The energy landscape of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is undergoing a significant transformation as a result of intersecting technological, economic and political trends that are both regional and international. This transformation, which is placing pressure on regional resources and energy systems, has stimulated the need for a fresh look at regional energy policies with consideration of their impact on social, political and economic sustainability, Masdar Institute’s Dr. Steve Griffiths, Vice President for Research and Interim Associate Provost has highlighted in a recent research paper.

The paper will be published in the March 2017 issue of the international journal Energy Policy and is currently available online through ScienceDirect. In the paper, which is titled “A review and assessment of energy policy in the Middle East and North Africa region”, Dr. Griffiths provides a critical review and assessment of energy policy in the MENA region, with emphasis on the key policy considerations required for the region’s energy system to achieve increasing levels of sustainability.

“The paper examines the regional and global factors that influence MENA energy policies, including critical uncertainties – such as geopolitical and socioeconomic dynamics, the energy-water nexus, and regional energy interconnections – and action priorities – such as energy subsidies, renewable energy development and energy pricing,” explained Dr. Griffiths.

He explores how the impact of global factors, like volatility in the oil and gas markets, the emergence of a global commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and the evolution of renewable energy as a cost-competitive energy source, have worked to support investment for further scale-up and integration of renewables into energy systems across the MENA region.

Similarly, regional factors, including the issue of water scarcity and the interdependence between freshwater production and energy consumption, which necessitate the coupling of water and energy policy, highlight the need for all countries in the region to emphasize demand management and alternative, low-carbon energy sources in their energy strategies and policies.

“Considering the MENA region context is imperative to understanding the timeline and potential for MENA countries to evolve and transition their energy systems,” Dr. Griffiths commented.

While remaining cognizant of the political, economic and social context of the MENA region, Dr. Griffiths explores the potential role that policy changes in the areas of energy efficiency standards, energy subsidies, energy supply diversification and inter-regional electricity integration could play in achieving a successful energy transition that would enable sustainable development and a decoupling of economic growth and energy consumption.

He explains that while many of the MENA countries are focused on energy supply diversification, including from renewable sources like the sun, wind and nuclear energy, which is demonstrated by the establishment of renewable energy targets, clear progression from political visions to strategic plans to roadmaps tied to policies and regulations is absent in all but a select few MENA countries.

Noting the need for regional policies and regulations supportive of renewable energy deployment, Dr. Griffiths cites those policies that are most commonly used, stating: “The most widely implemented renewable energy policy framework in the MENA region is tendering, but additional policy measures, such as net metering, will be needed for greater private sector engagement in the deployment of distributed renewable energy systems, like rooftop solar PV.”

Dr. Griffiths also sheds light on the need for MENA countries to develop and implement energy efficiency standards beyond the building sector to include the transportation and industrial sectors. These sectors make up 51% of energy consumption in Levant countries, 56% in North African countries and 69% in GCC countries. Currently, however, no MENA country has a comprehensive policy for transportation efficiency and no GCC country has clear policies and regulations to drive energy efficiency in its industrial sector.

Energy subsidy reform and regional energy trade, including electricity interconnection, are key policy development areas that Dr. Griffiths highlights as having strategic potential for enabling economic development without increasing regional energy consumption. In his report, Dr. Griffiths cites findings that suggest an interconnected GCC electricity market could yield more than US$23 billion in economic benefits by 2028 via reduction in fuel, operation and maintenance costs while providing additional savings of more than US$5 billion in power generation capacity and abating as much as 225 million tons of regional carbon dioxide emissions.

In conclusion, Dr. Griffiths notes the MENA region’s future energy transition is dependent on the development of key policy frameworks that promote energy efficiency standards, demand management and interconnected markets.
“Although hydrocarbon exploration and production is poised to continue to play an important role in the region’s energy systems in coming years, policies that place an emphasis on regional energy trade, demand management, energy efficiency and clean energy production can contribute to benefits such as lower energy prices, enhanced sustainability, and lower air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

Dr. Griffith’s paper was published as one of a series of requested papers for Energy Policy focused on national and regional policies with contributions covering the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, China, Japan, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Australia. He was personally invited to prepare a paper on the MENA region by the journal’s editor, Professor Michael Jefferson of the ESCP Europe Business School.

Commenting on the paper, Professor Jefferson said: “I have long had a personal interest in the Gulf, so I had a strong wish to see Dr. Griffiths’ paper come to fruition. He has produced an excellent assessment of the challenges the region faces as efforts continue to achieve a global transition to alternative forms of energy while heavy dependence on oil and gas products continues for some decades to come. It is our hope and expectation that Dr. Griffiths’ paper will improve understanding of the region, the challenges it faces, and the desirability of fuller cooperation between its member states and peoples.”

