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Energy Metabolism Analysis in Qatar From Socioeconomic Dimensions
Due to rapid urban development and increasing population urban areas are facing more challenges in the area of sustainable development. In order to make sure that these cities are moving toward sustainable development it is very important to highlight the human activities as significant elements in terms of energy metabolism. This paper employed the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach to analyze the energy metabolic pattern of Qatar from ecological social and economic dimensions. MuSIASEM has been introduced for the first time late 90’s and it is trying to answer the questions of how and why humans use resources? how this use depends on and affects the stability of the ecosystems embedding the society? Therefore this study aimed to track and record level of energy sustainability in Qatar describe and analyze the energy and GDP flow in Qatar using MuSIASEM. Energy consumption per capita in Qatar reached 17418 kg of oil equivalent in 2014 while the rate in US is 6793 kg of oil equivalent. That makes Qatar one of the biggest energy consumer around the world and that's has negative impacts on our society e.g. CO2 emissions per Capita in Qatar reached 37.78 metric tons in 2013. A case study of Qatar was considered instead of the capital and largest city (Doha) because all the urban areas and human activities in Qatar are connected with Doha especially with the small area of Qatar 11627 km2. Thus Qatar is the suitable study's area compared with the mega cities around the world. In addition all the previous studies which used MuSIASEM as methodology focused on countries which import energy but Qatar exports and produces energy and that makes the study unique and valuable. The study investigated historical pattern changes of human activities in Qatar with focusing on working hours in line with Gross Domestic Product then evaluated the possible results so that the detailed metabolic patterns can be identified and appropriate development policies can be prepared to help decision makers with the implementation of Qatar Vision 2030 which consider sustainable development as fundamental pillar. The results investigated the correlation and interactions between Gross Domestic Product added value human activities energy consumption energy intensity exosmotic energy metabolism and future economic transition in Qatar. To make the results systematic and organized it have been subdivided hierarchy into three levels: Level n studied The whole society of Qatar Level n-1 studied both of consumptive sector (hose hold) and productive sector (work sector) Level n-2 focused on the subdivisions of work sectors and house hold typologies. Speaking of data resources the economic and social data of study have been provided by Ministry of Statistics and Development Planning While the electrical data has been provided by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMA). World Bank and International Energy Agency (IEA) provided all the date related to energy consumption. Other data like human time energy intensity and exosmotic metabolic rate have been calculated through some equations which will be explained in the study.
Environmental Assessment of RO Intakes Applicable for Qatar and the GCC Region
The State of Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region are located in a hyper-arid area with no rivers over-abstracted groundwater supply and limited rainfall. Consequently with the discovery of oil and gas and the associated economic prosperity the State of Qatar and the GCC region have relied on desalination of seawater from the Arabian Gulf. As of 2013 the GCC region held a 70% share of total global desalination capacity.Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination technology has been the source of water supply in the State of Qatar and the GCC region for the past few decades due to the low cost of energy in these countries and the problems historically faced by Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane processes in dealing wih the high salinity of the Arabian Gulf. MSF is a thermal process that distills water through stages based on high temperature and changing pressures. The systems suffer from high energy requirements and low recovery rates resulting in significant discharge of brine with elevated temperature to the ambient receiving water. RO on the other hand relies on applying a positive pressure to pass permeate through a fine polymer filter material against the osmotic pressure gradient. RO is widely adopted worldwide due to its lower energy consumption and increased product recovery. With recent developments the technology can cover the high salinity of the Arabian Gulf (40000 mg/L to 55000 mg/L total dissolved solids). Nevertheless RO systems require extensive pretreatment to ensure the integrity of the membrane and to prevent blocking of the fine pores. This makes the process susceptible to surface water quality fluctuations such as during algal blooms and therefore its application in Qatar is still challenging due to the shallow and enclosed nature of the Arabian Gulf.Subsurface intake processes for RO have the potential to reduce the effects of fluctuations in source water quality and reduce the energy intensity of the process since they provide natural filtration of the source water and simplify the extensive pretreatment requirements necessary to protect the RO membranes. However significant tradeoffs occur by using subsurface intakes. For instance intake pumping may be increased to overcome the additional headloss through the intake media while the construction phase also involves increased civil works. This research investigates the environmental impacts associated with the operation phase of RO systems using both open intake and beach well intake systems theoretically located in the State of Qatar since operational phase impacts typically comprise most of the environmental loads in cradle-to-grave assessments.The study utilizes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to assess a wide range of effects from the systems. The ReCiPe lifecycle impact indicator approach is utilized with mid-point impact indicators including climate change marine eutrophication terrestial acidification photochemical oxidant formation particulate matter formation marine ecotoxicity water depletion mineral resource depletion and fossil fuel depletion. The RO system its pretreatment and intake will be sized and modelled for a desalinated water output of 100000 m3/d using a combination of fundamental process equations and commercially available software. The results will show a clear direction from an environmental perspective on which type of intake system Qatar should consider if implementing seawater RO as a preferred desalination technique.
