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.

We report here the discovery of a gecko species, the Persian leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus persicus Anderson, 1872 (Gekkonidae) in Qatar that was found on Halul Island. According to the Qatar National Biodiversity Surveys and the available international literature H. persicus was not previously recorded in Qatar. Its known range covers the north east of the Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and south western Asia. Our findings bridge the current geographic gap in the known distribution of the species from Saudi Arabia to Asia. We believe that the species could be also present in the Qatar peninsula. A thorough field survey is needed in order to map the range of this species in the State of Qatar.

Indeed human resources, national technological projects and energy are the three main pillars for any sustainable social-economical development of all our societies at the national-local, regional and international levels. In a global modern World with already existing means of communication and technologies' transfer, the improvement of the materials and economical welfare could be enhanced in order to show visible results even after half a decade form the starting of the projects even in the sectors where times needed has been counted by decades in the western presently developed countries. It must be underlined that the presence of energy resources and global financial capabilities does not lead automatically to a sustainable harmonious social development. However in such conditions, the latter can be easily conceived provided that a voluntary driving force of human resources is made available to fix clear and timed goals. Indeed, imported technologies and managing experts can make a national technology starting with some welfare. Notwithstanding sustainable development requires building a sound national strategy for rooting the desired technology with all its requirements: i) human force, ii) advanced technology education, iii) energy resources, iv) appropriate research institutions, v) economical motivation, vi) workers qualifications, v) etc. It is worth to underline the importance of the national technological project. The historical review of the human technological evolution showed that the so far sustainable development of the technologically advanced communities has been started around some key projects like steel industry, machine tools, etc. The present situation of the humanity is crucial as with population increase and natural resources decrease. Therefore recycling of raw materials and new energy sources will be the driving forces for the future environmentally compatible life and existence survival. Advanced education and scientific research within a peaceful and healthy society are the tools to achieve such goal. There is a room for developing countries to access to materials welfare, if investment is made in time. The success can be expected only for a community where emerged a Wise Central Force (WCF) capable to monitor the following main centrifugal forces: i) Societies & Increasing Young Individuals, ii) Sciences & Technology Fundamental and R&D, iii) Education & Qualification for Employment iv) Healthy & Friendly Environment Some comparative examples will be given from developed, emerging and economically advances countries. Recent results of the OECD programme like PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) will discussed for comparative purpose of international performances of comparable countries.

The mobile Barchan dunes in Qatar are restricted to the southeastern region of the country. They are currently a disappearing natural habitat, due to the northwesterly Al Shamal winds which are scouring the landscape and spreading desertification as they pass. The study's aim was to understand the ecology of an active dune, in terms of resident species and their populations. Traps were placed along three dunes and animals were collected over a period of three months. Species captured included the skink (Sincus mitranus), a number of Tenebrionidae beetles, in addition to geckos, scorpions, and spiders. The skinks were PIT tagged in order to estimate population size, along with life history data. Recapture data showed that there has been no migration between dunes, indicating that each dune represents it's own self-contained ecosystem. We are currently sequencing skink DNA to determine familial relationships between skink populations on individual dunes. It has been observed that skinks exhibit colonial behaviour in individual dunes. This is one of the initial efforts to determine skink populations on mobile dunes, and forms a baseline to future studies on the ecology of these unique ecosystems.

Natural waters, permeability reduction in reservoir rocks, groundwater flow and clay rheology [1]. In addition, pyrophyllite clays have a number of industrial applications due to their distinctive surface chemical properties. The edge sites play an important role for pH dependent sorption of ions from solutions of electrolytes. For a full understanding of pyrophyllite formation and properties, a study of the chemistry of the system, the dynamical interactions between the components and the mesostructure are necessary. While experimentally it is difficult to determine the structure of these clays due to their disordered nature, molecular computer simulation has become an extremely useful, if not essential, tool for understanding the underlying principals behind surface chemistry [2,3]. As each property is associated with separate time and length scale, multiscale approaches such as DFT Molecular dynamics MD, classical molecular dynamics and Coarse Grained molecular dynamics are needed. In this talk, we will present a first principles molecular dynamics FPMD studies on hydrated Phyrophyllite clays which is the simplest structural prototype for 2:1 dioctahedral phyllosilicates. Octahedral (Mg for Al) and tetrahedral (Al for Si) substitutions allowing to a charged structure named Montmorollonite are also presented in this study.

