��are set to rise by almost half a degree Celsius per decade, a study has forecast, with extreme weather events — including droughts and torrential rain — becoming more common.

While half a degree might not sound like a major shift, given that temperatures in the region can fluctuate by 10°C to 15°C per day, an����with 1.1°C of warming, half the global population faces water insecurity for at least one month per year.

Researchers in the latest study said the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East have in recent decades warmed significantly faster than other inhabited regions.

They also highlighted how����in the region were “growing rapidly” and as a result were making a significant contribution to��.

However, scientists said if major action was taken globally to reduce carbon emissions and combat other contributors to climate change, the rate at which temperatures continued to increase could be slowed.

“People’s day-to-day life will be affected mostly by extreme heat and extreme rain. Both of them are expected to have an increased frequency and intensity,” said Dr Diana Francis of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, one of the authors of the study.

“It is time to act at all levels to mitigate and adapt to the changes happening to our climate and weather.”

Read the full article here:

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An intense and stationary cyclone around Antarctica caused part of the Brunt Ice Shelf to collapse into the sea; researchers believe increased global temperatures are at play.����

As climate change continues around the globe, dramatic scenes play out in Antarctica. Enormous sheets of ice fracture from the edge of the continent, crashing into the sea, the very image of global warming. The breaking and detachment of parts of ice shelves is a natural process, however, known as the glaciological cycle, and although individual events are not cause for concern, they are becoming more common.

A calving event is the process by which a large block of ice gets separated from an ice shelf or glacier and forms an iceberg. Ice shelves are platforms of floating ice that form where the Antarctic ice sheet meets the ocean. Large calving events from these remain highly unpredictable, but the process is typically associated with the glaciological cycle of the ice shelves as well as ocean dynamics. Atmospheric triggers of such events have been largely overlooked, but a team including researchers from Khalifa University identified changes in strong near-surface winds as the cause of one calving event in February 2021.

Dr. Diana Francis, Head of the Khalifa University Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Laboratory (ENGEOS), Dr. Ricardo Fonseca and Charfeddine Cherif, both from ENGEOS, investigated the atmospheric triggers of the calving event with Kyle Mattingly, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Oliver Marsh, British Antarctic Survey; and Stef Lhermitte, Delft University of Technology. Their results were published in.

Iceberg A-74 was calved from the Brunt Ice Shelf when strong near-surface winds associated with intense cyclones amplified the stress on a pre-existing rift in the ice shelf. After calving, the iceberg drifted westward at a speed of 700 meters per day, aided by strong offshore winds.

“Ice shelves around Antarctica make up 11 percent of Antarctica’s total area,” Dr. Francis said. “Over the last few decades, ice shelves have been retreating significantly or have collapsed altogether, and this land-ice loss has important implications for sea-level rise both locally and globally. In fact, ice shelves around Antarctica act as a buffer for the land ice behind, shielding it from ocean swells that may promote further loss of ice. When ice shelves weaken or collapse, ice loss accelerates, causing the sea levels to rise.”

However, they act as a brake on the flow of ice further inland. “In late February 2021, iceberg A-74 calved from the north side of the Brunt Ice Shelf,” Dr. Francis said. “Although most of the ice loss at this ice shelf has been attributed to the inflow of warm ocean water, the atmospheric conditions above Antarctica may have played a role in triggering this calving event. We know that the number and intensity of cyclones around Antarctica have increased over the last few decades as storm tracks shift towards the pole under enhanced greenhouse-gas concentrations. As the climate continues to warm, the intensity of more frequent cyclones is projected to increase.”

The week before the A-74 calving event saw a strong low-pressure system around the Brunt Ice Shelf, paired with an intense atmospheric river, an elongated band of clouds and high water-vapor content to the northeast of the center of a cyclone. Heavy snowfall fell over the ice shelf, with the researchers suggesting this may have contributed to its destabilization. Strong winds from the cyclone brought more warm air from the atmospheric river, which may have led to high waves hitting the front of the ice shelf. As the cyclone moved eastward and intensified, these forces increased until the calving event was triggered and iceberg A-74 fell into the sea.

This cyclone was deeper and more persistent than an ordinary cyclone, providing the ideal conditions to trigger a calving event. Warm and moist air and wet snow, combined with high ocean waves and swells, weakened the ice-shelf front. Then, strong offshore winds created a steep oceanward sea-surface slope forcing the ice shelf to calve along a pre-existing rift. It took just a few days for the ice shelf to weaken sufficiently for the ocean to force part of it to break.

“Recent studies have found a poleward shift and strengthening of the Southern Hemisphere’s winds, particularly during the summer season, and this has mainly been attributed to ozone depletion,” Dr. Francis said. “However, despite ozone recovery in recent years and the expected reduction in these trends, we’re seeing more frequent stormy periods around Antarctica in the warmer months. Global warming may be causing a continued poleward shift and intensification of the storm track, which means calving events may occur more often in a warming world, with atmospheric forcing playing an increasingly important role. It’s more important than ever that we develop models and data sets to assess and project Antarctic and Greenland ice-shelf dynamics and sea-level rise to better predict their evolution and dynamics.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
30 June 2022

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While the oil refining industry has brought manifold benefits, it is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and must now decarbonize its operations if the world is to ever achieve net-zero carbon emissions.��

As the world moves away from fossil fuels, all industries and sectors will need to decarbonize if targets for a future with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are to be reached. This includes the petroleum refining industry, an industry that accounts for up to eight percent of global industrial energy consumption.