The publication of this comprehensive assessment of MENA-wide energy policies is quite timely. With Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) – the largest gathering of sustainability and clean energy leaders in the region – scheduled to take place later this month in Abu Dhabi, Dr. Griffith’s paper will stimulate well-informed discussions of the potential strategies, technologies, and policies needed to achieve sustainable development across the region.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
10 January 2017

The Masdar Institute research team that was one of the inaugural recipients of the US$ 5 million grant from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science last year has made significant progress in their work as evidenced by the filing a provisional patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

By filing a patent on their innovative cloud seeding material, the research team is bringing the material in the pathway for commercialization, thereby supporting Masdar Institute’s goal of bolstering the United Arab Emirates’ local intellectual property, which is a key measure of the country’s innovation drive. It also signifies a milestone towards achieving greater water security in the UAE, as rainfall enhancement via cloud seeding can potentially increase rainfall between 10% to 30%, helping to refresh groundwater reserves, boost agricultural production, and reduce the country’s heavy reliance on freshwater produced by energy-intensive seawater desalination.

Masdar Institute Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Linda Zou, is the principal investigator of this research project, and one of the first scientists in the world to explore the use of nanotechnology to enhance a cloud seeding material’s ability to produce rain.

While the field of rain enhancement – which involves stimulating clouds to produce rain – leverages cloud physics, atmosphere physics, and topographical studies, Dr. Zou and her team complement such work through their focus on the cloud seeding material itself.

“Using nanotechnology to accelerate water droplet formation on a typical cloud seeding material has never been researched before. It is a new approach that could revolutionize the development of cloud seeding materials and make them significantly more efficient and effective,” Dr. Zou remarked.

Offering a comprehensive overview of Dr. Zou’s progress, Alya Al Mazroui, Manager of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science said: “The Program is a unique opportunity to use advanced research methods for studying atmospheric processes in arid regions, where its understanding is most important to ensure water security globally. We are convinced that Masdar Institute’s project, under Linda Zou’s supervision, will advance rain enhancement science through innovative seeding agents.”

Dr. Deon E. Terblanche, Director, Atmospheric Research and Environment Branch, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), serves as a member of the international scientific advisory committee of the UAE Rain Enhancement Program Award. He believes that the novelty of Dr. Zou’s research has great potential to drive innovation in the field of rain enhancement: “Dr. Linda Zou of the Masdar Institute is bringing a fresh and exciting contribution to the field of rainfall enhancement. Her team’s research into the development of new seeding materials, taking advantage of nanotechnology, holds exciting possibilities and is followed with considerable interest,” Dr. Terblanche remarked.

Conventional cloud seeding materials are small particles such as pure salt crystals, dry ice and silver iodide. These tiny particles, which are a few microns (one-thousandth of a millimeter) in size, act as the core around which water condenses in the clouds, stimulating water droplet growth. Once the air in the cloud reaches a certain level of saturation, it can no longer hold in that moisture, and rain falls. Cloud seeding essentially mimics what naturally occurs in clouds, but enhances the process by adding particles that can stimulate and accelerate the condensation process.

Dr. Zou and her collaborators, Dr. Mustapha Jouiad, Principal Research Scientist in Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Nabil El Hadri and PhD student Haoran Liang, explored ways to improve the process of condensation on a pure salt crystal by layering it with a thin coating of titanium dioxide.

The extremely thin coating measures around 50 nanometers, which is more than one thousand times thinner than a human hair. Despite the coating’s miniscule size, the titanium dioxide’s effect on the salt’s condensation efficiency is significant. Titanium dioxide is a hydrophilic photocatalyst, which means that when in contact with water vapor in the cloud, it helps to initiate and sustain the water vapor adsorption and condensation on the nanoparticle’s surface. This important property of the cloud seeding material speeds up the formation of large water droplets for rainfall.

Dr. Zou’s team found that the titanium dioxide coating improved the salt’s ability to adsorb and condense water vapor over 100 times compared to a pure salt crystal. Such an increase in condensation efficiency could improve a cloud’s ability to produce more precipitation, making rain enhancement operations more efficient and effective. The research will now move to the next stage of simulated cloud and field testing in the future.

The UAE government has recognized the potential of rain enhancement to support water security and established the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science to increase rain enhancement research in the UAE and arid and semi-arid regions across the world. Awardees of the Program’s Second Cycle grant of US$ 5 million were announced last week during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2017. They include Prof. Giles Harrison of the University of Reading, Prof. Hannele Korhonen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and Dr. Paul Lawson of American firm Spec Inc.

