Mona G. Ibrahim

Surfactant‐supplemented mixed bacterial cultures to produce hydrogen from paperboard mill wastewater

Paperboard mill wastewater (PMW) mainly comprises complex compounds such as polysaccharides and lignin that are recalcitrant to microbial and enzymatic action. Surfactants supplementation was found to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis and reduce lignin content during anaerobic digestion process. However, much less attention has been given for the effectiveness of surfactants addition on hydrogen production from PMW under hyperthermophilic conditions. In this study, the mixed bacterial culture was supplemented with surfactants, namely PEG 6000 and Tween 80 (T80), to enhance the biodegradation process and hydrogen yield (HY). The results showed that increasing the concentration of T80 from 0.25 to 1.75% v/v significantly (p < 0.001) increased HY from 1.7 ± 0.02 to 2.6 ± 0.01 mmol/gCODinitial (where COD is chemical oxygen demand), respectively. However, with further increase in the concentration of T80 up to 2.5%, the HY dropped to 2 ± 0.04 mmol/gCODinitial. This was mainly due to a higher propionate (HPr) production. Similar trends were observed for PEG, where the maximum HY of 2.8 ± 0.02 mmol/gCODinitial was achieved at a concentration of 0.75 mg/L, which deteriorated at higher and lower concentrations of PEG. Fermentative hydrogen of 700 m3/day of PMW could support about 16.4% of total primary energy consumption of the factory.

Moving towards an Egyptian national life cycle inventory database

PurposeLife cycle inventory (LCI) data are region-specific because energy fuel mixtures and methods of production often differ from region to region. LCI database examples include US LCI, Ecoinvent v.2, and NIST, each of which is country-specific. Thus, the main aim of this study is to show that Egypt is in need of an Egyptian National LCI (ENLCI) database and to focus on the means of developing a database specific to Egypt.MethodsArab countries have thus far engaged in virtually no life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, and a significant neglect of this matter is in evidence for the continent of Africa and, in particular, Egypt. Thus, this study suggests an organizational and managerial framework for the development of a national LCI database and sheds light on the required LCI database categories and data quality for practical solutions reflecting who is equipped to do what in order to keep pace with the world.ResultsThe results from this review are useful to standardize the study of the life cycle assessment concept in Egypt; to form a foundation for development of an Egyptian database for facilitating a cleaner environment; to encourage stakeholders, such as the environmental agencies, Egyptian Housing and Building Research Center, and the Ministry of Industry; to propose an organizational framework in which they play a central role; and to provide investment to initiate development.ConclusionsThe analysis indicates that the development of a LCI database specific to Egypt is difficult because Egypt has various technical and organizational challenges, but a roadmap of actions to be taken to move ahead is provided. The success of this roadmap depends on the capacity for developing the necessary technical and financial support and on strong partnerships with industry, government, LCA professionals, and academia.

Developing a New Activity Pollution Index for Emissions Quantitative Assessment in Projects Construction Phase: Case Study of an Administrative Building, Egypt

Quantitative assessment of emissions related to construction projects should be performed during the planning phase of the projects. This is significant to spot the high values of pollution during the construction phase. In this study, a model is developed to estimate pollution resulting from Buildings construction activities. The model calculates the generated pollution for each activity involved in the project as a result of dust, gases and noise emissions. A new index is developed namely Activity Pollution Index (API) which expresses the amount of total pollution for each activity during the project construction phase. Also, the developed model is able to display the resulted total pollution distribution throughout the project life that corresponding to the planned scheduling. An actual case study in an administrative building construction in Egypt is selected to demonstrate the practical use of the proposed model. The results show that the peak and minimum values of total pollution were occurred during the excavation activity and the formwork erections and steel fixing of the second segment of the building with values of API equal to 69 and 2, respectively.

Analysis of Stream Flow Trends in Sub-basins of the Upper Blue Nile Basin

The aim of this paper is to have a better understanding of the significant trends of stream flow in the Upper Blue Nile Basin (UBNB) for 40 years using statistical tools. Analyzing the stream flow is important as it gives a wide vision of a catchment’s response and helps in suggesting suitable future water resources management. Data from two stream flow stations in the basin were analyzed using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical trend test to determine positive or negative trends in the stream flow data series. The MK statistical test showed that for most of the year there is no significant trend for the stream flow time series data except for two months in the rainy season for the selected stations: Bahir_Dar station and Kessie Station. By applying Sen’s estimator, it was found that a decreasing in the trend slope occurred in Bahir_Dar station while it increased for Kessie Station.