PROMOTING GROUP: Green Cross Italia Onlus -GCIt (IT) team leader, ENEA (IT), AIDMO (Arab League), Renviron Foundation (EG) BACKGROUND: the high cultivation flexibility of "Jerusalem Artichock", a perennial grass worldwide known as "topinambur", and its adaptability to different and severe climatic conditions lead to the possibility to verify its exploitability in Gulf desert and pre desert areas, more precisely in Qatar, to reduce desert negative impact on climatic condition of existing sea shoreline cities. Topinambur is a particularly interesting crop for its very high sugar content in its "green phase", suitable to be transformed into high quality biogas. ENEA (www.enea.it) has, at the moment, the highest worldwide topinambur energy transformation expertise, where as GCIt has already developed many cooperation activities towards development and technology transfer projects in Africa and Latin America (Argentina, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal etc.). GCIt and ENEA have already established and developed a mutually profitable cooperation on biogas technologies and several other items related to RES. Technical director of GCIt owns already a multi-decennial background on innovative biogas technology promotion in Italy, Balkan peninsula, former Soviet Union area, Middle East (Lebanon and Egypt) and Africa (Senegal). INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY PROPOSED. The "dry anaerobic digestion" process (just 2 worldwide real patent on it) is the most efficient way to produce biogas without any watersupply in the process, key factor to deploy such an unique technology in the Gulf and Middle East Area. "Dry digestion" byproduct is a certified high quality compost perfectly suited to stabilize poor or marginal soils for future agricultural uses andcombating desertification. The proposed research main topics are: 1) Validation of growth topinambur factor in Qatar, near existing sea shoreline City (to have acceptable performance not less than 50 tons per ha); 2) Evaluation and scientific certification of the compost to be produced to combat desertification (to perform high values not less than 140 m3N/ton of treated material); 3) Evaluation and scientific certification of energy to be produced by biogas (CO2minimizing and fossil fuels substitution), aimed at about 10GWh of yearly production fromeach 30,000 tons of "green topinambur" properly collected; 4) Promotion of a very promising technology as the "dry anaerobic digestion" due also to the high flexibility of the raw material, or "fuel", suitable for it (it is possible also to be envisaged to recover compost and energy by municipal solid waste organic fraction). ROLE of PROPOSERS: Green Cross Italy will guarantee the social participation and will bring the worldwide cooperation towards development expertise and some technical aspects; ENEA will participate by its high research profile and multi-decennial expertise in the biogas and solar energy fields; AIDMO will participate to guarantee the highest result spreading to the whole Arab League context and, finally, Renviron Foundation will promote and innovative NGO approach among the Middle East and Gulf Countries.

Flaring is a recognized environmental issue with multiple implications. Flaring results in economic losses waste of limited material and energy resources, generation of huge amounts of CO2 and other harmful Green House Gases emissions affecting local air quality and contributing to global warming. The bigger impact is on local populations close to industrial cites. Flaring affects their quality of life and health. Yearly, over a 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared globally, the equivalent of 400 million tons CO2 emissions. The numbers seem large in magnitude but the impact is even larger when you consider that 400 million tons of CO2 emissions per year equal the annual emission rate of 77 million cars; and $10-15 billion dollars in losses at current gas prices. It is a common practice in process operation to flare under abnormal situations as a safety precaution; and it is standard operation procedure to also flare during upsets that occur in plant operation, such as equipment malfunction, off-spec production, or emergency shutdowns. Flaring is used to dispose of flammable gases that are either unusable or uneconomical to recover. There are many other causes for flaring that the project team intends on investigating. It should noted that most of the flaring of associated gas from oil production or direct gas venting are the sources of concern that industry must address by better operational practices. Qatar is blessed with the third largest natural gas (NG) reserve in the world and a booming industry covering wide spectrum of valuable gas derivatives. The industrial fortune however comes at a cost in terms of impact on the environment. In 2009, Qatar officially partnered with the World Bank in its program for Global Gas Flaring Reduction, aiming to be a global leader in environmental protection. Flare reduction will directly contribute limiting the emission of harmful gases and the reduction of CO2. Evolving environmental regulations and Qatar's commitment to flare reduction makes better management of industrial processes a research priority for Qatar Literature indicates that the reason for high flaring sources is a combination of lack of end use options for the unwanted gases during operation, and weak environmental regulations. Companies have access to relatively inexpensive NG and often feel that managing associated gases is too much of a hassle. With rising energy and oil prices, industry has motivation to better manage natural resources. In this paper the authors propose a methodology that focuses on use of cogeneration to mitigate flaring while gaining economic and environmental benefits. It is based on simultaneous design and operational optimization where (1) identify key flaring and venting sources, causes and consequences of process upsets that result in flaring and (2) apply the proposed methodology. The novelty in this method is it incorporates design and operational factors in designing combined heat and power system with special emphasis on discontinuous sources due to process upset. A base case study for an ethylene process was used to evaluate the process performance under varying abnormal situation scenarios.

Abstract: Qatar biodiversity is under the pressure by the effects of environmental pollution, overgrazing, desertification as well as the climatic change. In order to rescue wild plant genetic resources of Qatar and in the line of Qatar Strategic action plan of Genetic resources, the present investigation aims at ex-situ conservation of some wild plant genetic resources from Rawdat Umm Al-Kharq. A total number of 17 accessions have collected from Rawdat Umm Al-Kharq, which represent 13 family and 16 Genus,17 Species, during the season of 2013 to target a fully maturated seeds, herbarium specimens and DNA samples. The collection missions follow the principals and guidelines of Plant genetic resources collections set by Biodiversity International and international gene banks. The collected materials are subjected to characterization, documentation and preservation process. According the international conservation rules, cleaning, drying, viability test, packaging and storing were applied for seeds. Highly seeds viability recorded with Cucumis prophetarum, Malva parviflora, and Salvia aegyptica. All information derived from conservation process was documented in the Biotechnology Center. Key words: Biodiversity, Plant Genetic Resources, gene bank, Conservation, Qatar.

