Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1

The Holy Quran and Hadith mentioned more than 50 plants, include wild plants, cultivated plants, annual plants, perennial plants, shrubs and trees. Qatari plant genetic resources facing with many challenges and risks, human activity, desertification, overgrazing, Climate change and global warming. Conservation of plant genetic resources has become the biggest challenge today, this paper focuses initially on ex-situ conservation of the Qur'anic plants is the method of conservation of all stages of biodiversity outside their natural habitats using different methods. The genetic resources department collection missions 2012, 2013 and 2014 in Qatar Peninsula, following the principals and guidelines of Plant genetic resources collections set by Biodiversity International, in this case we selected Zizyphus spina-christi, Acacia tortilis, Salvadora persica, and Citrullus colocynthis to conduct some ecophysiological studies. According the standard gene banks management and the international conservation rules, the staff of genetic resources department make a survey, collect plant genetic resources materials, characterization, documentation and preservation process, cleaning, drying, seed germination, viability test, packaging and storing were applied for seeds of some Qatari wild plants mentioned in the Holy Quran and Hadith they conserved in genetic resources department, ministry of environment for environmental sustainability for genetic resources. The final results reported the need to preserve these important Qur'anic plants species in the gene bank and it has been conserved the seeds of those species in storage units short-term, medium-term and long-term conservation. The herbarium specimens were conserving in the appropriate herbarium units, under international standards, and we have been sent a copy of the herbarium specimens to Kew Herbarium - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK to be Gift and confirm the scientific classification and DNA was extracted and stored in units equipped for this purpose.

In Flanders, households, industry, energy and agriculture consume significant amounts of water. As a consequence of the high population density, the water availability is rather low. This causes an imbalance between water demand and water availability. To protect groundwater resources for public water and to prepare for prospective water shortages in relation to changing climate scenarios, De Watergroep, a Flemish water company, aims to improve its water management. To evaluate the possibility for the application of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) techniques in Flanders, a literature study on existing MAR applications in Flanders was carried out, followed by a detailed screening of 1) potential aquifers and 2) water production sites of De Watergroep. According to the literature study, only at 2 waterproduction facilities in Flanders (i.e. St. André1 and Grobbendonk2) MAR techniques have been implemented by means of infiltration ponds. Rapid screening of the potential for MAR for existing water production facilities indicates that MAR techniques using temporary water storage in a riverbed (e.g. percolation tanks, underground dams, sand dams, recharge releases) are not relevant. In Flanders rivers drain the water table which is connected to the surface water level and, in contrast to arid regions, the rivers contain water permanently. The only feasible MAR techniques for Flanders are infiltration basins, riverbank infiltration and injection techniques. According to the geohydrological context of aquifers at water production facilities, the geochemical composition of the raw water, the presence of an industrial water softening plant, and additional water resources, it was concluded that: *infiltration or injection, in unconfined aquifers is in general not a plausible option, because of the high groundwater level, the low storage capacity and the limited aquifer thickness (<25 m). *deep infiltration or injection in unconfined aquifers can be considered at locations characterised by positive relief forms. These areas however, are characterised by iron-bearing deposits enhancing the risk of iron precipitation and well clogging. *the aquifers characterised by optimum geohydrologic conditions with respect to aquifer thickness (50 m), hydraulic conductivities (30 - 40 m/d) and specific yield (40 - 60 m³/h/m) are not considered, because in the respective area there is no need for additional water storage. Finally, out of 78 water production facilities, for 2 sites with favorable conditions a conceptual model for the application of AS(T)R has been worked out (Table 1). Depending on further modelling results a pilot test will be worked out. Since Qatar faces significant increases in peak water demand due to its growth in population, industrial activities and the organization of sport events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup Football, the evaluation and implementation of MAR techniques is essential to assure the required drinking water production. A similar approach as applied for Flanders, i.e. evaluation of applicable MAR techniques, screening of potential aquifers and design of a conceptual model is recommended. References 1.Van Houtte E. et al. (2012) 2.Feyen J. (2001)

