Hani Sewilam

Forward osmosis: an alternative sustainable technology and potential applications in water industry

This paper presents an advancing sustainable membrane-based separation process, which is forward osmosis (FO). The review begins with an introduction of the basic principles of the FO process. Then, a comparison to the most currently well-known desalination technology (RO) is presented. Following section summarizes potential applications of FO in the water desalination field, producing either potable water or irrigation water from brackish/saline feeds. Next, two major FO applications in the domain of water reuse are discussed: wastewater and industrial applications. Wastewater applications are such as OSMBR and landfill leachate treatment; and Industrial applications include oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries. These different FO applications are briefly reviewed and assessed. Although FO has attracted growing attention in many potential applications, it still experiences several considerable limitations, including concentration polarization, membrane fouling, reverse solute diffusion, and need for membrane and draw solution development.

Introducing education for sustainable development into Egyptian schools

AbstractUnsustainable development in Egypt has increased water, air and soil pollution, which caused health problems and endangered natural and human resources. The effort to increase the economic well-being has caused enormous damages to the society and the environment. Only sustainable development will enable Egyptians to attain a better quality of life and meet their current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. EduCamp is a European–Egyptian project entitled ‘EduCamp: education for sustainable development beyond the campus’ which aims to introduce key sustainable development principles into teaching and learning in the Egyptian public schools. EduCamp followed four main principles to introduce ESD into Egyptian schools. These include (a) a partnership approach between different stakeholders, (b) changing pedagogical practices, (c) teacher development through training the trainers, and (d) developing public understanding and awareness of sustainability. The main achievements of EduCamp are (a) Developing ESD resource kits for schools to provide activities for teachers and students which link the existing school curriculum to the local community. The kits include activities related to biodiversity, agriculture, energy, and water. (b) A school teachers’ training programme has been developed and applied to enable teachers to implement ESD and use the kits in their teaching activities. (c) Seven ESD Centres of Excellence have been established to promote and support the introduction of ESD into the education system and provide teachers’ training programmes. It is premature to draw a quantitative conclusion about the impact nationwide because change takes time and the implementation of ESD presents a long-lasting process, which will take many years to achieve. The indicators of direct impact on teachers’ and students’ performance are promising. This discussion paper presents and examines EduCamp. The paper is divided into three main sections. Firstly, the authors set the context for the project, explore the issue of education for sustainable development (ESD) and examine current issues facing education in Egypt. Secondly, the authors discuss the project in relation to relevant literature, often curriculum change literature, in order to explore the merits and challenges of the project and the extent to which curriculum change is actually feasible as a result of the project. Finally, the paper concludes by reflecting on the challenges ahead.

The potential of groundwater desalination using forward osmosis for irrigation in Egypt

As irrigation in Egypt by far is the most significant water user, fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) is a valid option to increase the availability of freshwater from brackish water. Although most of Egypt’s area has access to brackish groundwater, groundwater in Egypt is not well exploited due to its salinity. FDFO holds high potential as it can make irrigation water available at lower energy than the currently available technologies, and is less vulnerable to operational issues such as membrane fouling, optimizes fertilizers application, and saves on labor cost. The objective of this paper is to explore the potential application of FDFO desalination for brackish groundwater in Egypt. For sustainability reasons, five selection criteria were outlined and two locations have been suggested for potential application. The study demonstrated that the proposed scheme is suitable for the two selected areas.