Dr. Zou’s research grant covers two more years of research. During this time, her team will continue to study different design concepts and structures for cloud seeding materials inspired by nanotechnology.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
31 January 2017

The all-in-one wastewater treatment system developed by Masdar Institute’s Dr. Shadi Wajih Hasan, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, is being further enhanced in an effort to advance the field of wastewater purification.

Dr. Hasan’s advanced system, known as a submerged membrane electro-bioreactor, or an SMEBR, is an integrated hybrid wastewater treatment unit that is significantly more efficient at treating wastewater and considerably less susceptible to fouling, which is the unwanted build-up of salt and bio-material on a membrane that reduces the membrane’s ability to filter impurities.

An SMEBR is an electrically enhanced membrane bioreactor (MBR), which is a novel wastewater treatment technology. While an MBR combines membrane processes like microfiltration with biological treatment processes to purify wastewater for a high quality effluent, an SMEBR adds a third electrokinetic process, which employs an electric current to remove various contaminants from wastewater.

The SMEBR is able to generate higher quality treated wastewater while consuming less energy than an MBR, as the inclusion of the enhanced biological and electrokinetic processes reduce the system’s dependency on primary- and secondary-related treatment operations.

Dr. Hasan contributed to the development of the first SMEBR system at a pilot scale during his doctoral studies at the University of Concordia in Canada and has continued his work to enhance and improve the SMEBR while at MI, with a focus on optimizing the system for efficient operation in the UAE. Dr. Hasan and his colleagues have published over 20 papers on this topic in international journals and conference proceedings like Nature Scientific Reports, Bioresource Technology, Chemosphere, Electrochimica Acta, Environmental Management and Environmental Sciences. One of those articles, which is co-authored by his PhD student Adewale Giwa, has remained in the first place among the top 20 articles in the BioMedLib search engine in the domain of membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment since 2015.

Interest in Dr. Hasan’s SMEBR work is also evidenced by the recent publication of a review article on the topic of electrochemical processes with MBRs, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science in August 2016 by a team of researchers from Italy and the Philippines.

“The publishing of a review article that focuses heavily on my SMEBR work reflects the fact that the field is becoming more important globally and that several researchers around the world have started working with the same wastewater technology,” Dr. Hasan remarked.

A review article summarizes previously published studies and provides the current state of understanding on a particular research topic. When a review article is published, it signifies that a rising number of scientists are showing interest in the particular research topic.

Dr. Vincenzo Naddeo, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering from the University of Salerno, co-authored the review paper and commented on the benefits of electrically enhanced MBR technology for wastewater treatment: “Electro membrane bioreactor (eMBR) technology is getting ever more attention from the researchers, as corroborated by the increased number of publications on this topic, due to the unique advantages it offers to wastewater treatment. Compared to traditional methods for fouling mitigation in MBRs, such as physical and chemical cleaning, which increase energy demand and operating costs as well as reduce the membrane lifespan, the application of electrochemical processes inside an MBR represents an advanced and alternative strategy for membrane fouling reduction.”

“Recent research studies, also carried out by Dr. Hasan, have indeed demonstrated that in an eMBR different electrochemical mechanisms are created, due to the electric field applied, that help in pollutant degradation and, at the same time, control the mobility and deposition of foulants onto and into the membrane surface reducing fouling and, thus, energy consumption,” Dr. Naddeo added.

In his efforts to further advance the lab-scale SMEBR system developed at MI, Dr. Hasan has worked with Giwa to develop the first numerical computer-based model of the SMEBR. The model simulates the removal process of contaminants, such as organic and inorganic compounds, as wastewater passes through the SMEBR unit and models the effects of the SMEBR processes on the quality of the effluent, which is the discharged water.

The SMEBR model showed that the effluent produced by the novel technology had the lowest concentrations of ammonia, nitrogen, phosphorous and metals compared to the effluent produced by the two other most common treatment processes, including the conventional activated sludge process and the MBR process. The model was then validated through experimental work that produced similar results to what the model predicted.

“To create our model, we had to develop different models that represent each of the three treatment processes used in a SMEBR system and integrate them so that they work collaboratively to predict the performance of the reactor, and this has never been done before,” Dr. Hasan explained.

The model enables a better understanding of how an SMEBR system will react to different wastewater qualities and would be particularly useful for optimizing the design and construction of wastewater treatment plants that plan to leverage SMEBR technologies.

To further advance the efficacy and efficiency of the SMEBR technology to produce high quality water, Dr. Hasan is working with MSc in Chemical Engineering student Menatalla Ahmed to enhance the hybrid system with a second treatment cycle – a post-treatment process that utilizes nanotechnology.

The project was initiated in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the intent to improve the quality of the effluent produced by the SMEBR system by coupling nanowire filtration – which are filters made of thin manganese dioxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles – as a post-treatment process.