Solar Power Integration with Desalination: A Systematic Assessment of the Potential Environmental Impacts
Conventional seawater desalination processes like the multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED) are environmentally unsustainable. They consume large amounts of fossil fuels which are a major cause of climate change. Further desalination plants discharge highly concentrated brine which can cause eutrophication and damage the marine life. Qatar being a country that faces freshwater scarcity is highly dependent on desalination for municipal water consumption. On average the daily production capacity of all desalination plants in Qatar is 1.5 million cubic meters per day. This incurs heavy costs on both the economy and the environment. It is expected that by 2020 desalination fuel costs will reach $2.55 billion. Conventional desalination can be made more sustainable by integrating it with solar energy. However assessing the environmental competitiveness of this solution should be done in a systematic way and reflect the overall system performance. Simplistic models like merely calculating CO2 emissions are not enough and only allow for modest conclusions. Based on a previous literature review by the authors it was found that the MED process with thermal vapor compression (TVC) is an excellent choice to couple with solar thermal energy that is provided from a concentrating solar collector. The authors also developed a configuration for solar-driven MED with TVC that is simpler in component choices and relies 100% on solar energy to provide the superheated steam required for the MED-TVC process. A model was developed for a 7-effect MED-TVC pilot plant and was validated with actual plant data. Current literature on desalination mainly focuses on membrane technologies and almost completely neglects thermal desalination. In the Arabian Gulf region thermal desalination is predominant and hence it is required to assess its sustainability from a view point and further investigate how coupling renewable energy can reduce the environmental impacts. This work quantifies the environmental impacts of solar desalination in Qatar using life cycle assessment (LCA). Our work is based on the proposed MED-TVC solar-driven plant. The objective of this study is to assist decision making by providing information about the potential environmental impacts of solar desalination propose system improvements and suggest references for comparison between different renewable energy-driven desalination processes in general. We identified five impact categories: global warming freshwater eutrophication water use mineral resource scarcity and fossil resource scarcity. GaBi tool was used to carry the LCA. Ecoinvent database GaBi databases academic literature and expert opinions were used to construct a comprehensive life cycle inventory for the plant. ReCiPe method was used to assess potential impacts in the five categories. This method was used because it includes characterization factors unique to Qatar and also because it was widely used in the literature hence comparisons can be made. The functional unit was 1 m3 of freshwater at the plant. The results of the LCA are then computed grouped and weighted. Comparisons with similar desalination systems are also made. The findings of this work are highly relevant to Qatar National Vision 2030 as they provide detailed findings on the environmental impacts of solar-desalination which is a promising solution for the problem of water scarcity in Qatar.
Qatar Climate Change Conference 2021
Extreme heatwaves and rising wet-bulb temperatures would damage the human habitability of vital urban centers in the Middle East by the end of the 21st century according to several published research documents particularly in some regions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This may result in widespread social and economic disruptions and challenges driven by climatic change impacts in the rapidly growing urban areas of the Middle East. Middle East countries expect to face the major impacts of global warming due to the vulnerability of critical urban systems and infrastructure and they are in necessity of developing climate change adaptation strategies to establish more robust urban centers resilient to climate change-driven events. Social and economic stability can be preserved by effectively preparing for the impending risks provided by climate change allowing growth in a changing environment.
The Qatar Climate Change Conference (QCCC) 2021 addressed key climate change topics of national importance to Qatar bringing together high-level representatives from the public and private sectors. Understanding that climate change is the most pressing challenge facing the world today the conference supports Qatar's ongoing contributions to global conversations around environmental policy and action.