Even though populations are turning to more sustainable energy sources, demand for products derived from fossil fuels will not end overnight, particularly demand for plastic products. Hence, improving emissions from oil refineries is necessary to reduce their environmental impact as we transition to a lower-carbon future. The US petroleum refining industry, for instance, produces 198 megatonnes of carbon dioxide each year— the same amount emitted by nearly 36 million homes.

Khalifa University’s Dr. Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Professor of Practice, collaborated with an international team of researchers to provide a systematic and critical literature review to uncover the means by which the oil refining industry can decarbonize and evolve as part of an increasingly carbon constrained future.

Team members were Dr. Benjamin Sovacool, University of Sussex, UK; Dr. Jinsoo Kim, Hanyang University, Republic of Korea; Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines, USA; and Joao Uratani, a research engineer also from Khalifa University. Their review, which was recently published in, is a part of a work program undertaken by the UK’s Industrial Decarbonisation Research & Innovation Centre (IDRIC). The team has already published work on decarbonization of the iron and steel, food and beverage, glass and ceramics industries as well as work on the roles of fluorinated gases (or F-gases) and hydrogen in industrial decarbonization. This work on decarbonization of the oil refining industry is closely tied to the work on hydrogen given that oil refining is currently the second largest consumer of hydrogen globally.

In this paper, the research team used a sociotechnical perspective to understand the oil refining industry and highlight key opportunities for decarbonization. These insights support policy makers, researchers, and practitioners, offering the tools needed to advance a low-carbon transition of the oil refining industry.

What is oil refining?

Crude oil is the term for unprocessed oil; petroleum in its original form after extraction from the ground. It’s the starting point for hydrocarbon products, including the gasoline for your car, kerosene, synthetic fibers, plastics, tires and even crayons. To produce these products, the crude oil must first be processed or refined.

The petroleum that comes straight out of the ground contains hundreds of different types of hydrocarbons all mixed together. These molecules contain hydrogen and carbon atoms, and come in various lengths and structures, from straight chains to branching chains, to rings. Each different chain length and structure has a different property that makes it useful in different ways.

Oil refining separates these hydrocarbons by heating the oil and separating the hydrocarbons according to the temperatures at which they vaporize. Chemical refinery processes also include operations such as cracking, which uses heat, pressure and sometime catalysts to produce a broad range of valuable refinery products from the crude oil feedstock.

“The oil refining industry has become a foundation of modern society,” Dr. Griffiths said. “It was established in the mid-19th century to refine crude oil into transportation fuels, petrochemical feedstocks, and a variety of other products that have brought manifold benefits, but it has also led to the global proliferation of greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution. The industry faces a growing need to decarbonize its operations and to support decarbonization of the end use sectors that it directly enables.”

Energy-Intensive Refining

Oil refinery plants can vary in design and complexity but together, crude oil refining is estimated to account for about six to eight percent of all global industrial energy consumption, with this energy consumption representing up to 50 percent of the refinery’s total operating costs. All key processes within the oil refining industry are considered energy-intensive due to extensive direct heat and steam use—the boiling point for the different hydrocarbon products ranges from 40 degrees Celsius for petroleum gases used for heating, cooking and plastics, to over 600 degrees Celsius for the oils needed for asphalt and tar.

Known as ‘process heating’, this is a refinery’s main carbon emitting activity. In the US, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel account for 63 percent, 25 percent, and six percent respectively of total oil refining emissions.

Refineries that process heavier crude oils have lower energy efficiencies and higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to refineries that process lighter crudes because of the processing required to crack and treat the heavier crude oils.

“According to the IEA, an estimated 95kg of carbon dioxide is emitted in bringing an average barrel of oil to end-use consumers,” Dr. Griffiths said. “Different oil refining plants that process different oil feedstocks exhibit different emission intensities however. At the lower end, a refinery might have an average emissions intensity of less than 45kg CO2 per barrel, while at the higher end it could be in excess of 200kg per barrel.”

However, the most energy-intensive heating represents a relatively smaller fraction of overall refinery energy demand it is required for the processing of just a portion of crude volumes. Additionally, not every refinery around the world produces all petroleum products; refineries with different feedstocks will produce different hydrocarbon byproducts, and some of these byproducts can be used as energy sources for the refinery itself.

“An oil refining plant is typically capable of generating most of the energy it requires in situ via byproduct refinery gases,” Dr. Griffiths said. ‘For example, 61 percent of the energy used in the Dutch refining industry is provided by refinery fuel gases, with the other major contributor being natural gas. In the US, oil refining byproducts meet 55 percent of the energy refinery energy requirements.”

Reducing Refining’s Carbon Footprint Calls for Technology and Policy Interventions

Lessening the industry’s environmental footprint will be a challenge, especially since refineries have long lifetimes and there are few incentives to deploy new technologies that may disrupt operations or are costly to implement.

The research team organized the major approaches for decarbonization into six categories: improved energy efficiency; waste heat recovery; improved design performance; increased use of renewable energy sources; adoption of carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies; and the adoption of low-carbon hydrogen. They further consider how refineries of the future may need to be structured to cater to a changing product slate of low-carbon fuels and chemical feedstocks.