Desalinated Water for Food Production in the Arab Region

The Arab Region is one of the most water scarce regions of the world. 85 % of the water in the Arab Region is used for irrigation. The region is the world’s largest importer of grains. The direct link between food and water limits the potential of water-stressed Arab countries to promote food production. However, the prospects for using unconventional resources for irrigation, such as desalination, constitute priority for consideration and action. The high cost of desalination for irrigated agricultural crops is the main reason it is not used. It is necessary to analyze each factor (e.g. parts, chemicals, labor, membranes, and energy) influencing the costs of water desalination. Energy costs range between 50 and 76 % of the total cost of the desalination process; however, the downward trend in the energy use per desalinated m3 of water indicates that desalination technology is becoming more viable for irrigation use. The concept of sustainability with its three pillars: economic, environmental, and social should be at the forefront of planning any food production initiative using desalinated water. In addition to the economic feasibility of using desalination for irrigation, the carbon footprint, brine disposal, and lowering water levels in shallow seas are serious environmental aspects to be considered. Arab countries should learn from previous good and bad practices. The trial of Saudi Arabia to be self-sufficient in water-intensive crops, such as wheat, from the 1970s onwards is a clear example for unsustainable development. Developing local capacity to adopt state-of-the-art desalination technologies should be on the agenda of Arab Governments. Serious support for research and development is urgently needed to help develop and pilot test new desalination technologies, such as Forward Osmosis.

Investigating fertilizer drawn forward osmosis process for groundwater desalination for irrigation in Egypt

AbstractGroundwater desalination could be a possible solution to Egypt’s water scarcity problem through applying state-of-the-art desalination technologies. This work investigated a recently developed sustainable desalination technology which is fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO). In this work, ammonium sulfate was selected as a draw solution being a commercial, inexpensive, and efficient Egyptian fertilizer. Three commercially available Forward Osmosis (FO) membranes were tested for baseline flux. The best membrane was selected for further experimentation. A real Egyptian brackish groundwater sample from El Tor in Sinai was used as the feed solution. Performance has been assessed by the water flux, reverse permeation, and the forward rejection of the feed solutes. Porifera’s commercial FO membrane proved to be the best membrane with respect to baseline flux. It was chosen for further experimentation. Water flux and ammonium sulfate concentration can be correlated logarithmically. Further increase in...

Fertilizer drawn forward osmosis for irrigation

Abstract Agriculture is by far the largest consumer of freshwater, accounting for almost 80% of water consumption worldwide. Energy-efficient desalination techniques could be a promising way for providing water for irrigation. This work investigates the basic scheme of the fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) process, being an innovative application of the forward osmosis (FO) desalination process. In the FDFO process, fertilizer solution, with a high osmotic pressure, is used as a draw solution (DS) to extract water from a saline water feed through a semipermeable membrane making use of the osmotic pressure difference between draw and feed streams. Unlike typical FO desalination, this application is unique as separating and recovering of draw solutes is not essential since the draw solutes add value to produced water. This research critically assesses the possibility of using diluted fertilizer as a DS. Not only is FDFO desalination energy efficient, but also it improves the efficiencies of water and fertilizer application. Yet, the major limitation of the FDFO process is complying with the irrigation water quality standards in terms of nutrient concentrations, which limits the use of the product water for direct fertigation. Several options are proposed that could be integrated with the FDFO process to decrease the final nutrient content, thus reaching an acceptable limit. Eventually, the proposed scheme could lead to a technology platform that would supply irrigation water, minimize soil salinity, control fertilizer application, and close the irrigation—brackish water—drainage vicious cycle.

Competence-based and game-based capacity development for sustainable water management in Germany