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of fifteen chemical elements in the periodic table. They are 15 lanthanides besides (scandium and yttrium). These elements are commonly found in the same mineral assemblages because of similar physical and chemical properties. REEs are critical for several high technologically industries such as hybrid cars, batteries, electronics, clean energy (wind turbines). The presence of REEs in Jordanian phosphate waste which currently dumped to the desert may have an economic value since large amount of phosphate rock are used in fertilizers industry annually. REE extraction from phosphate mine waste will not only improve the profitability of phosphate mine but conserve the natural resources. Furthermore, REEs extraction from phosphate tailings and slime will reduce the cost of mining and beneficiation as well as reduces the environmental impact of these effluents. In this work, we digested dried and finely ground phosphate slime and tailings by diluted phosphoric acid and sodium carbonate in specially designed reactor at temperature 72 Co for 3 hours. Then the leachate was filtered and TBP solvent was used to extract REE. Finally phosphoric acid was produced from the raffinate by conventional method i.e. addition of concentrated sulfuric acid. It was found that that Jordanian phosphate have 59.8 ppm TREE (Ce, La, Y, Eu). HREE (Y, Eu ) represents 83% while 17 % are LREE( Ce, La) . A linear relationship was also found between phosphate and REE which may be due to isomorphism of REE- ions with other ions in apatite / Francolite crystal, most likely Ca+2. The results also showed that Slime contain 28% of the phosphate REE while Tailings contain 50 % of REE. Therefore, mixing slime and tailings for REE leaching and extraction may be justified. However, it was found that in high phosphate medium it is better to precipitate REE by oxalic acid instead of TBP solvent. REE recovery was 35% by oxalate precipitation compared to 7 % by TBP extraction.

Solar energy conversion in oxygen evolving organisms occurs in two separate reaction center protein complexes called photosystems I and II. In each, light induces the transfer of electrons, via a series of protein bound pigment acceptors, across a biological membrane. The very high efficiency of light induced electron transfer is related to the electronic and structural organization of these protein bound electron acceptors. To study the electronic and structural organization of these acceptors in the protein binding site we have used time-resolved visible and infrared difference spectroscopy. In photosystem I a highly reducing phylloquinone functions as an intermediary in electron transfer. Phylloquinone is bound to the protein in the, so called, A1 binding site, and it is the nature of this binding that makes phylloquinone so reducing. To probe the properties of the A1 binding site we have made use of a mutant cyanobacterial strain that allows different quinones to be easily incorporated into the A1 binding site. To verify the extent of quinone incorporation into the A1 binding site we have used nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy in the visible spectral region. To probe the molecular properties of the introduced quinones in both the neutral and anion states, we have used microsecond time-resolved FTIR difference spectroscopy at 77 K. The time resolved FTIR difference spectra display a multitude of bands that are associated with both the quinone and the protein binding site. The convoluted nature of the spectra makes interpretation difficult. However, by comparing spectra obtained for photosystem I particles with four different quinones incorporated (phylloquinone, 2-methyl naphthoquinone, plastoquinone and dichloro naphthoquinone) we have been able to distinguish quinone infrared absorption bands from protein bands. To complement the experimental work and to aid in FTIR difference band assignment we have used quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics computational methods to simulate the infrared difference spectra associated with the different quinones in the protein binding site.

With proper treatment to remove organics and inorganics, the produced water (PW) generated during oil and gas extraction can be reused as process water. Biotreatment is generally regarded as the most cost-effective method for organics removal and although widely used in industrial wastewater treatment, PW biotreatment installations are limited. The research described in this paper focused on the aerobic biotreatment of PW from the Qatari "North Shore" gas field supplemented with either 1.5% kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) or 1.5% thermodynamic hydrate inhibitor (monoethylene glycol, MEG). KHI and MEG are "field chemicals" added off-shore during the winter months. This research was part of a larger project assessing the biotreatability of produced water from both summer and winter seasons. Although the feed pH was 4.5 and the biomass used as seed was cultured at pH 5.5, the bioreactor pH stabilized at 2.6 when KHI or MEG were added. Active biological oxidation was demonstrated in our tests for a period of 7 months through COD tests and in-situ dissolved oxygen (DO) and oxygen uptake rate (OUR) measurements. When 1.5% KHI in PW was added to the bioreactor, the DO decreased sharply and the OUR increased quickly from 0.2 to 1.9 mg O2/L.min. The COD results indicated that 43% and 81% of the organics present were removed through biotreatment of PW dosed with 1.5% KHI or MEG respectively. The concentration of 2-butoxyethanol (one of the two main components in KHI) was reduced from >5,000 mg/l to <10 mg/L indicating effective biodegradation of these chemicals even under the acidic conditions of our reactor. Removal of KHI and MEG by simple stripping was also investigated and results indicated that stripping was not responsible for significant COD removal. Literature references on aerobic biological activity at pH 2.6 are scarce. We postulate that the biological activity in our reactor is producing acids that resulted in the pH depression. One possible mechanism by which the acid production could have occurred through the bio-oxidation of either KHI and MEG has been developed and will be included in this presentation. A discussion of the specific fungus believed to be responsible for this unexpected biological activity is also included. The results are aligned with the Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 and fall directly within "Energy and Environment" Research Theme of the QNRS in two areas: i) water security, and ii) energy security. With the recent announcement that Qatargas is building a water reuse system incorporating membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis technologies, the research results are particularly relevant.