“The nanowire material developed through this project has already demonstrated a strong ability to eliminate the pollution caused by the presence of heavy metals and organic contents in wastewater,” Dr. Hasan said. “An integration technology combining this with the SMEBR system offers great potential for wastewater treatment.”

Currently, Masdar Institute MSc and PhD students are also testing other nanomaterials to optimize the post-treatment membrane based nano-filtration. Dr. Hasan is currently working to integrate the SMEBR unit and nano-filtration to develop a prototype to begin pilot testing the integrated system.

By leveraging Dr. Hasan’s expertise, Masdar Institute is developing an innovative wastewater treatment system and is contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge of novel water technologies.

The work being conducted by Dr. Hasan and his team is supporting the development of a resilient water infrastructure in the UAE while strengthening the country’s position as a global leader in treated wastewater reuse.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
19 February 2017

A pioneering research project between Masdar Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a step closer to using sunlight to turn water into fuel in the form of hydrogen. The team have identified materials and developed unique structures that optimize the process that splits water into its component elements so the hydrogen can be captured and used as a fuel source.

“This research is at the frontier of materials science, photonics and nano-fabrication. It is not yet mature, but we are looking to build the capability and know-how not only for water-splitting but also for other photochemical reactions of interest, like wastewater treatment and high-value chemical production,” explained Dr. Jaime Viegas, Assistant Professor of Microsystems Engineering at Masdar Institute.

He is part of a collaborative team of faculty from both institutes, including Dr. Mustapha Jouiad, Microscopy Facility Manager and Principal Research Scientist at Masdar Institute, and MIT’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr. Sang‐Gook Kim, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy Professor of Mechanical Engineering Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Dr. Yang Shao-Horn, and Rockwell International Career Development Professor Dr. Alexie Kolpak, which is exploring how to access the full spectrum of solar energy to split water to produce hydrogen.

While hydrogen is an energy dense fuel with many uses, there are no naturally occurring geological hydrogen reserves. That is why hydrogen is currently produced through high-energy processes that depend on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. But if a sustainable and clean source of hydrogen could be developed for commercialization, it could provide the world with a truly carbon neutral energy source that can be used in place of many of our carbon intensive energy sources.

“We have lots of solar energy and we have seawater. If we could use water-splitting to produce hydrogen from water with minor pretreatment and limited requirement for fossil fuel sources, then we could open up significant avenues for sustainable and affordable hydrogen fuel use,” Dr. Viegas said.

Water-splitting is a chemical reaction in which water is separated into its component elements of oxygen and hydrogen, so energy-rich hydrogen can play a role in the sustainable energy future. However, breaking a compound into its component elements requires a significant amount of energy, which would typically negate the value of the stored energy storage from the produced hydrogen. That is why water-splitting for hydrogen production has not been able to meaningfully contribute to a sustainable energy equation.

To overcome the energy demand of water-splitting Dr. Viegas and his team have been exploring the use of catalysts that can make water splitting more efficient and sustainable using solar energy. They have identified a number of metal oxide materials and configurations that can capture more of the sun’s energy to split water into its component elements.

“The rationale behind this area of research is to use the light from the sun to power the photochemical splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, which you could then store and use later. This offers us a reversible energy cycle, with a hydrogen fuel that, when burned, again produces water as a byproduct,” Dr. Viegas revealed.

The joint research team, which includes UAE National student Meera Al Muhairi, international students Jehad Abed and Frazly Alexander and Class of 2016 alumni Pabitra Dahal, has identified a number of metal oxide materials that can act as effective catalysts, absorbing a greater range of the solar spectrum to facilitate the chemical reaction that splits water into its component elements.

“Most of the sun’s energy exists in the visible and infrared range, with very little in the ultraviolet. Unfortunately the most efficient photocatalysts, such as titanium dioxide, are only sensitive to ultraviolet light, thus only harnessing much less than 5% of sun’s available energy. To be able to absorb as much of solar energy as possible we have used very thin layers of selected metals to assist in the absorption of light in the visible and infrared spectrum, so we can have the same chemical reaction as from UV, but from the entire solar spectrum,” Dr. Viegas explained.

His team has leveraged the same technology and techniques used for the fabrication of microchips to produce a wafer that incorporates the metal oxides on a silicon substrate. The wafer surface is patterned in unique nanocones with tips on the order of 100 nanometers in size, with varying height and spacing, to achieve peak solar energy absorption.

