Clean drinking water is one of the global challenges that can be addressed using innovative technological solutions. The Netherlands is a major player in the international water sector and is always keen to share its expertise, to learn from others and be the changemaker towards climate adaptation and a resilient future. As a part of the Dutch Ministry’s trade mission to Dubai,  Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) organized an insightful ‘Water Day’ seminar at the Netherlands Pavilion which included signing of  two significant Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focusing on the water sector.

In the presence of Mark Harbers, Netherlands’ Minister of Infrastructure and Water management,  Dutch-based company Demcon Optiqua and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, partnered together for real-time drinking water monitoring technology.

These partners have also joined the wave:

Institute for Water Education IHE Delft, Khalifa University Abu Dhabi, King Abdullah Saudi Arabia University of Science and Technology, National University of Sciences and Technology Oman, Sultan Qaboos University Oman, Wageningen University and Research, and UAEU Al Ain.

Read the full article here:

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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

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While desalination technology is becoming increasingly popular as costs come down and demand for water grows, some sociopolitical factors still hamper its adoption.

Water scarcity is a global challenge, with growing populations putting pressure on a finite supply of water. Responding to this challenge is desalination technology, with the cost of desalinated water coming down as technology evolves.

Desalination, however, is plagued by some serious problems, including environmental issues. Often overlooked are the sociopolitical factors impacting the adoption and proliferation of this technology, but a team from Khalifa University has used multiple cases from several countries to identify these factors and their influence on desalination around the world.

Yazan Ibrahim, Research Engineer, Roqaya Ismail, Graduate Student, Dr. Fawzi Banat, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Hassan Arafat, Director of Khalifa University’s Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT), all members of CMAT, with Adetola Ogungbenro, graduate student from the KU Department of Chemical Engineering, and Tom Pankratz from Global Water Intelligence, reviewed the sociopolitical factors involved and published their findings in the Elsevier’s international journal

“Historically, water availability has always been considered fundamental for human civilizations to evolve and flourish, from the early Mesopotamian age to the current rapidly growing cities in the Middle East,” explained Ibrahim. “Over time, wasteful water use, mismanagement, and significant environmental challenges have triggered severe depletion and degradation of the available freshwater resources, with adverse effects on human health, living conditions, and social and economic prosperity.”

The UAE has limited natural water resources and uses desalination to make seawater drinkable. Today, most of the country’s potable water comes from over 70 major desalination plants, which account for 42 percent of the country’s water needs and nearly all of its potable water, and around 14 percent of the world’s total production of desalinated water. However, water scarcity is not confined to arid countries.

“Since its inception, the evolution and growth of desalination technologies have made water production appear more sustainable than ever before,” explained Ibrahim. “Scarce freshwater resources in MENA countries have resulted in an upsurge in the number and size of desalination plants. Furthermore, the rapid development of this region has led to higher dependence on desalination to sustain this development.”

Yet, despite the benefits that can be reaped from using desalination to provide such a critical resource, the adoption and proliferation of desalination are impacted by a variety of economic, environmental, and sociopolitical factors.

Much of the resistance to desalination stems from the cost. Energy accounts for around 70 percent of the cost of desalination, with this energy typically derived from fossil fuels. However, the sociopolitical factors must not be overlooked.

“Although the economic and environmental factors have received more attention, there is evidence to suggest that the use of desalination technologies and their associated impacts would most likely exacerbate the existing inequalities in a society,” explained Ibrahim. “This was attributed to the increased greenhouse gas emissions, increased water prices, urban growth motivation, shifting geopolitical relations related to water security, and increased chemical pollution.”

Even building a desalination plant in certain areas can be difficult. One study proposed aesthetic acceptability – the noise and look of a desalination plant – as a barrier.

The research team used a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis as the framework for a critical review of the sociopolitical factors that impact the adoption and proliferation of desalination. A SWOT analysis is typically employed to help gain insights into the strengths and opportunities of an initiative or concept as well as the associated weaknesses and threats.