More than 50% of the world's hydrocarbons reserves are contained in carbonate reservoirs. Carbonate rocks have a very complicated and heterogeneous porous structure in comparison with sandstone reservoir rock [1]. To understand the transport processes in any porous medium, we need to enhance our knowledge of the geometry and topology of the porous media [2]. Our understanding of porous carbonate rocks in this respect is still very limited in comparison with sandstones. In the last few years, pore scale studies have revolutionised the fundamental understanding of complex fluid flow processes in the field of groundwater remediation, oil industry and environmental issues related to carbon storage and capture. Therefore, in this work we present advances in several multi-scale imaging techniques to obtain 2D and 3D images at pore scale (voxel size 1- 10µm) using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM)and Micro CT imaging as shown in Figure 1 . We will also discuss a novel technique of CLSM to obtain 2D images with a large field of view, including advantages and limitations for scanning porous carbonate rocks. We then describe approaches to extract statistical information about total, macro and micro-porosity from 2D large field of view CLSM and validate the results using Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MICP). In this work, using the image processing techniques for different phase segmentation, we study the effect of scanned resolution images on porosity and permeability using Lattice Boltzmann simulation and pore network modelling. Finally, we describe the recent development of lattice-Boltzmann (LB) simulations for the prediction of multi-phase flow properties in complex carbonate pore space images; as potential element of Special Core Analysis (SCAL); and for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) operations. We introduce a GPU algorithm for large scale LB calculations, offering greatly enhanced computing performance in comparison with CPU calculations. References [1] Knackstedt, M., Arns, C., Ghous, A., Sakellariou, A., Senden, T., Sheppard, A., Sok, R., Averdunk, H., Val Pinczewski, W., Padhy, G.S., Ioannidis, M.A., 3D Imaging and flow characterization of the pore space of carbonate rock samples, International Symposium of the society of Core Analysts., SCA2006-23, Norway [2] Baldwin, C.A., Sederman, A.J., Mantle, M.D., Alexander, P., Gladden, L.F., Determination and characterization of the structure of a pore space from 3D volume images, Journal of Colloid and Interface Sciences., 181 (79-92), 1996.

The urban heat island, in which air temperatures in urban environments tend to be higher than in rural areas, is a well-known and widely studied phenomenon. During heat waves, the urban heat island is known to exacerbate the impact on population health. Including urban heat island effects in the formulation of heat warnings, climate change adaptation plans is therefore essential and part of a sustainable urban development in general. Given the extreme climate of Qatar, heat stress is a prime concern, not only from health perspective, but also e.g. from an energy consumption perspective (cooling demand). Few studies have however been performed for arid or tropical cities. Results indicate that in desert city areas, the typical pattern of a hot urban core is often inverted, with downtown areas appearing cooler compared to the suburbs , which obviously adds to the complexity of understanding the urban climate dynamics in such cities. An important difficulty often encountered with typical numerical climate models is the limited resolution and long integration time, making them difficult to use when studying urban and intra-urban variations especially in the context of climate change. In this contribution, we will present a new urban climate model, further referred to as UrbClim , designed to cover agglomeration-scale domains at a spatial resolution of a few hundred metres. This model is composed of a land surface scheme containing simple urban physics, coupled to a 3-D atmospheric boundary layer module. In the land surface scheme, urban terrain is represented as an impermeable slab with appropriate parameter values for albedo, emissivity, and aerodynamic and thermal roughness length, and accounting for anthropogenic heat fluxes. Despite its simplicity, UrbClim is found to be of the same level of accuracy than more sophisticated models. At the same time, the urban boundary layer climate model is faster than high-resolution mesoscale climate models by at least two orders of magnitude. Because of that, the model is well suited for long time integrations, in particular for applications in urban climate projections. Within the EU RAMSES (Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for citiES, http://www.ramses-cities.eu) and NACLIM (North Atlantic Climate, http://www.naclim.eu ) projects, the UrbClim model has been set up for a large number of cities : Antwerp, London, Bilbao, Berlin, Hyderabad, New York, Rio De Janeiro and Skopje. We will present results and comparisons for these cities as well as detailed validations against air temperature measurements. Furthermore, a coupling was established between UrbClim and CMIP5 ensemble climate projections employed by the IPCC taking full advantage of the fast integration time of the model and allowing assessment of the urban heat island effects under future climate conditions. In addition, we will present an application of the UrbClim model on the city of Doha, Qatar, assessing it's applicability for very arid climatic conditions.