The nanocones are then given coatings of the various metal oxides to tune the optical and electronic properties to achieve the strongest water splitting. This interplay of matter and light produces what is known as a ‘plasmonic effect’, which provides the surface energy boost needed to break the water bonds to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

“In this process of using light on the surface of metal oxides, assisted by the unique patterns we have designed in the metal oxide layers, we can tailor the absorption characteristics of the sunlight and induce the chemical reaction – splitting it to produce water and hydrogen,” he said

The team has recorded promising results for hydrogen generation with some of the identified metal oxides, and has filed an invention disclosure on their discovery. The research has garnered a significant amount of interest in the international scientific community, and was selected to be presented at Frontiers in Optics, Optical Society of America’s centennial meeting held last October in New York.

That is how this research may ultimately contribute to the development of a sustainable and commercially viable hydrogen from from water, which has been a goal of the sustainable energy community for some time.

“We envision a more distant future where we take seawater, drive it through a large panel embedded with the photocatalytic metal oxides, and produce hydrogen and oxygen. When that hydrogen is later used as a fuel source, it produces water that can either be consumed, or again used to produce hydrogen.”

Unlocking the potential of hydrogen using photocatalysis could also expedite a number of innovations and useful advancements. Photocatalysis has the potential to support the transformation of carbon dioxide, an undesirable greenhouse gas, into more valuable fuels like methanol and ethanol. It also has the potential to improve purification technologies, assisting in the decomposition of organic pollutants. The baseline knowledge derived from this area of research can even be applied to petro-chemical reactions through the use of new catalysts to make high-value chemicals, which fits in with the UAE’s industrial and economic goals.

“This dynamic joint project is something very unique in that it has a significant fundamental research focus but with clear potential application, which means it can not only meet a current and identified need, but also potentially be a game-changer in many other areas. We are excited by the promise photocatalytic water-splitting can achieve for the UAE and the world,” Dr. Viegas concluded.

Zarina Khan
Senior Editor
28 February 2017

Membraneless flow batteries are emerging as a promising kind of low-cost battery for large-scale energy storage. But if they are to achieve commercial success against other energy storage solutions, they must be designed with scalability in mind.

Many of today’s membraneless flow batteries are designed at the micro-level, at a size no bigger than the palm of your hand. These batteries store and release energy efficiently, but when scaled to a size large enough to generate and store the amount of energy needed to power a single household, they prove ineffective.

To help advance the research and development of membraneless flow batteries, Masdar Institute Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Dr. Saif Al Mheiri has developed a method for determining whether or not a membraneless flow battery design has the potential to be commercialized. He has presented his findings in a review paper co-authored by his PhD student Musbaudeen Bamgbopa and Dr. Hong Sun from the Shenyang Jianzhu University. The paper was published in the journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews in November 2016.

The aim of his work was to develop a method for comparing and contrasting the performance of different membraneless flow battery designs when it comes to their potential utility-scale performance, which is measured in terms of two performance metrics – scalability and electrolyte reusability.

“The performance metrics we developed for reusability and scalability enable researchers designing membraneless flow batteries, or potential investors, to compare different designs for their potential commercial development. We also hope that the performance metrics we developed will direct future research and development of membraneless flow batteries that have a greater potential for large-scale energy storage,” Dr. Al Mheiri remarked.

By creating a method for determining whether or not a design can meet the requirements of a large-scale energy storage system – being scalable and reusable – Dr. Al Mheiri expects that this research will help guide future membraneless flow battery design work.

Through their extensive research of membraneless flow cells reported in the literature from 2004-2016, Dr. Al Mheiri’s team noticed that the focus thus far has been on maintaining separation of the electrolytes without the membrane. “They have missed on other important parameters, including the fact that electrolytes must be reused and that the performance should remain effective even if scaled up,” Dr. Al Mheiri asserted.

A typical membrane-based flow battery includes two electrolytes – one positively charged anolyte and a negatively charged catholyte – which are separated by a membrane. When the two electrolytes flow past the membrane, they exchange ions creating an electric current at electrodes where electrochemical reactions take place. The membrane has the critical role of keeping the electrolytes separated and inducing the ion exchange required to create a current.

However, the membrane in a typical flow battery presents two major challenges – they are the most expensive component in the battery and the most unreliable, as they can become corroded, reducing the battery’s lifetime. To get around these issues, researchers are attempting to design flow batteries without a membrane.

“If you remove the membrane, there is a significant opportunity to reduce the overall cost of the battery. But of course, this introduces a new challenge, where a cell has to be designed in such a way that separation between the two electrolyte solutions is maintained without a membrane,” said Bamgbopa.

To demonstrate the fact that the membraneless flow cells designed over the last decade have neglected the key issues of scalability and electrolyte reusability in their design concepts, Dr. Al Mheiri and his team analyzed the design concepts and categorized them into five main designs. They then found all the designs that fall under each category and selected two of them to compare to validate their performance metrics in comparing designs.