Sustainable water management is one of humanity’s most important challenges—today and in the future. Germany does not face a significant water shortage problem, but it has three main challenges: protection of water quality, ensuring public water supply and public wastewater disposal, and protecting the public and infrastructure from floods. Capacity development is a key issue to overcome the challenges of water resources in any country including Germany. Engineers, technicians, and mechanics need to upgrade their knowledge on a regular basis to deal with the complex management and rapid technological developments. In order to create efficient training schemes, the Vocational Training Working Group of Global Water Partnership (GWP), part of the GWP Capacity Development Task Force, has worked on the definition of fundamental job profiles for the Water and Sanitation Sector (WASS). To cover all technical functions of the industrial water cycle, it was necessary to identify around thirty occupations. Then, a competence-based training approach was adopted. Additionally, an assessment approach was also developed based on comparing the level of competence of the workers to a standard level of competence for each job. The RWTH Aachen University with its partners have developed another game-based approach (SeCom2.0) based on serious gaming technology to enable water professionals dealing with flood risk management to be trained on different flood situations in a virtual environment. SeCom2.0 has three main components that are connected by a database layer. In addition to the serious games component, there is a collaboration component and a learning management system. For nearly 100 members from the flood competence centre (HochwasserKompetenzCentrum) in Cologne, Germany gave input to simulate the real flooding scenarios, and the learners will have to deal with a flood scenario by protecting the city in a given time and using a given resources and tools. This work concluded that both competence-based and game-based approaches could be significantly improved by blending both approaches. This will improve the process of training; for example, the competence-based approach can be enriched by using game-based simulation by introducing the trainees to a simulation of different technologies in water utilities. This can save resources and money and enrich the training. More importantly is modifying the game-based approach using the approach of competence-based to focus on specific competencies and to make use of the competence standards in its assessment component. The first section of this introduces and categorizes water challenges in Germany. In the second and third section, the two approaches are introduced in details. The competence-based approach is introduced to the WASS while the games-based to the flood risk management. Finally, a conclusion and recommendations are illustrated.

Exploring the application of a flood risk management Serious Game platform

Based on the experience gained with SeCom2.0, we will explain the impact of game-based learning and provide an overview of the current use of Serious Games in teaching flood risk management in Germany. SeCom2.0 is a collaborative learning platform, which deals with a flood situation in Cologne. The use of Serious Games in flood risk management is still limited due to many factors. The article will give a deeper insight into the SeCom2.0 project, explaining the pedagogical design and the development. We will cover the pitfalls and possible suggestions for further development to facilitate wider use of such games by adapting the settings to local conditions. This article will also describe how a Serious Game can support lifelong learning for students and employees involved in flood risk management. The key components, design patterns and structure of or SeCom2.0 are described, along with ideas to implement selected topics in flood risk management in an engaging gaming environment.

Serious Gaming für das Hochwasserrisikomanagement

Die nächste Generation der Studierenden gehört den sogenannten „Digital Natives“ an. Sie sind mit dem Einsatz von Computern, der Nutzung des Internets, Spielekonsolen und sozialen Netzwerken aufgewachsen und sozialisiert worden. Die Herausforderungen, Chancen und neuen Lösungen, die dieser Wandel für die Ausbildung im Bereich des Hochwasserrisikomanage ments mit sich bringt, werden anhand des Serious Gaming skizziert.

Effects of water diversion and climate change on the Rur and Meuse in low-flow situations

Water scarcity is one of the problems in water management that hinders European rivers in reaching a good ecological status as defined in the European Water Framework Directive. Water scarcity often coincides with high water temperature and low water quality. High water temperatures decrease the oxygen supply and often coincide with low flows that tend to increase the load of various compounds that affect the equilibrium in the ecosystem. The river Meuse regularly encounters situations of low water flow. In these situations, the river Rur, an important tributary of the river Meuse in Germany, contributes significantly to the Meuse discharge. Climate change can lead to more frequent periods of water scarcity. Moreover, plans exist to divert water from the Rur to former brown coal quarries in Germany. This exploratory study examines the relationships between discharge, water temperature and water quality under future climate change and water diversion scenarios in low-flow situations for the rivers Meuse and Rur. The results of the study confirm that rising air temperatures as a result of climate change will lead to higher water temperatures which will negatively impact the water quality of the Meuse in particular. Despite the fact that the contribution of the Rur has a positive impact on the water quality of the Meuse, the results suggest that effects of plans to divert water from the Rur may be small on average. However, the impact of the diversion may be stronger on individual hot summer days with low water levels when the Rur contributes significantly to the discharge of the Meuse.