1WDRC News | Summer 2013 wdrc.kaust.edu.sa

WDRC News

Summer 2013 | wdrc.kaust.edu.sa

FROM THE DIRECTORThe WDRC is embarking on a new era. Our center was originally established for a five-year cycle (now beginning the final year), and we have started planning for a second cycle of six years. As part of this effort, we are undertaking a strategic planning exercise to refocus our research agenda. An important milestone on this path was the recent convening of the third Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meeting in which our past (looking back) and proposed future (looking forward) research plans were discussed. We received excellent feedback from our SAP members including: Menachem Elimelech (Yale University, Chair), Bruce Logan (Pennsylvania State University), Tony Fane (Singapore Membrane Technology Center, Singapore), Enrico Drioli (University of Calabria, Italy), Shane Snyder (University of Arizona), and Harry Seah Public Utilities Board, Singapore). One emerging research area is sustainable water technologies for industry and agriculture/aquaculture (more about this in a future newsletter). We are also happy to announce that the first 600 m2 of a 1,000 m2 lab expansion has been completed and commissioned; by Fall, we will have 2,000 m2 with over $10M of state-of-the-art analytical, characterization, and testing equipment. We can also report on further progress in developing our pilot-testing capabilities with a forward osmosis (FO) pilot near completion and a 300 m2 SWRO pilot testing facility scheduled to open by the end of the year. We are also starting to plan for our fourth Center Industrial Affiliates Program (CIAP) for later this year. In the next newsletter, we shall announce the appointment of a new senior faculty member in Membrane Process Technologies. The WDRC will co-host an Intakes and Outfalls Workshop at KAUST in early October and is planning a significant presence at the next IDA World Congress in China in October as well as other international venues. Soon, we will reach a very exciting milestone when, in August, the first three WDRC PhD defenses will take place (We will provide more details in the next newsletter). Indeed, things are very busy here as the Center continues to grow and evolve.

SWCC Governor and WDRC Director

UPCOMINGEVENTS

Intake & Outfalls Workshop

October 5-6, 2013This workshop is co-sponsored by the Water Desalination and Reuse Center and the Red Sea Center as well as other international organizations and funded by KAUST. Research papers will be presented on the design, operation, and environmental impacts of various intakes used to supply feedwater to seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) water treatment plants. Outfall research papers will be presented on discharges of concentrate from both SWRO plants and wastewater treatment plants. Experts from the global research community have been invited. There will be 32 technical presentations, and it is anticipated that the papers will be published in a special issue of a journal or book. Persons interested in attending the workshop should contact either Thomas Missimer

(thomasmissimer@kaust.edu.sa) or Burt Jones (burt.jones@kaust.edu.sa) before the end of August. Applications will be accepted for participation in this event, which will have no charge.

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IN NUMBERS: ACHIEVEMENTSThe WDRC recently (June 18th - 19th) had its 3rd Annual Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meeting at KAUST. The WDRC updated and compiled all its achievements since its beginning (2009 until mid-June 2013) in terms of journal publications, conference proceedings, presentations, awards, IP, books, etc. The Center Director, Gary Amy, shared these achievements with the SAP members.Figures 1 and 2 show that WDRC has grown significantly since its inception (2009), with more than 217 conference proceedings, 147 journal papers, 13 patents, and 5 books, just to name a few.

The Water Desalination Report (WDR) recently conducted a survey to list the top universities around the world that are most referred and/or active in desalination-related research. The WDR presented these results in its recent publication (Volume 49, Number 17; May 7th 2013). The list included 10 universities most frequently cited in desalination literature, whether fundamental and/or applied, thermal or membrane, brackish or seawater. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) was included in the list, along with MIT, Yale, NTU (Singapore), NUS (Singapore). Another 17 or so universities were also mentioned by multiple respondents. The WDR, reported most of the universities were doing interesting and valuable research work on desalination and profiles of some of these universities will be reported in future WDR issues.

WDRC IN RECENT WATER DESALINATION REPORT (WDR)

Figure 1. Research Output to Date

Figure 2. Overall Achievements

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FORWARD OSMOSIS RESEARCH GROUPAT WDRC

The global demand for potable water is expected to double within the next 15 years, intensifying the scarcity of water in the world’s arid regions. More than half of the world’s population lives in cities on or near the coast. The proximity of these cities to the coast has allowed them to use seawater desalination as a sustainable source of potable water. However, energy costs associated with the desalination of seawater are high, adding more challenges to overcome their water shortage. Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest desalination industry, producing 2.6 million m3 per day. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are burnt daily for desalination, driving the Kingdom to switch to energy conservative desalination technologies.The increase of water demand inherently increases the volumes of wastewater that require treatment before discharge. Treated wastewater is a potential source of water that can be used for industrial and agricultural uses or even for human consumption when properly treated. Therefore, there is a significant need for sustainable water-wastewater management in coastal cities.The Water Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC) at KAUST has a dedicated group of scientists investigating one of the promising technologies for sustainable water management for coastal cities, which utilizes forward osmosis (FO) for direct and indirect seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Osmosis is a physical phenomenon that has existed ever since the early forms of living organisms on earth, by which living cells extract water from their surroundings. In water desalination, FO is a membrane separation process where a semipermeable membrane separates two water

solutions of different salinities, hence creating an osmotic pressure difference that passively drives water molecules through the membrane in order to balance the salinity on the two sides of the membrane. Water moves from one side of the membrane to dilute the other side without applying hydraulic pressure by mechanical pumps. As a result, energy costs associated with this technology are minimized. However, the movement of water between the two solutions is hindered when the difference in salinity is reduced. The FO research group, led by Professor Gary Amy and Dr. Zhenyu Li, is currently focusing on studies of direct seawater desalination in addition to indirect seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Direct desalination involves the extraction of fresh water directly from seawater to dilute a highly saline solution that can be regenerated and reused by low cost energy, such as solar energy or waste heat. On the other hand, indirect desalination involves the extraction of clean water from an impaired water-quality source, such as the primary/secondary effluent of domestic wastewater, to dilute seawater to a certain level, where

Forward osmosis research team assembling one of the early industrial scale flat-sheet plate-and-frame forward osmosis desalination cells.

Schematic of the forward osmosis pilot plant that shows the submerged cells in the feed wastewater tank.

An integrated urban runoff management scheme involving FO hybrids in coastal areas for the sustainable water-energy nexus (1-Seawater intake; 2-Urban runoff intake; 3-Urban runoff collection basin; 4-Osmotic detention pond; 5-Seawater collection basin; 6-Diluted seawater outlet (optional); 7-Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) plant; 8-Low pressure RO (LPRO) plant; 9-Salt tolerant crops irrigation; 10-Ocean; 11-Urban runoff drainage system).

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it is then directly used for irrigating salt-tolerant crops or further treated using low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO). Concentration of the wastewater reduces its volume, consequently reducing the footprint of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Concentrated wastewater can be utilized in the production of biogas by treating it in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor. Indirect desalination is a flexible low-cost treatment system that can also be utilized for urban runoff management by treating the water for organic and inorganic pollutants that are washed off of roads and buildings, as shown in the figure above. Industrial wastewater is also a potential feed solution from which purified water can be extracted. The research on FO has investigated the performance of FO membranes in terms of water flux, and propensity to scaling and fouling, as well as the rejection of contaminants and micropollutants using real Red Sea water and domestic wastewater effluent samples taken directly from the municipal WWTP in Jeddah. The results have proven many of the advantages of FO membranes, such as the low propensity of scaling and fouling due to the low hydraulic pressure applied on the membrane surface as compared to reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. Furthermore, the group looked at performance of a coupled FO with LPRO system. The coupled system can conserve as much as 50% (1.5 kWh/m3) of the energy used by an equivalent conventional SWRO system.The promising results of research studies done on FO at bench scale motivated the WDRC to construct a pilot scale setup for indirect seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Continued research on FO includes a recent study on the bio-fouling of FO membranes by inoculating a biofilm layer on the membrane and studying its behavior in such conditions. The improvement of FO membranes leads to saving even more energy and to lowering the cost of FO systems. Therefore, the FO group is performing research on the development of thin film composite (TFC) membranes made of hollow fibers and nano fibers. Performing economic and life cycle analysis of FO systems to investigate the economic feasibility of a large-scale project and its potential environmental impacts complete the overall picture of research activities that the FO group is performing.KAUST Economic Development recently awarded the Seed Fund Grant to the FO group following a rigorous selection process from 35 different scientific applicants from KAUST. The grant is given to support the upscaling of the pilot plant to demonstrate it to potential users and investors. In addition, the group collected the 2nd prize award from Bayer in their worldwide contest entitled: “Help to avoid desertification” in recognition of a proposal for a sustainable water management system in arid regions.

The forward osmosis research group was awarded the Seed Fund Award in December 2012. From right: Rodrigo Valladares Linares, Dr. Lijo Francis, Professor Gary Amy, Muhannad Abu-Ghdaib and Dr. Zhenyu Li.

FACULTY UPDATESProf. Peng Wang, Assistant Professor, was appointed Editor in Chief for the special issue of the Journal of Saudi Chemical Society on Nanomaterials for Energy and Environment. The deadline for manuscript submission is December 5, 2013, with an intended publication date of July 6, 2014. The Journal of Saudi Chemical Society is the official publication of the Saudi Chemical Society. It is published by King Saud University in collaboration with Elsevier and is edited by an international group of eminent researchers. The journal aims at becoming one of the top journals in the Middle East.

Prof. Matthew McCabe, Associate Professor, was appointed Editor for Hydrology, a new open access journal published by MDPI online quarterly. The journal encompasses all aspects of hydrology, studying groundwater, surface water and atmospheric water, as well as snow and ice. Studies on their cycling, content, distribution, physical and chemical characteristics, and their interrelations with life are welcome.

Prof. Peng Wang

Prof. Matthew McCabe

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FACULTY Q & AProf. Thomas Missimer, who joined the Center in February 2011 as a Visiting Professor, is a hydrogeologist with more than thirty-seven years of experience. He has held a wide range of technical and administrative positions in the water industry and has authored or co-authored six books, over seventy peer-reviewed publications, and 210 publications in conference proceedings and guidebooks.

Q: What are your research goals and interests at the WDRC?

A: My primary area of interest is the application of natural systems for water treatment and storage. The study of these systems is particularly relevant to arid regions and aligns well with the Center’s mission of promoting and encouraging water reuse in the Kingdom. One of our objectives is the design and development of economically viable subsurface intakes for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems. The key here is identifying which types of

intakes (of which there are many) are best suited for which types of geological conditions. We are also working with natural systems for filtration and storage of treated wastewater, a technology known as aquifer recharge and recovery (ARR). The focus here is on natural Wadi aquifer systems–depleted alluvial aquifers that historically provided water to Bedouin communities in these areas–that are well-suited to store, treat, and retrieve wastewater. Related to ARR is a practice known as strategic aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). This involves the storage of impaired or treated water underground that can be recovered at times of emergency such as in the case of failure of a large municipal treatment system or droughts. They are strategic in that they are located in areas where water reserves are low.Other areas of research interest include general arid lands hydrology, dust fallout and its impact on hydrology, marine sediments in the Red Sea, biofouling of membrane systems, and evaluating the use of geothermal energy for use in desalination processes.

Q: Why are natural treatment systems relevant to arid regions?

A: The good thing about arid lands, such as Saudi Arabia, is that there is a lot of potential storage and the right geologic conditions to allow natural systems to work properly. Natural systems offer a means of simplifying conventional wastewater treatment processes by providing a polishing treatment step to remove any remaining pathogens and trace organic compounds. These are otherwise removed with the use of complex and costly unit processes. In the case of subsurface intakes, these systems perform primary treatment of seawater prior to entering the desalination process. This means there is no need for costly, energy-intensive pre-treatment steps.

Q: How has your industry experience influenced you as a professor?

A: I like to take academic research and apply this to specific problems that have the potential for large scale benefits. My approach to research is akin to what you might find in a consultancy. This means that the research is organized into focused elements that contribute to a large-scale solution. Though much of what we do is applied, there is always place for pure academic research. For example, we develop new numerical methods for assessing sediment hydraulic conductivity. As it turns out, these ‘tools’ can be applied to natural systems filtration as they offer a practical and inexpensive means of screening. I like to think of this as developing tools for a toolbox from which the appropriate set of tools can be applied to a specific problem.

Q: What would be your advice to young researchers entering the field?

A: If you aspire to have a career in academia, my advice would be to develop a blend of practical orientation and pure academic objectives. The key is to make a contribution that is new. My advisor once told me that if you wish to make a new contribution to the field you are working in, challenge the foundation and improve it. Understanding that modern-day problems are primarily inter-disciplinary is important too. The consequence is that successful research endeavors will require the right set of tools that are applied in teams. Researchers need to develop an ability for linking projects together and working in teams to address a larger problem. This is where training of young researchers is crucial. There is a responsibility on both researchers themselves and their faculty to ensure that they are not pigeon-holed and that their capacity for creative thinking and seeing research problems as a whole is encouraged.

Prof. Thomas Missimer

Dr. Abdou A. Abou El-Magd studied Hydrogeology, Paleoclimatology, Remote Sensing and GIS at Western Michigan University, where he received his PhD in 2012. He then accepted a Postdoctoral Research position to work with Prof Mohamed Sultan at WMU Earth Sciences Remote Sensing Lab. Dr. Abouelmagd taught geology classes at Western Michigan University and Olivet College. Prior to moving to KAUST in early 2013, he returned to Egypt to take up a faculty position at the Suez Canal University in Ismailia.

Dr. Liping Deng studied Atmospheric Science at the Iowa State University, where she received her PhD in 2010. She then accepted a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in the climate physics group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In early 2013, she joined KAUST as a Research Scientist and works jointly with Prof McCabe and Prof Stenchikov in aspects of Regional Climate Modelling and applications over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, characterizing the reproduction of heavy rainfall events for flash flooding studies. Her areas of interest are hydrogeology, geophysics, paleo climatology, groundwater management, satellite remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS).

Dr. Rasmus Houbourg received his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He spent a year at the University of Edmonton, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences during his graduate studies and was a visiting PhD student at the USDA-ARS facility in Tucson, Arizona in 2005. After being awarded a PhD in Physical Geography in 2006, he spent 4 years in the United States working first as a Postdoctoral scientist at the USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory and then as a Research Associate in the Hydrological Sciences Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Dr. Houborg returned to Europe in 2011 to take up a position at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy. In early 2013, he joined KAUST as a Research Scientist.

NEW PEOPLE AT THE WDRC

The Center hosts several visitors throughout each semester for the Environmental Science and Engineering / WDRC Seminar Series. The following visitors presented during this past quarter.

Prof. Herve Gallard, University of Poitiers, “Aquatic Surface Chemistry of Manganese Oxides: Production of Iodinated Organic Compounds and Interactions with Xenobiotics”.

Dr. Sophie Bertand, Degremont, France, “SWRO: operating feedbacks from major plants”.

Dr. Samer Adham, Managing Director of ConocoPhillips Global Water Sustainability Center, Qatar, “Advanced Treatment of Produced Water for Recycling or Reuse Applications”.

Dr. Claus Helix-Nielsen, Technical University of Denmark and Aquaporin, “Biomimetic Aquaporin Membranes”.

Dr. Pierre Le Cloirec, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes (ENSCR), ”Adsorption in Water and Air Treatments - From Materials to Processes”.

Prof. Tanju Karanfil, Clemson University, “Adsorption of Organic Contaminants by Macro and Nano Carbonaceous Adsorbents”.

Prof. Bruce Rittmann, Arizona State University, “Making Research Meet Practice in Environmental Biotechnology”.

SPRING SEMMINAR SERIES (April-June 2013)

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Water Desalination and Reuse CenterKing Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyThuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

Contact: Dr. Shahnawaz Sinhashahnawaz.sinha@kaust.edu.sa+966 (2) 808 4905