A radio-analytical technique for determination of plutonium (Pu) isotopes in soil samples is tested against NIST and IAEA standard reference materials to determine its accuracy and precision for reliable results. The technique is then used in the investigation of 132 topsoil samples, collected from the natural environment of Qatar, to assess the effect of global fallout accumulation of these radionuclides in the region. Plutonium was sequentially leached form 1000 g of each soil sample using nitric and hydrochloric acids. The residual fine particles were separated by filtration and centrifuge. The solution was reduced to 1 ml by evaporation in dry oven and measured directly by CRC-ICP-MS/MS without prior chemical separation of Pu. The concentrations of 238Pu in the collected soil samples vary from < 0.026 - 0.058 fg/g (< 0.0160 - 0.0266 Bq/kg) with a mean value of 0.034 fg/g (0.0195 Bq/kg) and a median value of 0.032 fg/g (0.0195 Bq/kg). The concentrations of 239Pu fall in the range 5.67 - 166.09 fg/g (0.014 - 0.381 Bq/kg) with a mean value of 67.33 fg/g (0.154 Bq/kg) and a median value of 63.21 fg/g (0.145 Bq/kg). The concentrations of 240Pu fall in the range 1.48 - 28.21 fg/g (0.013 - 0.240 Bq/kg) with a mean value of 11.46 fg/g (0.098 Bq/kg) and a median value of 10.835 fg/g (0.093 Bq/kg). The isotopic and activity concentrations ratios of 238Pu/239Pu, 240Pu/239Pu, and 238Pu/239+240Pu can be used to identify the source. The main isotope ratios of 238Pu/239Pu in Qatari soils is (3.33 ± 1.02) x 10-4. A reported global and Chernobyl fallouts isotope ratio of 238Pu/239Pu are 1.77 x 10-4 and 4.3 x 10-3, respectively. The main isotope ratio of 240Pu/239Pu in Qatari soils is 0.1749 ± 0.0211. A reported global and Chernobyl fallouts isotope ratios of 240Pu/239Pu are 0.18-0.19 and 0.34-0.57, respectively. The average isotopic and activity ratios of 238Pu/239,240Pu in Qatari soils are (2.856 ± 0.881) x 10-4 and 0.0505 ± 0.0032, respectively. The activity ratio 238Pu/239+240Pu in releases from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, nuclear tests, weapons grade, and Chernobyl fallout are about 0.25, 0.026, 0.014 and 0.47, respectively. Accordingly, it is difficult to identify the source, but it may be due to the contribution of more than one source. The most probable sources are both Chernobyl fallout of Pu isotopes and several decades of fallout Pu accumulation due to nuclear weapons testing. Novel Aspect New data base was established for the concentration and isotope ratios of Pu isotopes (238Pu, 239Pu, and 240Pu) in Qatar topsoil.

European Union's energy goals for 2020, inclusion of aviation in EU ETS since 2012 and the important increase of CO2 emissions in Southern Mediterranean countries, all justify to pay careful attention to the challenges of the carbon constraint at the Euro-Mediterranean scale. The notion of "carbon constraint" stems from the application of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and from the Kyoto Protocol that resulted in the implementation of the EU ETS in European Union countries. Contrary to European countries that committed to emissions reductions goals ("Annex I countries" of UNFCCC and "Annex B countries" of Kyoto Protocol), Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (SEMC), like other emergent countries, apply the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" that exempt them from adopting any binding emission reductions goals. The extension of the EU ETS, with the auctioning of emission credits as of 2013, and the evolution, even though difficult, of international climate negotiations might nevertheless modify the situation of unbalanced commitments that prevails between Northern countries and Southern countries (section 1). Moreover, if the carbon constraint for European countries remains today soft, it might on a short or medium term generate several economic and social impacts, and potentially on the regional trade (section 2). Several green initiatives undertaken on the Southern shore to develop environmental policies and new carbon market mechanisms have to be supported so as to limit these negative impacts and to implement a virtuous regional momentum (section 3).

This work presents a recent progress on the polyanionic phosphate family that functions as cathode materials in sodium ion batteries (SIBs). Firstly, this study will cover vanadium-containing frameworks that show very stable voltage curves in different potential regimes with advantageous behaviors such as single flat voltage plateaus and the presence of intermediate phases that are beneficial for cell kinetics. In the second part of our study, some anomalous manganese activation in the SIBs pyrophosphate family that overcomes the chronic Jahn-Teller distortion, in contrast to the Li counterparts will be introduced. By employing density functional theory (DFT) calculations, it is figured out that such anomalous activation is originated from its unique crystal structure where corner-sharing is the main structural change during the phase transformation in the charge-discharge processes. In addition, unique SIBs properties will be compared to the lithium ion batteries (LIBs) analogues even for the same chemical formulae.