“We defined ‘sociopolitical’ factors as factors with a significant social dimension, which have either underlying social, economic, or political root causes and consequences within those spheres,” explained Ibrahim. “We identified eight strengths and opportunities, and seven weaknesses and threats.”

The strengths and opportunities include: the decentralization of water supply, fast deployment, and low physical footprint that comes with some desalination technologies with the potential to help remote communities and tourist facilities flourish. Desalination can provide sufficient quantities of water as and when needed, which can significantly enhance the water security of a nation, while also supporting regional stabilities by evading any conflict over water resources. This also means there are a plethora of opportunities for society to benefit from desalination technologies. Local employment opportunities during the construction and operation of desalination plants are one such benefit, but easy access to water also means more work and education opportunities for women.

As for weaknesses, the visual impacts, noise and land use issues were among the most-cited concerns. Beyond this, another weakness of desalination lies in the unintended consequences of excessive reliance on desalination and the potential impacts of poor mineralization of desalinated water on human health. Freshwater contains various minerals which may offer health benefits and it’s not yet understood if desalinated water that has not been re-mineralized could have adverse health effects. Threats to desalination stem from social tension among those who mistrust the technologies as well as the wide range of anthropogenic and natural causes that could halt operation. The latter ranges from cyberattacks to natural disasters and oil spills.

The team’s research makes it clear that integrating desalination into a country’s water supply can yield significant direct and indirect benefits, in terms of political stability, water security and economic growth. Desalination can also provide a boost to tourism, agriculture and education although various threats and weaknesses are also noted.

“We wanted to note that these sociopolitical benefits and challenges can be difficult to quantify and compare across different domains,” explained Ibrahim. “But understanding these factors can help make the adoption and proliferation of desalination technologies much smoother, with more robust engagement among the multiple process stakeholders involved.

“Since its inception, desalination has delivered a range of benefits to societies in arid regions and supported their economic development and political stability. It must be recognized, however, that many factors are at play when it comes to the sociopolitical dimension of desalination. A holistic approach to this subject is essential.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
20 January 2021

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KU’s Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS) Demonstrates its Potential to Produce Food and Biofuel to Support National Goals

The UAE has many economic targets and visions for its prosperous and innovative future – joining the top 10 in the Global Food Security Index by 2021, growing its aviation sector while meeting international sustainability commitments, achieving economic diversity – but all of them must work within one major limitation: freshwater scarcity.

The country’s total annual renewable freshwater resources – meaning available groundwater that recharges with rainfall — are estimated at only 150 million m3 while its total water withdrawal was estimated at 3,998 million m3 in just 2005. That huge gap has been met by desalination, which in turn comes at a cost – energy, carbon emissions, and environmental impact. In fact, it’s estimated that the UAE’s joint electricity and water production method accounts for one third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The UAE leadership has launched a number of initiatives to meet its goals in its various sectors that work within these limitations, but one bold project is looking to address these needs and limitations while developing an important industry for the UAE – halophyte agriculture – or the cultivation of crops adapted to grow in saline conditions. The success of the first commercial flight fueled with biofuel produced through Khalifa University’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC), which took place on 16 January with much fanfare, has demonstrated the viability of this project that produces food and fuel considering the country’s freshwater limitations while complementing its industrial goals.

“This is a major achievement for the UAE, as it shows that the country can raise fish and shrimp while growing the crop used to make bio-jetfuel, without taking up any farmland or freshwater. The SBRC’s Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS) offers a multitude of benefits that respond to the UAE’s various strategic and industrial targets,” explained Dr. Alejandro Rios, Director of the SBRC.

The SBRC was established in 2011 by Masdar Institute, which later became part of the Khalifa University, with Etihad Airways, Boeing and Honeywell UOP. The founding members were later joined by ADNOC Refining, Safran, GE, and Bauer Resources. The SEAS pilot facility was inaugurated in 2016.