The Arabian Gulf surrounding Qatar is distinct from other marine ecosystems due to its high salinity, and extreme temperature fluctuations and is underpinned by its massive oil and gas industry. To date, no microbial studies have been performed in Qatari waters to isolates and identify the microbial flora of the marine environment in Qatar. This study is thus planned to assess the microbial diversity of in marine environment surrounding Qatar using biochemical and molecular methods. In this study we isolated and cultured fifty bacteria that inhabited the marine environment in Qatar. The identification was done by morphological, biochemical and molecular methods. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rDNA sequences indicated that the majority ( 88 %) of the strains belonged to g-Proteobacteria (Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio nigripulchritudo, Vibrio nereis ,Vibrio harveyi, Pseudoalteromonas piscicida, Pseudoalteromonas agarivorans, Pseudoalteromonas rubra, Pseudoalteromonas prydzensis, Halobacillus profundi , Cobetia marina, Shewanella loihica ,Virgibacillus dokdonensis ,Ruegeria mobilis), followed by CFB group bacteria ( 10% ) ( Tenacibaculum mesophilum); and low GC, Firmicutes (2%) (Bacillus boroniphilus). This study provides the preliminary observation in deciphering the bacterial diversity in marine environment of Qatar.

The vast majority of surfactant flood applications to date have been targeted to high permeability sandstone reservoirs containing formation brine with moderate salinity and hardness. Surfactant flooding in oil-wet, low-permeability carbonate rock is only reported sparsely throughout the literature. In the present work we aimed at identifying an efficient enhanced oil recovery strategy using a dilute surfactant solution. The dilution is highly beneficial in order to reduce not only chemical costs but in particular the environmental footprint. The work contains results from laboratory core flood tests performed on a highly oil-wet, low permeable carbonate reservoir rock material. The rock material investigated had approximately 30% porosity and 5 mD permeability, whereas the formation brine had a high salinity of about 120,000 ppm with a hardness of about 10,000 ppm. Initial combinations of several commercial surfactants, co-surfactant and alkalis were tested for brine compatibility and from these tests two cost-effective surfactant systems were identified. The first system, denoted ITR, was capable of reducing the interfacial tension below 0.001 mN/m at reservoir salinity and hardness. The second system, referred to as WA, altered the wettability from strongly oil-wet to intermediate-wet without altering the interfacial tension. Adsorption of the surfactants was measured to be low for both systems. No mobility control agents, such as polymers, were used in any of the systems because of low rock permeability. Both surfactant systems yielded significant incremental oil, when injected in tertiary as well as in secondary mode. The ITR system recovered almost 95% of OIIP but required many pore volumes since the cores remained oil-wet. Strikingly the WA system recovered approx. 85% of OIIP in secondary mode but achieved this with much fewer pore volumes using a very low concentration of surfactant. The promising WA system was subjected to extensive analysis involving relative permeability function estimation and flooding simulations using UTCHEM. In summary, we have designed an efficient surfactant system capable of recovering significant amounts of oil from low-permeability carbonate reservoir rock material. Wettability alteration of highly oil-wet rock using dilute surfactant solutions may assist in unlocking significant volumes of additional oil from a variety of carbonate reservoirs.

Owing to the ever increasing oil and gas prices, wood, the oldest fuel known to human beings, is going to experience a renaissance. Plantation firewood is a potential renewable energy source as it can be readily regrown, especially with those species that will coppice from the cut stumps. A good quality firewood needs to possess maximum available heat, higher density, easy to split quality, ready to lit and with minimum water content. About 30% of the Arabian Peninsula is covered with sand in the form of sand dunes. Effective utilization of these comparatively non productive area for human welfare is of serious concern to the policy makers. To prevent land degradation, while meeting the people's demand for fuel wood and fodder, the vegetation consisting of indigenous species must be regenerated and maintained. Local multipurpose shrubs are important natural resources which help arid land populations to combat their major problems of shortage of food, fodder, fuel and various problems related to the harsh environmental conditions. They ameliorate the microclimate by reducing the temperature and potential evapotranspiration. Many of such plants restore and improve soil fertility, stabilize moving sands, and prevent the spread of drought and desertification. Over the past few decades, increasing emphasis has been placed on promoting fast growing multipurpose species that produce fuel-wood, timber, fodder, other forest byproducts, stabilizing sand dunes, and improving the environment as well. However, much of the emphasis on multipurpose trees has focused on exotic species, because their silviculture and propagation know-how is well known. There is an urgent need to find easy methods of propagating and regenerating natural plants to ensure the sustainability of indigenous species. This article explains the propagation techniques of three potential firewood plants that can be grown successfully in the deep sandy soils as well as wadi soils.

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.