Fresh water is scarce in the UAE. We can’t rely on rainfall to water our crops, so instead we turn to irrigation.

That creates its own problems, though. The fresh water used for irrigation has to come from somewhere – either from the Arabian Gulf via a desalination plant, or from treatment plants that recycle water that has already been desalinated and used for other purposes. In either case, it is expensive and in limited supply, so there is pressure to keep the amount used to a minimum.

A number of irrigation systems have been studied, including sprinkler systems and drip irrigation, but they each have drawbacks.

Researchers at the Masdar Institute are investigating an innovative technique for irrigation: the use of super-absorbent polymers to retain water in the soil. The research is being carried out in collaboration with the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai.

Super-absorbent polymers, which can hold and store several times their weight in water, are already being used in a number of fields.

Surgeons use them as super-efficient swabs. Firefighters use polymers pre-loaded with water to create a huge mass of steam that puts out a fire more effectively than water alone.

Our focus is on using them in agriculture to ensure a constant supply of water to the plant while minimising water loss by evaporation and infiltration, which is when irrigation water misses the root system altogether and is drained away by gravity.

To use the polymer, a worker adds water to it, turning it into a gel. It is then placed in the soil near the root of the plant.

With the polymer holding water at its base, the amount of watering a plant needs can be cut by more than half. When it is irrigated, the polymer ensures most of that water goes to the plant and not deep into the soil. And unlike standard irrigation, where the water supply tends to be sporadic, constant access to water removes the risk of water stress.

Initial studies abroad have indicated that the hydrogels and polymers do not get absorbed by the plants; they are used only as water-retention materials.

This point is important and needs to be verified to ensure the polymers do not end up in the plant and pose a risk to human health.

Research has begun at the Masdar Institute to see how such super-absorbent material can be used in the UAE.

First, we select a material based on its water retention, its useful life and its composition – whether it is petroleum-based or organic.

Then, we test a number of crop samples with different amounts of the gel, and varyingly saline water, to see how well it works. We focus on how much water is needed with each gel to produce plants of a particular size, looking at the crop yield, leaf size and root size. We compare this with a controlled irrigation-system plant grown with similarly saline water, to quantify the savings in each case.

Cost is important, too. So as well as the cost of the gel itself, we will look at the differences in the cost of water, labour, electricity, and so on.

We also intend to evaluate the reduction of stress on the plants due to the constant availability of water, and the risk of the gel being absorbed by the plant and any potential health consequences.

The UAE has the opportunity to take a leading role in this field, adapting the technology to desert environments. Through this we hope to increase agricultural production while using less water – helping the UAE secure its own food supply while minimising its effect on the environment.

Abdalla Al Serkal is a master’s student in water and environmental engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, where Dr. Taha Ouarda is professor of water and environmental engineering.

The ground under your feet is more important than you think.  It retains moisture and nutrients for vegetation, helping grow the food you eat.  Scientists at the Masdar Institute are working on a way to help ensure UAE’s soil stays in healthy for years to come.

The term “worth dirt” says a lot about the value we place on soil. After all, the land is abundantly covered in soil and we ascribe it little worth and pay it even less attention.

But in reality, soil is a precious resource produced from rock over millennia, and can therefore be considered a non-renewable resource. When the quality of that soil suffers, so too does society.

But how do we even assess “soil quality” – a concept some may consider to be a paradox?

One measure is its capacity to function within an ecosystem – to sustain plant and animal life, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health.

There are many indicators, including the soil’s structure, its water-holding capacity, the amount of organic matter it includes, how porous it is and how many microorganisms it hosts. The most important, though, is the amount of organic carbon.

Soil organic carbon – the dark brown or black content of soil – improves its physical and chemical properties, allowing soil to hold more water, preventing nutrients from leaching and maintain its chemical balance.

It is also the main source of energy for microorganisms, which play an important role in soil fertility, organic matter composition and disease resistance of plants.

And it is the glue that holds soil particles together into stable aggregates that are resistant to soil erosion.

My research team at Masdar Institute is trying to increase the organic carbon content of the UAE’s soils, which are intrinsically poor in organic carbon.

Improving them would allow for more productive and wider agricultural activity, allowing us to grow more of our own food while removing carbon from the air.

It would also help reduce the problem of desertification – the degradation of land, particularly in dry climates.

In desertification, land loses fertility and vegetation. Eventually, without the cover of plant life, topsoil that took aeons to produce could be picked up by the wind and cause sandstorms, landslides, and even respiratory infections in people.

These can all be a major drain on national revenue in lost productivity, healthcare costs and even air travel interruptions.

Equally important is that increasing soil organic carbon can reduce the water loss caused by evaporation and runoff, by allowing the UAE’s landscapes to better absorb rain and irrigation water.

Agricultural irrigation accounts for some 60 per cent of desalinated water use – a large drain on national resources. Making it more efficient could not only save precious water, but also the money and fossil fuels that are used for desalination.

The soil carbon solution we are researching will also help contribute to the UAE’s sustainability, waste and land management practices.