The SEAS works by integrating aquaculture with halophyte agriculture and agroforestry as renewable energy crops. The SEAS pilot facility, located at the Masdar Institute campus of Khalifa University was built on desert land. It has six aquaculture units that use seawater to raise fish and shrimp. The fish farm produces a nutrient-rich effluent, which is directed into Salicornia fields where it fertilizes the oil-rich and salt-loving plants. The leftover effluent from the process is then diverted into the cultivated mangrove forests, which further purify the water and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while sheltering fish nurseries that live around their underwater roots.

“Once Salicornia the plants are harvested, they are set out to dry in the sun for about a week. They are then ground using a hammer mill and winnowed to separate the seeds from the straw. The oil is then extracted from the seeds by pressing and then the oil is degummed and neutralized to remove any impurities,” Dr. Rios explained.

The Salicornia oil can be refined in the same facilities used to refine crude oil into petroleum, making it complementary to the UAE’s existing hydrocarbon infrastructure. The resulting biofuel is then mixed at the allowed concentration with regular jet fuel so that it can be ‘dropped in’ to an aircraft without any modification to the engines or airframe.

This biofuel is of particular value to the UAE, as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council has approved new rules and standards that have capped growth of international aviation carbon dioxide at 2020 levels from 2021. From January 2019, all ICAO member states with aircraft operators undertaking international flights – which includes the UAE – must compile and submit their airlines’ CO2 emissions to the ICAO so it can prepare its planned Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Using biofuel like the one produced through SEAS supports the UAE in its desire to meet these standards while allowing its aviation sector to continue to grow. The UAE’s aviation sector is part of its diversification plan, and is estimated to account for 16% of its GDP by 2025.

“Our next step is to build our demonstration scale facility at the 200-hectare level. We will use this facility to unlock the knowledge required to take this to commercial scale,” Dr. Rios shared, adding that “there are still a number of unanswered questions about what it will take to make this commercial, but if the SEAS were to expand to around 100,000 hectares, it could produce a significant amount of biofuel to help the UAE aviation sector meet its needs for CORSIA, though of course, this would be a challenging and unprecedented undertaking.”

At this scale, the SEAS could also help reduce the country’s carbon footprint and improve air quality, as the Salicornia and mangroves planted as part of the system would remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The fish and seafood produced through the SEAS can also help the UAE achieve its goal of reaching the top 10 in the Global Food Security Index by 2021, up from its current 31st place, which was announced by UAE Minister of State for Food Security Mariam Hareb Almheiri in early December.

“Depending on the productivity of our fields, and the species we raise, we believe that over the next 20 years, if given the space and funding to expand, SEAS can produce enough fish and seafood to meet the UAE’s demand gap,” Dr. Rios added. The gap he refers to is the difference between the wild catch and current aquaculture production, and the UAE’s market consumption of seafood. Data from the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water (now the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment) recorded UAE fish catch in 2013 at 73,203 tons compared to consumption of 210,000 tons, revealing a 136,797-ton gap.

The facility can also produce other outputs of value to the country, contributing to its diversification. The Salicornia seed-cake can be used to make a protein rich meal for human or animal consumption, and other potential bioactive agents can be extracted from the plant’s straw fraction that have industrial applications that are being explored for their novel intellectual property value.

SEAS also serves as a research and training facility for the next generation of chemical, water and environmental engineers for the country’s knowledge economy.

“As a Khalifa University research facility, graduate students can develop thesis research around the SEAS, and work at the facility to test and validate their concepts.  Depending on their area of research, students can learn anything from chemical engineering to genetic bioprospecting, to soil characterization, to techno-economic evaluation tools,” Dr. Rios shared.

That is why the SEAS is unprecedented in its pilot project delivery and its future potential. It is an indigenous system that ticks the UAE’s boxes for promoting energy sustainability, economic diversity, food security, carbon footprint reduction, and training and employing high-tech professionals in the future knowledge economy.

“This is a great example of industrial synergy at work, and it’s rare to see other projects in the UAE that can do so much, using inputs that most people would consider a weakness when thinking about bioenergy – desert land and seawater,” Dr. Rios concluded.

Zarina Khan
Senior Editor
24 January 2019

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