“The age of the refinery plant impacts the number of feasible low-carbon interventions, and therefore the extent of the reduction in emissions,” Dr. Griffiths said. “Geography, crude grade, and refinery type also influence the decarbonization potential.”

The most carbon-intensive refineries are those classed as ‘middle-aged’, between 40 and 64 years old, although the younger ones (less than nine years old) are also rather carbon intensive. The research team consider the younger refineries most problematic for carbon emissions though because “they will likely be operational for many decades to come unless shut down prematurely.”

“The capacity of the oil refining industry to pursue decarbonization interventions beyond those that are purely profit-driven may be limited to the financial bandwidth that companies have to explore such technologies,” Dr. Griffiths said. “In the absence of policy drivers, management resistance to decarbonization is to be expected.”

Barriers to decarbonization often require policy interventions that can be regulatory, fiscal or financial. The research team identified multiple policy mechanisms that could be implemented to decarbonize oil refining, including adopting carbon pricing mechanisms, emissions intensity targets, and financial incentives for research and development of novel decarbonization technologies.

“The complex nature of the oil refining industry means that no ‘one-solution-fits-all’ approach is possible for decarbonization,” Dr. Griffiths said. “The barriers to decarbonization are technical, economic, organizational, political, and social. But despite these challenges, low-carbon interventions throughout the oil refining sociotechnical system, coupled with institutional and market drivers, can drive forward innovations that will lead to many benefits as refineries evolve to meet increasing demand for low-carbon fuels and feedstocks.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
24 March 2022

The post The Opportunities and Barriers in Decarbonizing the Oil Refining Industry appeared first on Khalifa University.

Scientists say appearance of dramatic red or orange snow is likely to become more frequent due to climate change

UAE researchers have revealed new details about how dust is travelling from the Sahara to the Alps to cause snowy pistes and glaciers to turn a dramatic red, pink or��.

The striking colouration, which happens when the dust causes the growth of microalgae, makes the snow melt more easily and is likely to become more frequent because of climate change.

��in Abu Dhabi reported that flows of air called atmospheric rivers are closely linked to the transport of dust from the Sahara to as far as northern Europe.

“In our study, we found an increasing trend in atmospheric rivers and associated severe dust transport episodes towards Europe,” said an author of the study, Dr Diana Francis, head of Khalifa University’s Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Laboratory.

Read the rest of the story here:

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Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Scientist and Head of Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Lab at Khalifa University, participated in the Antarctica Day event on 1 December 2021 at the Dubai Expo. The event, which was hosted by Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD), brought together the 35 people from the UAE who have visited the world’s polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic.��

The purpose of the gathering was to share stories on historic UAE Antarctic and Arctic expeditions from the previous 50 years, discuss the importance of the polar regions to the UAE with respect to climate change and plan future environmental collaborations, in celebration of the UAE’s 50th anniversary.

“I have been studying polar regions and particularly Antarctica for more than five years,” Dr. Francis shared.��

“My interest is specifically in the climate science of Polar Regions with emphasis on the link between the atmosphere and the cryosphere (both land ice and sea ice). In this context, I organize every year, along with two other polar scientists, a workshop on Polar Meteorology and Climatology at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly to facilitate the exchange of new knowledge among the international community of polar scientists, which helps us to identify current gaps and plan future activities,” she added.

Currently, at the ENGEOS Lab, KU researchers are conducting a project on Antarctic sea ice and how global warming is affecting it. KU has instruments in Antarctica to measure the state of ice and gain invaluable knowledge about its variability. The work is being done in collaboration with Australia.

Future plans include additional projects to study the variability of Antarctic Ice and its impact on Sea level rise globally and regionally, as well as the development of new methods to investigate the Antarctic environment from space (via satellites) and on the ground (via in-situ observations).

The Antarctic Day event was organized under the Zayed’s Lights initiative. During the gathering, each participant received a Zayed light, which is a small solar powered light, in recognition of their contribution to Antarctic science and polar science in general.

Over 100 Zayed Lights were used in 2018 by a team of UAE researchers from EAD who traveled to Antarctica to light up the Antarctic sky, sending a message of unity, hope and action on climate change.

To symbolically raise awareness on the importance of climate change action, in replicating the initiative of EAD’s Team Zayed in Antarctica, the attendees at the Expo 2020 Dubai event wrote the following words: ‘Antarctica, Climate Change, Dubai Expo, UAE 50 Years and COP 28’, using 50 individual solar lights, reflecting 50 years of the UAE.

The participants, who are now part of the UAE Polar Network, also discussed the key messages from the August 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, which warned about the impact of climate change and the urgency to take action to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in the future.��

Erica Solomon
Senior Publication Specialist
26 December 2021

The post Celebrating UAE’s Golden Jubilee with Solar Lights and Reflections on Antarctica appeared first on Khalifa University.

Researchers uncover how genes found in camel kidneys reveal a role for cholesterol in water conservation

Imagine a trek across the desert and you’ll likely picture a camel or two.

In the arid and semi-arid regions of North and East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Iran, the Camelus dromedarius is the most important livestock animal and continues to provide basic needs to millions of people. Thought to have been domesticated for more than 3000 years, they have long been valued as pack animals, for milk, meat, and shelter, and even sport.

The Arabian camel is a symbol of the Arabian region, with its single hump storing up to 80 pounds of fat which it can break down into water and energy during its long expeditions for water and food.

To better understand how the Arabian camel manages to preserve water, Dr. Abdu Adem, Professor of Pharmacology at Khalifa University, supervised an investigation by a team of researchers from the University of Bristol and United Arab Emirates University. The investigation examined the genes in the kidneys of camels exposed to chronic dehydration to determine how Arabian camels can survive long periods of time in harsh conditions without access to water and what humanity could possibly learn from this. The results were published in.

Dr. Adem said. “Behavioral and physiological adaptations ensure that water is never wasted. Camels will only eat the leaves of plants, they avoid exposure to direct sunlight where possible, restrict reproduction to the cooler winter season, and drink very large amounts of water when available to compensate for any fluid deficiency from their desert wandering.”

Camels have been known to drink 30 gallons of water in just 13 minutes, but even here they have an evolutionary adaptation to avoid osmotic shock: they absorb the water very slowly. An intricate nasal passage prevents too much water loss when the camel breathes out, but more importantly, water evaporates from the surface of the nostrils to moisturize dry air when the camel breathes in, helping to cool the blood in the veins of the nose. Thanks to thin blood vessel walls, this cooler venous blood can help cool the blood in the arteries leading to the brain, meaning the camel’s brain is considerably lower in temperature than the body core. Even the red blood cells themselves have a special shape shown to be advantageous in withstanding dehydration. On top of all this, camels rarely sweat, even in the searing temperatures of the desert, all helping to conserve water for as long as possible.

“In the current context of climate change, there is renewed interest in the mechanisms that enable camels and camelids to survive in arid conditions,” Dr. Adem said. “We investigated the camel kidney to see how gene expression has been influenced by chronic dehydration and rapid rehydration. Our analysis suggests that genes with known roles in water conservation are affected by changes in cholesterol levels. Suppressing the production of cholesterol may help the kidney retain water.”

Camels produce highly concentrated urine, preserving as much water as possible. To produce such urine, the kidney must possess certain anatomical features. Previous research has shown that the kidney of a young camel differs in structure from that of an adult, suggesting that the differences may be related to a greater degree of water deprivation experienced by adult animals. This would suggest that chronic dehydration causes genes in the adult camel kidney to be expressed differently, allowing the kidney to better preserve water.

The research team noted that the amount of cholesterol in the kidney has a role in the water conservation process.

“We found remarkable changes in the amounts of specific genes and proteins in the kidney of the one-humped Arabian camel during severe dehydration and subsequent acute rehydration,” Dr. Adem said. “Our data suggests that the suppression of genes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis and the subsequent reduction in membrane cholesterol are a global response in the kidney to dehydration.”

Several ion channels and transporters are regulated by changes in the level of cholesterol in the cell. Dehydration and excessive heat cause electrolyte imbalances in the body, and the kidneys are one factor in keeping electrolyte levels balanced. If there is an increase of cholesterol in the membrane of the kidney, movement through the ion channels is blocked. When cholesterol levels are lowered, water and electrolytes can move across different parts of the kidney which helps reabsorb water and produce a highly concentrated urine.��

The researchers found that during the summer, the gene that regulates the production of a protein called aquaporin 2 is expressed more, presumably in preparation for the more challenging conditions of the season. Aquaporin 2 forms a channel in cell membranes to allow water molecules to pass through. During periods of dehydration, aquaporin 2 channels are inserted into the membranes of kidney cells which allows water to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream, making the urine more concentrated. The researchers found that when cholesterol was depleted, aquaporin 2 levels increased.

While this new knowledge contributes to our understanding of the immense evolutionary advantages the Arabian camel uses to survive in the desert, it could more importantly help humanity better adapt to advancing desertification amid climate change. Understanding the mechanisms of water control in dehydration could allow us to apply various principles to water conservation across a wide variety of disciplines.

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
24 October 2021

The post The Genes in Camel Kidneys Can Be Switched On and Off to Survive Dehydration appeared first on Khalifa University.

Project in Collaboration with Abu Dhabi Municipality for Testing of Five Different Asphalt Mixtures in Response to UAE’s Surface Transport Master Plan 2030 ��

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Khalifa University has announced that a team of researchers at its Department of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering have developed a new asphalt mixture with recycled tires that can reduce the pavement’s environmental footprint and cost. This asphalt is already laid on a stretch of two kilometers of the traffic-heavy E30 Abu Dhabi–Al Ain Truck Road, for preliminary trials.

With the challenges posed by climate change and a rapidly growing population, there is a pressing need for more economically and environmentally sustainable asphalt mixtures that can withstand rising temperatures and a higher number of vehicles on the road. The energy required to extract, produce, and refine paving materials is a huge contributor to the carbon footprint of road construction.

The project aims to replace the proprietary and costly synthetic polymers used to produce Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) – a basic component of asphalt pavements used around the world today – with ‘crumb rubber’, which consists of rubber particles produced by grinding end-of-life tires. Only superior quality polymers are utilized for tire production, hence, despite its much lower cost, the resulting bitumen, called Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB), has mechanical characteristics similar to, if not better, than PMBs.��

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, said: “Sustainability is a top priority for Abu Dhabi. We, at Khalifa University, are committed to supporting Abu Dhabi’s goal to reduce its carbon emissions, protect its environmental resources. Building sustainable pavements is an important way to achieve this goal, as it will minimize the use of natural resources, reduce energy consumption, cut greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, while improving road performance and supporting Tadweer’s goal to recycle 75% of the waste produced in Abu Dhabi by 2021.”��

Eng. Issa Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Executive Director, Infrastructure and Municipal Assets Sector, Abu Dhabi Municipality, said that this project comes under the existing partnership framework with Khalifa University, and its first fruits were the establishment of the National Center for Infrastructure Research. The NCIR aims to achieve the vision of sustainable development and supports innovation initiatives that provide environment-friendly solutions, based on scientific foundations and economic feasibility. Al-Mazrouei pointed to the launch of a new joint study with Khalifa University for updating and developing specifications and design standards for the asphalt mixtures that are suitable to the local environmental conditions and the natural materials available in the UAE.

The joint project team is led by Dr. Tom Skarpas, Professor and Chair, Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Michele Lanotte, Assistant Professor, Dr. Jamal Elzarif and Eng. Saleh Hamed Al Jufri from the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipal Infrastructure and Assets.

Dr. Lanotte explained that about 650 tires can be recycled to build one km of single lane of a roadway. This technology can contribute significantly to the reduction of the UAE stockpiles of scrap tires, reduce the energy footprint of Abu Dhabi’s pavement and improve the performance of the local road network. Hence, pavements constructed with CRMBs are not only financially attractive but also environmentally-friendly since they provide a solution to the critical problem of tire disposal.

The project was initiated in response to the UAE’s Surface Transport Master Plan 2030, which aims to create conditions for sustainable road infrastructure development by using resources responsibly, minimizing pollution and preserving Abu Dhabi’s unique environment.��

Five different asphalt pavements were laid between October and November 2019 on the E30 Highway, with the support of the industrial partners Richmond Petroleum, Tarmac-Colas and Al Sahraa Group. Two asphalt mixes were designed with CRMB, two with a commercially available PMB and one with a traditional unmodified bitumen.

In Abu Dhabi alone, more than 7,000 tons of used tires were produced in 2018 and only partially recycled for the local rubber industry, which has necessitated a quick management solution to avoid the creation of an unmanageable amount of rubber waste.��

During construction, the field crews noticed that both asphalt mixtures containing CRMB exhibited greater ease of compaction compared to the other mixtures, which resulted in less or no use of some of the field compaction equipment that was instead necessary for the other mixtures. “The project outcomes are extremely optimistic since they lead to positive impacts on the work crews as well as the total cost and time of construction,” Dr. Skarpas said.��

The asphalt mixtures were sampled during construction and are currently under testing and evaluation at the Khalifa University Infrastructural Materials Laboratory. Various aspects of the mechanical response of CRMB-based asphalt mixtures like resistance to permanent deformation and fatigue cracking are currently being evaluated through the lab’s state-of-the-art testing equipment. The goal is to compare the response of CRMB asphalt mixtures to that of other locally available and currently utilized asphalt mixtures.��

The performance of the asphalt in the E30 highway will also be monitored under traffic conditions over the next few years under the joint supervision of the Abu Dhabi Municipality and the Khalifa University Pavement Engineering team. The outcome of this joint initiative will be the development of specifications for the Municipality for the implementation of the CRMB asphalt throughout Abu Dhabi.��

By leveraging a major waste stream in Abu Dhabi, Khalifa University is helping to prevent tires from piling up in landfills, while creating a high-value technology for more sustainable, economically viable roads in the UAE.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
4 October 2021

The post Sustainable and Cost-Effective Asphalt Mixture Developed by Khalifa University Researchers Laid on Abu Dhabi’s E30 Highway�� appeared first on Khalifa University.

Hydrogen offers a potential solution to the problem of supporting more sustainable industries, but technical, economic, social, and political factors stand in its way, according to a new paper produced by an international team of experts from a variety of disciplines.��

Using decarbonized hydrogen, so-called green hydrogen, is an avenue to a low-carbon economy that is attracting renewed interest. Technological developments and cost reductions could allow hydrogen to contribute significantly to a decarbonized economy as a fuel and a feedstock. As a fuel, hydrogen offers considerable potential because it generates no carbon dioxide on combustion. As a feedstock, low-carbon hydrogen could replace high-carbon feedstocks in processes such as steel production.

At a critical juncture for the industry and global climate, Dr. Steve Griffiths, SVP Research and Development and Professor of Practice, offers a critical, systematic and interdisciplinary assessment of industrial decarbonization via hydrogen. Dr. Griffiths and his team reviewed more than 2,100 sources of evidence, referencing over 700 papers and studies, using a sociotechnical lens to examine hydrogen production and use across multiple industries. The work on hydrogen is part of a broader set of studies that the team has undertaken with support from the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) in the United Kingdom.

Team members were Dr. Benjamin Sovacool, University of Sussex, UK; Dr. Jinsoo Kim, Hanyang University, Republic of Korea; Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines, USA; and Joao Uratani, a research engineer also from Khalifa University.

Their review was published in.

“Hydrogen is increasingly being positioned as a key energy vector due to its versatility as a chemical store of energy for use in the power, buildings, transport, and industrial sectors,” Dr. Griffiths said. “More importantly, hydrogen is one of the key options for many decarbonizing industrial sectors, particularly those that require hydrogen as a feedstock for process chemistry.”

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe but hydrogen atoms do not exist in nature by themselves. To produce hydrogen, its atoms need to be decoupled from other elements in resources like�� water, plants or fossil fuels. The method by which hydrogen is produced largely determines its sustainability.

“,” Dr. Griffiths said. “Its properties make it an excellent fuel but hydrogen requires considerable care in processing and handling. Further, transporting it long distances in a liquid form is currently very expensive.”

Although the use of hydrogen is somewhat limited in scope today, a very different future may be on the horizon. The industrial processes used to make steel, cement, ceramics, glass and chemicals all require varying amounts of high-temperature heat. For these sectors, hydrogen is one of the very few long-term options for replacing fossil fuels at large scale.

The use of hydrogen in shipping, particularly in the form of ammonia, is the major opportunity here.

However, the main challenge with scaling up the hydrogen-supply chain is to lower the costs of transporting it. The existing technologies for transporting and distributing hydrogen long distances in a volumetrically energy dense liquid form are still significantly more expensive than those of other fuels, such as oil and natural gas. Hydrogen, or one of its derivatives, particularly ammonia, may play a prominent role in such long distance transport. However, pipeline transmission of hydrogen gas is currently the economic means of moving hydrogen at large scale.

Compressed hydrogen could use converted natural-gas pipelines, or newly built ones, or even be co-transported with natural gas to partially decarbonize natural gas already used in the energy sector. A lack of dedicated global hydrogen pipeline networks is, however, a current challenge to be overcome if regional and national hydrogen trade is to be established. Once transported, hydrogen storage becomes the priority, but hydrogen’s low volumetric energy density can make it difficult to store. Fortunately, there appears to be no insurmountable technical barrier to storing hydrogen over the longer term in high capacity geologic formations like aquifers and rock caverns.

The final cost of hydrogen in international trade will depend on what it costs to produce and transport it, Dr. Griffiths said. “Connecting suppliers and consumers at the global level via the most cost-effective means will be a great challenge.”

Such considerations are particularly relevant for connecting global supply and demand. This said, sociopolitical factors could hinder hydrogen’s growing role in industrial decarbonization and so must also be considered.

The review paper considers the social and technical systems involved in making, distributing, and using hydrogen, with the authors accounting for institutional inputs, policy and regulatory frameworks, and financial and economic enablers. There are many socio-technical elements at play:

“Industry decarbonization via hydrogen will require policy mechanisms that stimulate both hydrogen supply and demand and support development of the necessary supply-chain infrastructure,” Dr. Griffiths said. “While policy toolkits can be built upon existing efforts targeting renewable-energy generation and use, specific hydrogen-targeted policy instruments will be needed.”

Further, policies can spur innovation, and dedicated funds will be required to support research and development in academia and industry.

In this context, dedicated hydrogen-research centers are appearing, and public-private partnerships for the demonstration and scale up of hydrogen technologies and projects can be found around the world. Regulatory and certification frameworks are emerging that cover the production, supply-chain and industrial-use elements of hydrogen at the national level. Internationally, seventeen standards had been published and fifteen more were under development at the time the paper was written. These standards cover most elements of the technical pathways for hydrogen production and use.

However, the degree to which countries have been able to implement regulation varies. National and regional regulatory bodies will need to adopt harmonized policy instruments to avoid being excluded from accessing international hydrogen markets. Additionally, the regulatory frameworks on safety and quality control will need to be particularly robust.

“The absence of comprehensive, national and international policy and regulatory frameworks for hydrogen adoption, particularly for�� industrial systems, is a major challenge,” Dr. Griffiths said. “Despite increasing interest in hydrogen, policy support in the form of roadmaps, action and strategic plans is still not fully implemented on a global level.”

The future of hydrogen trade relationships will also rely heavily on geopolitics. The role that renewable hydrogen could play on the energy geopolitics stage remains to be seen. Particularly as transport costs are reduced, the importance of where resources are found will be reduced. Contrasting this to the geopolitical clout afforded to countries located on top of robust oil reserves suggests how global geopolitical dynamics could be affected.

“Whether countries will adopt particular roles in a hydrogen-economy transition is likely to depend on existing resources and infrastructure,” Dr. Griffiths said. “Some countries are more likely than others to lead the global markets in production capacity and export heavily, while others will focus on importation to meet demand. Countries that are more likely to import are already net energy importers under the current fossil-energy paradigm.” Industrial adoption of low-carbon hydrogen still faces a significant number of barriers. Regulatory and standardization instruments are perhaps the key means of driving rapid hydrogen utilization, according to the study authors, but support for R&D is also critical.

“Decarbonizing hydrogen is key to decarbonizing the chemical and refining industries, but it will also help decarbonize a number of other industries,” Dr. Griffiths said.

Applying decarbonized hydrogen across a wide range of sectors could benefit a large number of companies and economies. Of these, perhaps the most significant are the oil and gas firms that are increasingly facing calls to halt fossil-fuel production. As these companies look to diversify their portfolios, green hydrogen or hydrogen produced from fossil sources coupled with carbon capture, could be critical. Cutting the costs to achieve global industrial adoption of low-carbon hydrogen will require massive investment and scale, which oil majors could provide.

The authors noted that moving forward, the most ambitious targets for hydrogen use will require additional study, ranging from R&D to market stimulation, with further consideration of potential geopolitical ramifications and also further consideration of opportunities and challenges for hydrogen adoption in developing countries.

Most articles about hydrogen involve engineering and the natural sciences with social sciences representing a small fraction of total papers published. This suggests there is a lot of room to study in more detail the sociotechnical aspects of hydrogen use.

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
29 September 2021

The post Industrial Decarbonization via Hydrogen appeared first on Khalifa University.

A Khalifa University team has found warming global temperatures may be making springtime rainfall last longer in the UAE, and possibly become more common.��

A team from the Khalifa University Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Lab (ENGEOS) investigated spring season rain in the UAE, finding a positive trend over the past 20 years. Meaning, more rain is occurring during the spring now than in previous decades.

To better predict and model these rainy days, the team characterized the atmospheric conditions that favor their occurrence and explained that springtime rain will be more likely in the future as the global climate continues to warm and the global water cycle accelerates.

Additionally, globally averaged rainfall has increased since 1950, with human influence likely contributing to this.

A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, noted Dr. Francis, the senior author on the study, meaning rainfall can last longer. While this can be beneficial to a region known for its lack of rain, it can also be detrimental, since much of the city infrastructure is not designed to handle large amounts of rainfall.

Dr. Narendra Nelli, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Research Scientist and Head of the ENGEOS Lab, Dr. Ricardo Fonseca, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Rachid Abida, Research Scientist, Michael Weston, Research Engineer, Dr. Youssef Wehbe, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, and Taha Al Hosary from the UAE National Center of Meteorology, analyzed 95 springtime rain events that affected the UAE between 2000 and 2020. They published their findings in.

These systems are known as mesoscale convective systems (MCS). An MCS is a cluster of storms that moves as a single system. For one to develop in a hyper arid environment like the UAE, a combination of factors ranging from local to regional scale is needed, including a steep temperature gradient on the ground between the land and the surrounding seas. If cold air from the sea meets hot air from the desert, there is potential for an MCS to form.

“In arid regions, MCSs account for most of the annual rainfall and are associated with heavy rain that can cause flooding, landslides, and associated disruption to daily life,” Dr. Nelli said. “Past extreme weather events over the Arabian Peninsula have had devastating impacts on the local population so understanding how they start and develop is crucial for better simulation and prediction of future events and impact.”

despite their large contribution to the total amount of rain per year. What’s more, Dr. Nelli said, they may occur more frequently under a warmer climate.

The study found that MCSs occurring in spring over the UAE are large-scale features of the global water cycle which drifts over the UAE, contrary to summertime MCSs which develops locally over the UAE.

The study highlighted that the duration of these springtime MCS is becoming longer and the resulting amount of rain larger.

A better understanding of what causes MCSs in a region known for its aridity is an important step toward accurately predicting them and benefit from their associated rainfall, especially as they are expected to become more frequent as the global climate changes, Dr. Nelli said.��

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
28 September 2021

The post More UAE Rain in the Springtime as Climate Change Impacts Local Weather Patterns appeared first on Khalifa University.

On the occasion of the 2021 International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, Dr. Diana Francis was invited to speak at a webinar titled ‘Air Quality Beyond Borders: Exchanging Best Practices in Air Quality Management.’

By Dr. Diana Francis

I was delighted to take part in this event to echo the voice of academia and the scientific community on the question of air quality and its link to climate change, but also to highlight the efforts and new insights we have for society.

Academia and scientific research play an important role in advancing our understanding of air quality and climate change. It also helps policy makers establish science-based strategies and gives them a way to assess the efficiency of those guidelines and strategies.

Since the beginning, Khalifa University has been very involved in research and development on the UAE environment in general, but especially in air quality R&D.��

Masdar Institute was established to develop science-based knowledge on air pollution and to provide guidance and recommendations to governmental entities on the best ways to improve the air quality in the UAE. This has been achieved by investing in both observational and modelling activities which involves faculties, research staff and students.��

Externally, Khalifa University has partnered with the key players in this domain in the UAE with projects and ongoing collaborations with several entities such as the Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment (MOCCAE) and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), with whom we have the privilege to work hand-in-hand to improve the air quality in the UAE.

For instance, the Environmental and Geosciences Lab (ENGEOS) at Khalifa University, which I head, is responsible for providing air quality forecasts for the entire UAE daily to the MOCCAE in order to be shared with the public and serve as guidance for vulnerable groups. ENGEOS is also working very closely with the EAD to assess the impact of air pollution on the country’s weather patterns – an indirect impact of air pollution but rarely accounted for in strategic plans.

We have found many key insights on air quality through our work at ENGEOS. For example, we found that air quality is season dependent, with poorer air quality observed during the summer. We also found that the main contributor to the particulate matter levels observed in the UAE is natural aerosols – dust! This makes sense in a desert nation, but there’s also polluted dust from when natural dust mixes with pollutants as it travels over a polluted area to account for. This plays into air quality across the UAE depending on the level of emissions in the countries around the Arabian Gulf. Given the wind patterns here, polluted dust can be transported to the UAE by the Shamal winds. It’s clear that pollution and climate have a very complex relationship and that achieving clean air requires advanced techniques to untangle this interaction.