Using the process of pyrolysis – decomposition brought about by high temperatures – we intend to turn readily available green farm waste into an inert form of carbon known as “biochar”, whichcan then be mixed back into the soil. Such material is otherwise wasted in landfills or burned – neither of which is environmentally ideal.

Land application of biochar also contributes to the fight against global warming by permanently sequestering atmospheric carbon into the earth as soil carbon. In effect, this makes it a low-cost way of helping the UAE meet its goal of reducing carbon emissions.

With this research, we hope to turn waste into a tool that can be used to improve soil quality and therefore the quality of life, food security, and health in the UAE and contribute to the country’s vibrant future.

Dr. Lina Yousef is an assistant professor of water and environmental engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

The history of concentrated solar power (CSP) has seen a number of turning points. In the early 20th century it was proposed as a source of energy for sunny countries, with pilot plants looking very similar to a modern parabolic trough system.

But that was not to be, as the easy availability of fossil fuels took away the incentive to develop this form of renewable energy.

The oil crisis of the 1970s revived interest, but by the time the technology had been developed to the point of deployment, the high price of oil had also pushed further exploration. The new wave of large oilfields, such as those in Alaska, the North Sea and Nigeria that went into production as a result again stymied CSP.

Fast forward to 2008, where the triple whammy of a new oil price shock, increasing fossil fuel production costs and fossil fuel-linked climate impact came together to position CSP for its second renaissance.

CSP installations were record-breaking in terms of size and output the 527MW of capacity installed in 2010 alone was more than double the amount installed up to the start of that year.

But its success was overshadowed by the extremely steep cost reductions and corresponding explosive growth of another renewable energy technology solar photovoltaic (PV). By the end of this year, more than 100GW of PV capacity will have been installed worldwide.

The growth of low-cost PV has seen the cancellation of many planned CSP installations, or their conversion to PV. These factors combined to bring into question CSP¹s viability, leading at least one of the big players, Siemens, to sell off its CSP acquisitions, while Spain slashed the feed-in tariff system that had allowed it to become a leader in CSP deployment.

None of this, though, means CSP is not viable. There is no silver bullet in renewable energy all the main technologies have advantages and disadvantages that vary in different regions of the world.

CSP¹s overwhelming advantage is its ability to offer low-cost thermal energy storage, which makes it after hydro the cheapest form renewable energy that can be generated according to consumer demand.

Secondly, it can integrate with existing natural gas power plants, complementing the solar power.

Third, it can be used for direct thermal applications, such as industrial thermal processes, cooling using absorption chillers, or in some cases desalination.

Its main disadvantage is that while solar PV can use diffuse light, CSP cannot it is entirely dependent on direct sunlight. Even a moderate amount of cloud cover or haze dramatically cuts its power output.

Nevertheless, as Masdar Institute¹s UAE solar atlas project has shown, there are plenty of locations in the UAE and the wider Middle East where CSP is an appropriate option.

We have found that combined with thermal energy storage, CSP can complement PV in meeting the typical post-sunset demand peak, and can do so economically when combined with measures to reduce electricity demand, such as better building insulation, more efficient and well- maintained air conditioning equipment, and low-power lighting and appliances.

Further studies at the Masdar Institute aim to make CSP even more useful by designing receivers better adapted to the prevailing atmospheric conditions of the UAE, as well as investigating its cooling applications and testing alternative storage mechanisms.

Opened last month, Shams 1 is the first operating CSP plant in the Middle East and, currently, the biggest in the world, until larger plants in the US come on line in 2014. It is already testing and demonstrating the technology¹s potential.

And the insights it is offering will support the development of larger and more cost-effective CSP plants. The 1.7 GW of worldwide CSP capacity planned for completion in 2013 may still pale relative to PV deployment, but it is a step towards pushing the technology learning curve and further establishing a valuable sustainable energy option.

Dr. Sgouris Sgouridis is associate professor of engineering systems and management at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

2 June 2013

Concrete is everywhere. For every person, around two tons of concrete are produced every year, for buildings, roads, dams, bridges, walkways, parkways – all the infrastructure around us.

But while concrete is flexible in its applications, the material itself is very brittle. It can withstand amazing amounts of pressure, but when stretched or bent, it cracks and breaks. That rigidity makes it costly to use and maintain.

Reinforced steel bars (rebar) help, but at a high cost – and even then there is significant and costly wear and tear. Even in the UAE, where most of the buildings are relatively new, the concrete repair market is already worth around $50 million a year. As our roads, bridges and buildings age, that number is expected to balloon as weathering, foundation shifts and other phenomena take their toll.

If concrete could be made both more flexible and stronger, the savings could therefore be huge. A good deal of research is already focused on achieving that. But one area that has so far garnered little attention but has already shown significant promise is the combining of nanotechnology with materials science to create carbon nanotube-strengthened concrete.

Carbon nanotubes are carbon atoms arranged in the shape of tubes so small they are a one ten-thousandth of the diameter of a human hair. In this form, they are 100 times stronger than steel, lightweight, and able to transmit electricity and heat. Instead of running them through the concrete every few centimeters, as with rebar, the concrete can be made so it is chock-full of millions of these tiny stronger-than-steel rods.