While many of the designs Dr. Al Mheiri’s team studied demonstrated excellent separation at the micro level, once the designs were considered against the scalability performance indicator, they displayed an inability to keep the electrolytes separated. This is a serious flaw, as one of the most important characteristics of a membrane-based flow battery is its ability to easily scale up by increasing the tank sizes that hold the electrolytes. It is essential that a membraneless flow battery demonstrates the same scalability if it is going to be considered as a viable alternative for large-scale energy storage.

“We define a ‘scalable’ design as one in which its performance (particularly fuel utilization, efficiency and electrolyte reusability), at worst doesn’t decrease (could either increase or stay the same) as a result of the upscale,” explained Dr. Al Mheiri.

Another crucial characteristic of a flow battery is its ability to reuse the electrolyte. The same electrolyte is reused repeatedly; in fact, typical membrane-based flow batteries are said to deliver more than 10,000 full cycles with the same electrolyte. The recovery of the charged or discharged electrolyte solution depends on the ease of separation of the electrolyte mixture after the first pass through the system.

However, Dr. Al Mheiri found that this critical feature of reusability was not reflected in the designs reported in the literature.

“Fuel utilization was not present, or reusability, which is one of the new parameters we have introduced. Most of the publications indicate that the designs are good, but when you go back and check, they only performed a single pass of the electrolyte. But in a flow battery, the electrolyte must be continuously reused and cycled back through the battery,” Dr. Al Mheiri remarked.

Dr. Al Mheiri’s team developed a way to determine the feasibility of separating the positive and negative electrolyte streams after a single pass through the battery in each design, expressed as a ratio of electrolyte volumes.

In order for membraneless flow batteries to compete with membrane-based flow batteries, the batteries must be scalable and the electrolytes must be able to be recirculated through the system.

Dr. Almheiri is currently working on a novel design for a membraneless flow battery that meets the two key requirements of scalability and reusability.

Membraneless flow batteries offer a low-cost solution to electrochemical energy storage and have the potential to facilitate widespread use of renewable energy, like solar and wind power, which is why Dr. Al Mheiri wants to see research of membraneless flow batteries continue, but with a new focus on scalability in the design concept. He hopes that his findings will direct future research and development of membraneless flow batteries by enabling researchers to compare and contrast existing designs in order to develop the most efficient and scalable design yet.

Dr. Al Mheiri’s pioneering work to develop a method for determining whether a design meets key performance indicators is a critical step towards ensuring that future membraneless flow battery designs will be able to meet the world’s renewable energy storage needs in the real world.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
16 March 2017

Biological waste from livestock has long been used to help make farm soil more fertile, but while human waste has similar potential benefits, its use presents more challenges. Sewage contains high concentrations of heavy metals and current treatment methods are unable to remove enough of these toxic metals to make biosolids safe for use on farms as fertilizer, so it often ends up being landfilled instead.

Now, however, researchers from Masdar Institute have developed an energy-efficient, low-cost method for removing heavy metals from biosolids. The novel process has demonstrated the ability to remove over 90% of zinc and over 60% of copper from sewage sludge collected from the Masdar City wastewater treatment plant. This removal rate is significantly higher than any previously reported removal rates, and in the case of zinc, the removal was well below the tolerable concentration levels set by regulatory agencies.

Dr. Shadi Wajih Hasan, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Masdar Institute, developed the novel three-step treatment process that combines chemical conditioning, electrokinetic remediation and a post-treatment washing. He was lead author on a paper describing the process, which was published in August 2016 in the Nature affiliated journal Scientific Reports, along with co-authors, PhD student Adewale Giwa, former MSc student Amna Al Housani and postdoctoral researcher Iftikhar Ahmed.

“If the UAE could convert the 26,000 tons of biosolids that are generated yearly from Abu Dhabi’s urban wastewater treatment plants into fertilizer, the environmental impact of keeping this waste out of the landfill and the economic benefits of creating a valuable fertilizer product that could be sold would be significant. I think this is an opportunity that the UAE should explore in greater depth,” said Dr. Hasan.

In his paper, Dr. Hasan briefly explains the economic benefit of converting biosolids to fertilizer. He concluded that the use of sludge as land fertilizer would potentially yield over US$2 million per year as revenue for Abu Dhabi, giving a boost the country’s fertilizer industry, which has grown by more than 50% in the last ten years. In 2014, the country’s fertilizer producers manufactured 5 million tons of products, earning US$653 million in revenues. Currently ranked as the third largest fertilizer producer in the GCC, the UAE’s fertilizer industry would greatly benefit from any technological advancement that would reduce production costs while improve the product quality of its fertilizer.

In addition to being a potential boon for the country’s revenue stream, the conversion of biosolids to fertilizer would also result in significant environmental savings.

Sewage sludge contains high concentrations of heavy metals that are not degraded through conventional physical, biological, and chemical treatment processes. In many countries, including the UAE, the current approach to handling municipal sludge is to landfill it, which can contaminate the environment around it.

And his treatment method is being scaled to commercial levels. Dr. Hasan ran a pilot-scale experiment of the system to determine its economic viability. The pilot-scale experiment showed excellent reproducibility of the technology, indicating that it could be scaled up for industrial process design.

This scalability factor is important if the novel treatment method is going to be able to reproduce these high removal levels on a large scale. One reason why sewage sludge is landfilled is because of the high cost of treating it. Attempts to treat and remove the heavy metals from sewage sludge are usually expensive and energy-intensive, and yield only a slight reduction in the overall metal content. Thus, any potential solution to reduce the presence of heavy metals in biosolids must be low-cost and energy-efficient if they are to be applied on a mass-scale.

Dr. Hasan’s three-stage treatment process not only meets the requirements of being potentially cost-effective and low-energy, but also results in a high-value product in the form of a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

THREE-STEP TREATMENT PROCESS

The novel treatment process uses a low electric field treatment, making it significantly more energy-efficient than conventional electrokinetic (EK) remediation processes. The kinetics of this low-strength EK treatment was improved through the use of aqua regia acid.

“Aqua regia contains nitrite which gives rise to free nitrous acid that can increase biodegradability, disrupt extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and microbial cells, and reduce sludge particle size by breaking down EPS. More importantly for this study, the nitrous acid can disrupt the organically bounded zinc and copper trapped in EPS,” Dr. Hasan explained.

EK treatment involves running an electric current through the sludge between two electrodes to break the bonds of the metal ions. While EK remediation can be very effective at removing metal ions, its widespread application has been hindered because it is energy-intensive and expensive.

Dr. Hasan’s team found a way around these limitations by conditioning the biosolids first with the aqua regia. While the two steps of chemical conditioning and electrokinetics are quite effective – removing 84% of zinc and 63% of copper from the biosolids – Dr. Hasan introduced a third step which led to even higher metal removal rates.

A biogenic chelating agent was used to post-treat the sludge after the low strength, acidified EK process. This agent is a cation-capturing organic extract from citrus fruit peel waste known as pectin. Pectin from citrus peels is physically stable, exhibits a particularly high degree of metal uptake, and is also suitable for coagulating residual ions in sludge after EK treatment.

Dr. Hasan discovered that washing the biosolids in pectin removes more of the free ions that were not pulled to the electrodes during the electrokinetic treatment, and settled to the bottom of the sludge.

“We are very excited by our discovery of the use of pectin as a post-treatment option. Pectin is also sourced from waste, which means we have developed an innovative method that leverages two separate waste streams to create a value-added product,” Dr. Hasan remarked.

This innovative three-step treatment strategy has successfully eliminated the presence of zinc to levels below the prescribed standard for unrestricted use of biosolids locally and globally, achieving a removal rate of 94%. Copper levels were also brought much closer to their unrestricted standard, with a 64% removal rate achieved.

Compared to landfilling and incineration, utilization of sludge for agricultural use is considered the best alternative for sludge disposal. And now, thanks to research conducted at Masdar Institute, an innovative, potentially low-cost method for removing heavy metals from sludge has been developed, bringing the UAE closer towards its objectives of eliminating waste, diversifying the economy, and preserving the environment.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
27 March 2017

A novel imaging technique that leverages atomic force microscopy (AFM) to accurately measure the chemical diversity within a DNA molecule has been developed by a research team from Masdar Institute (MI) and the Petroleum Institute (PI).

Dr. Matteo Chiesa, Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Masdar Institute, shared the process at the first New York University (NYU) Biomedical and Biosystems Conference, which was held from 9-11 April at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Dr. Chiesa, MI intern Mashael Alshehhi and PI professor Dr. Saeed Alhassan discovered two critical experimental parameters for the use of AFM to image accurately a biomolecule’s surface, which could in turn accelerate the development of critical biomedical technologies.

Until now, determining the exact topography of a biomolecule’s surface, such as its height or arrangement of its parts, has been difficult to measure with certainty. AFM – which is an advanced tool to image and characterize structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer, or a million times smaller than the width of a human hair – was only able to interpret “apparent height” as opposed to “true height.”

The inability to determine the precise topography of a biomolecule limits bioengineers’ ability to develop important biomedical technologies. For example, accurate imaging of a biomolecule’s surface, such as DNA, would enable scientists to engineer other biomolecules, like proteins, with the precise structure and morphology required to latch onto the DNA, where they could then administer drugs or provide the DNA with a set of instructions to carry out a desired task.

Dr. Chiesa’s team has brought the scientific community closer towards developing such biomedical breakthroughs through their advanced imaging process that leverages multifrequency AFM to determine chemical heterogeneity (chemical diversity) and height of a DNA molecule. The team described the imaging process in a paper published earlier this year in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The paper made the front cover of the journal’s 28 April 2017 issue.

MULTIFREQUENCY MODE

In the course of their research, the team investigated the impact of various experimental parameters that must be considered when imaging a biomolecule with AFM, including the ideal AFM operational mode, the role of the substrate used, and the ideal imaging timeline.

The first finding was the appropriate AFM operational mode for biomolecule imaging. In a typical AFM experiment, an ultrafine probe needle, scans over a surface while tracing its topography to produce an image based on the forces the tip experiences as it interacts with molecules or atoms on the surface. The cantilever, which is the arm controlling the microscope’s probing needle, oscillates at a single frequency across the material’s surface, producing an atomic-scale map of the material’s topography.

In this study, the team explored a new AFM operation, called bimodal AFM mode, which involves oscillating the cantilever with two separate frequencies simultaneously. This multifrequency approach yielded images of the DNA’s surface with higher compositional resolution, sensitivity and throughput, which in turn led the team to better understand how a key experimental parameter affects how a biomolecule’s surface characteristics are altered over time.

THE ROLE OF THE SUBSTRATE AND TIME

The second key finding for the DNA biomolecule AFM technique considers the impact of the substrate on which the biomolecule is fixed, the impact of which is often overlooked.

“We felt that while advances in hardware, software, physical models and interpretation of data in the AFM field are drastically improving, robust characterization of the substrate is a key parameter in the experimental set-up that requires deeper investigation,” Dr. Chiesa explained.

The team found that the crystal mica substrate that is preferred for AFM due to its atomically flat and smooth surface, which is transparent and free from scratches and contamination, does not retain its suitability as a constant over time.

To determine how the substrate affects the scanning probe microscope’s ability to measure a DNA molecule’s topography, the team investigated the impact that a mica substrate’s age – measured as the amount of time passed since the mica was freshly cleaved – has on the DNA molecule. They compared measurements of DNA height on the mica substrate that was freshly cleaved, with DNA measurements taken from a mica substrate that sat out for 48 hours. This led to the third aspect of the AFM technique discovery – importance of timeline.

The rapid accumulation of pollutants over the substrate is a phenomenon the team termed “adsorption.” As the substrate becomes increasingly contaminated by adsorbates over time, the topographical measurements of the DNA molecule become difficult to obtain. This happens because AFM relies on physically feeling the atomic forces between the microscope’s needle and the material’s surface. As more materials, or adsorbates, build up over the DNA molecule over time as the substrate is exposed to air, the adsorbates prevent the microscope’s needle from feeling the DNA.

In their paper, Dr. Chiesa’s team reveals their findings that mica substrates render biomolecules essentially invisible up to 48 hours after it has been cleaved, exposing the critically important role the substrate plays in obtaining accurate and reliable topographical data of a biomolecule’s surface.

“We found that as the substrate is exposed to air over the course of 48 hours, a layer of water molecules, potassium ions and carbonates build up over the substrate, rendering the molecule of DNA invisible to the AFM,” Alshehhi explained. “Thus, we asserted that imaging of the DNA should be carried out as soon as possible after the mica substrate is cleaved and the DNA sample is prepared.”

The team thus demonstrated that the successful imaging of a biomolecule using AFM not only depends on the biomolecule’s properties, the preparation of the biomolecule, or the cantilever calibration, but also on the exposure time of the substrate to the air environment. This information will enhance scientists’ ability to collect accurate, reliable data on biomolecules and other materials studied with atomic force microscopes in the open-air environment, which will in turn enrich scientific knowledge of biomolecule characteristics.

“Until now, scientists did not know how to account for the aging of the substrate and sample in the air due to adsorption,” Dr. Chiesa said. “To get around the challenge of imaging biomolecules in air environments, most AFM studies of biomolecules are conducted in water, as water keeps the sample stable. But our bimodal AFM scheme coupled with our findings on the role of the aging substrate enabled us to develop a standardized mode of operation that, if applied by the wider AFM community, will lead to a significant compilation of information on biomolecules.”

With the newfound realization that accurate height measurements of DNA molecules can be determined with multifrequency AFM under the condition that a freshly cleaved mica substrate is used, Dr. Chiesa and his team hopes their findings generate a wave of new research of biomolecules and other materials using their imaging approach that will bolster the development of biotechnologies needed to improve human health and well-being.

Zarina Khan, Senior Editor and Erica Solomon, News and Features Writer
13 April 2017