We know that increasing temperatures can lead to increased concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere because of the chemistry involved, but as temperatures rise, our consumption of electricity goes with it.��

Higher electricity consumption means more emissions, which means more pollution. Then, the increased level of pollutants in the atmosphere impacts the climate by warming the atmosphere as the particulate matter, especially black carbon, absorbs the sunlight.����

Scientific findings and knowledge are actually the backbone of any directive and viable policy. Khalifa University is committed to communicating the scientific findings in the domain of air quality in order to provide science-based knowledge to policy makers and help them elaborate the most appropriate strategies to improve the quality of the air we breathe. As a concrete example, knowing that some of the pollutants are being carried to the UAE from outside the country helps us to better design the relevant strategies to cut local emissions. The composition of the pollutants in the UAE, natural versus man-made ones, their spatio-temporal variability, and other factors are all key information when it comes to establishing sound policies and applying them.

There is no doubt that regional collaboration on air quality among the Gulf countries is crucial. Air knows no borders and whatever is emitted somewhere at a given time it will end up in the atmosphere somewhere else eventually. A positive action toward cutting emissions at one place can be easily cancelled by no action in the neighboring country. This is a crucial aspect to improving air quality, requiring long term coordination and engagement from all parties.

Dr. Diana Francis is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the ENGEOS Lab at Khalifa University.��

The post We Need to Look Beyond Our Borders for Clean Air and Blue Skies appeared first on Khalifa University.

The deep past offers lessons for the near future.��

By Dr. Thomas Steuber

Global environmental change is an increasing concern, particularly in the Gulf. Extreme weather events and rising temperatures and sea levels are becoming more evident by the year. As the climate in the UAE is already hot and dry, and most of its population concentrated along the coastline, what will the future hold? Today, this vital question is typically investigated with complex climate models, and the underlying science is regularly assessed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which summarises its findings in periodical reports. Its most recent one concluded that climate change is rapid and intensifying.

Fortunately, and unbeknown to many, billions of years of geological history can help help us understand the nature of today’s challenge and help us predict our collective future.

The ground under the UAE has much to offer in this endeavour. Its heritage extends back into “deep time”, hundreds of millions of years into the past. This is far beyond the hundreds of thousands of years when the region is first thought to have been inhabited by humans.

In deep geological terms, several mass extinction events have now been recognised, each of them wiping out more than 70 per cent of species at the time. To understand the causes and effects of these disasters, we need to try our best to read the diverse sedimentary rocks found in the UAE, a form of natural archive. Consider the mountain ranges of the northern emirates and Jebel Hafeet near Al Ain as books waiting to be read.

The first challenge is to understand the language of these books, in order to be able to read them. Then we need to identify the “pages” that contain information about previous catastrophes. This is extremely difficult. Just imagine sifting through millions of pages to find only one containing the information we need. It is not an easy task, but reading earth’s history is a vocation we geologists train for and happily spend much of our lives doing.

Scientists from UAE universities have published their findings on the region for decades. But our area of research has gathered significant momentum recently, as the effects of climate change on biodiversity, sea levels and coastal cities and infrastructure move into public interest. Now, earth scientists of various backgrounds are flocking to the region to contribute to research taking place at the UAE’s exquisite geological “archives”. Recognising the importance of climate change science, the UAE established the Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment, which now gathers local expertise through the UAE Climate Change Research Network.

Read the rest of the article here:

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New research shows that ‘explosive’ cyclones off Antarctica, caused by increasing extreme atmospheric events, can contribute to ice shelf calving and, ultimately, sea level rise.

The finding comes after an international team of scientists, including Australian Antarctic Division physical scientist Dr Petra Heil, investigated the calving of a 1636 square kilometre, 210 metre-thick iceberg off the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica.

The calving on 25 September 2019 occurred almost a decade earlier than scientists had expected (based on historical observations), from an existing rift across the front of the ice shelf.

Two explosive cyclone events just prior to the calving, were caused by unusual atmospheric conditions that fuelled sustained cyclones at the front of the ice shelf, and helped direct moist, warm air towards the ice shelf at the same time.

Dr Heil said these high latitude cyclones form in the extra-tropics, or mid-latitudes, and deepen as they move towards Antarctica.

They are marked by a deep central air pressure, are longer-lasting than ordinary cyclones, and bring clouds, high winds and often heavy precipitation.

“They form when the central pressure decreases by at least 24 hPa in 24 hours and they are stronger in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean – near the Amery Ice Shelf – than elsewhere around Antarctica,” Dr Heil said.

“They are also more intense in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere.”

The team used satellite data and climate reanalysis (using models to analyse historical atmospheric observations) to understand the unusual atmospheric conditions at the time of the calving. They also looked at sea-ice conditions and ice movement over the Amery Ice Shelf.

Lead author of the study, Dr Diana Francis of Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, said they found an explosive cyclone formed over Cooperation Sea, to the west of the ice shelf, on 18 September 2019, generating surface winds of more than 72 kph.

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