My project at Masdar Institute, sponsored by the Qatar National Research Foundation, is investigating the properties of this nanotube-strengthened concrete. Our preliminary research has found that it can be not only stronger and more flexible, but also better able to withstand stretching and bending without cracking or breaking. Also, the nanotube’s thermal and electrical properties make it possible to construct smart concrete structures that can sense any damage or failure.

Our team is digging deep to design the ideal nanotube-strengthened concrete. To be able to model the behavior of millions of nanotubes packed into a section of concrete, we have created a specialized computational tool that can virtually generate random dispersals of the nanotubes.

We are also looking to include two other materials – carbon nanofibers and polymer microfibers, which are respectively each a scale of magnitude larger than carbon nanotubes, adding further dimensions of strength and flexibility to the material.

Preliminary studies have found that this can produce concrete that is five times as strong and durable as normal. Additionally, to reduce the its environmental footprint, our material will use industrial waste  – such as fly ash produced from coal burning and “slug” powder from steel factories – in place of energy-intensive cement powder. Globally, reducing cement production even by just 1% would be equivalent to taking millions of cars off the road in carbon output.

One challenge is make concrete in which the carbon nanotubes are evenly dispersed, and properly bound in. If the nanotubes clump together in one area, it could lead to weaknesses in other parts, while if the carbon additives fail to properly bond with the rest of the concrete ingredients, it could result in structural weakness.

In order to mitigate these issues we are collaborating with American industrial giant Lockheed Martin to “grow” the nanotubes directly on the cement particles and the micro-fibers, thus ensuring a strong bond and even spread.

It is our hope that with this research, we can help make the UAE’s ongoing structural projects stronger, longer lasting and more sustainable.

This will not only help save massively on material and repair costs, but also make buildings better able to withstand earthquakes and other potential structural impacts. With this research, we can help make crack-free, steel-free concrete part of our near future.

Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub is associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

7 June 2013

The strategy of Emiratisation grows steadily more important. Sustainable prosperity demands that citizens be productive participants in the economic system, supporting it rather than having to be supported.

Even more crucially, a greater Emirati presence in the private as well as the public sector is needed to transform the UAE into a “knowledge economy”, as laid out in Abu Dhabi’s Vision 2030 goals.

In an economy based on knowledge and skills, rather than natural resources or manufacturing, the real asset is people, who are trained and positioned to use their skills and what they have learnt.

Capital- and technology-intensive industries are the main components of a knowledge economy, and this approach is believed to be the best use of the UAE’s limited local manpower.

High-tech industries such as aerospace, aviation, metallurgy, semiconductors and nanotechnology – all being pursued by Abu Dhabi – depend heavily on automation and intelligent systems, which in turn demand relatively few experts, but highly knowledgeable ones. By educating and training Emiratis to fill these positions, the Government can ensure that its citizens enjoy a satisfying lifestyle as integral elements of the national prosperity.

The perceived challenge to the Emiratisation strategy has been a belief that Emiratis do not want to become technical specialists, but prefer to work in government or commerce.

Masdar Institute, preparing to graduate our largest-ever percentage of Emirati students next Wednesday, has found that perception to be wrong. Since we opened our classrooms five years ago, we have been approached each year by more and more Emiratis attracted to our sustainability-focused engineering degrees. Our student body is now 40 per cent citizens, in line with similar figures at top 50 US graduate schools of engineering.

In light of this, the challenge now for Emiratisation is for the economy to provide gainful employment for highly skilled Emirati graduates. As we are doing our part to prepare a new cadre of engineers, and scientists, industry needs to advance at the same pace. Knowledge-intensive industry, entrepreneurial start-ups and a robust research and development infrastructure are needed to give graduates the opportunities and facilities to innovate, compete and succeed.

Masdar now offers a “reverse internship” in which working professionals are brought in from industry to study part-time to gain their specialised Masters’ degrees.

These professionals will be able to return to their duties with greater knowledge and understanding, which will help their companies to evolve.

We are also launching the UAE’s first Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, bringing together scientists, officials, investors, and people from industry. The Center will focus on transmitting ideas from the lab to industry by way of mentorship, graduate and executive education programmes in technical management, entrepreneurship and innovation, and access to investors geared towards incubating start-up companies.

Transforming the UAE into a knowledge economy also requires greater focus on merit and rewards. To cultivate innovation, we must have an environment of competition, scientific rigour and fairness.

We can facilitate this by maintaining the highest standards for education and employment, and rewarding those who pursue greatness and achieve results – Emiratis and expatriates alike. Both groups are needed, since the current rate of economic growth in the UAE far outstrips Emirati population growth.

For the UAE to become a prosperous knowledge economy, we must compete globally. If we are to be competitive, excellence must be rewarded, regardless of its source.

Therefore we recommend adoption of policy and strategies for human resource development consistent with the policies and strategies the UAE has adopted to reach the desired economic and social goals for the country.

This would contribute to establishing the UAE’s knowledge-intensive businesses and industries as the kind of world-class entities that talented young Emiratis would like to be part of, in turn opening up for the next generation of youth valid goals to which they can aspire.

Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh is President of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi