, where the manufacturer determines the price of PV units given the governmental incentive systems, and the customers determine demand. Using this equilibrium outcome, we then investigate the effectiveness of various incentive policies to maximize supply chain profit as well as PV penetration.

Spent spot lining (SPL) is a graphite/ceramic waste that is produced from the aluminum industry. The rate of SPL production is expected to increase worldwide by 500,000 tons per year. SPL is considered as a hazardous material since it contains many contaminants e.g. fluorides, cyanides, lead and chromium in addition to flammable gases when it comes in contact with water e.g. ammonia, phosphine, hydrogen and methane. Hydrogen and methane accounts for approximately 99 percent of gases generated. These gases are released slowly for significant lengths of time which could present an explosion hazard in confined or poorly ventilated spaces. Furthermore, the SPL contaminants can diffuse to the water ground during storage. The aims of this work are to (i) design and verify a full analysis protocol for the SPL and (ii) find a suitable application for consuming the SPL waste. SPL was collected from Qatalum, grinded using a ball miller and then washed with water, conc. HNO3 and finally with conc. NaOH. The evolved gases in each stage were collected in gas collection bags and analyzed using gas chromatography. Also, the eluents from the different washing steps were collected for the induced coupled plasma (ICP) analysis to determine the concentration of the different trace metals. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis for the anions was done. Part of the graphite was transformed into graphene which later was was functionalized in two different ways to add acidic and basic moieties on its surface to trap basic and acidic gases, respectively which are evolved during the washing and chemical treatment of the SPL.

*The increasing attention received by environmental problems in general and by global warming in particular reignites the debate around the sustainability of energy sources and renewable energy technologies. Renewable energies (RE) are considered one of the most effective and least risky solutions to curb greenhouse gas emissions. By providing emission-free and sustainable energy, these energies are main alternatives to fossil fuels. Yet, notwithstanding the advantages and the fact that they have experienced a substantial growth over the last decade, RE market penetration still remains below the levels judged necessary to effectively curb C02 emissions. Increasing RE penetration requires therefore that concerned actors such as RE companies and policy makers develop a more thorough understanding of the factors that affect the RE diffusion process. To that end, in this study we adopt a new technology diffusion perspective to shed further light on the factors that may hamper or accelerate the diffusion of a specific type of RE: photovoltaic systems (PV). We especially discuss and examine the impact of the following factors: i) the type and amount of PV-related information acquired by potential adopters; ii) the perceived economic value of PV; iii) the role of technological uncertainty and iv) the degree of competition in the PV market. We put forth a conceptual model of PV diffusion and we test it using primary data obtained through a survey of the actual and the potential clients of a large European utility that also sells PV systems. We used a set of logit models to estimate the impact of the above factors on the probability of adopting a PV system and we examined possible second order and interaction effects between these factors. The analysis provides interesting insights, particularly with respect to the role of information and the process through which it is acquired by potential adopters. Most importantly, the results indicate that information acquired through personal contacts (e.g. by visiting stores or talking to friends and colleagues) has a much greater impact on the probability of adoption than information filtered by other types of media (e.g. obtained from the web). This indirectly stresses the key role played by retailers, who guarantee a face-to-face contact with potential customers. Second, our results show that, contrary to expectations, increasing the number of market competitors decreases the probability of adoption, possibly because potential adopters defer their adoption decision when the number of available alternatives increases beyond a certain limit. Interestingly, we also note that the impact of perceived economic value and technological uncertainty is not significant, as if PV systems had already reached a minimum level of cost competitiveness and technological maturity. Altogether, our results indicate that - in addition to focusing on improving technological effectiveness and reducing system cost, RE providers should pay a lot of attention to the way they organize their distribution channels and to how they design their marketing campaigns. *The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Qatar National Research Fund (project n. NPRP 5 - 873 - 5 - 133