ICWEE5

Overview

The Fifth International Conference
on Water, Energy and Environment (ICWEE/5) is organized by the American
University of Sharjah (AUS). The conference will be held at AUS February 28-March
2, 2017. The goal of the ICWEE conference is to promote a global collaboration
among faculty, students, engineers and managers on ecological economics and
water, energy and environment resources management. It provides a forum for
distinguished guest speakers and practitioners to address recent research
results and to present and discuss related issues in energy, water and
environment. A number of leading practitioners, policy makers and researchers
will be invited to deliver keynote lectures. The ICWEE program will include a peer-reviewed
technical program, demos, short papers, posters and invited sessions,
industrial presentations and exhibitions on, but not limited to, the following
topics:

• water
  regulation and policies
• water
  resources and sustainable development of the region
• progress
  in water protection and remediation
• desalination
• wastewater
  treatment
• energy
• environmental
  impact
• economic
  management and development of water resources
• environment
• other
  water-related topics

Conference Program:

To download the conference program, click here.

Gold Sponsors

Keynote Speakers

Water, Energy, and Food Nexus:
Qatar as a Model for the Middle East

Dr. Mark Holtzapple

Department of Chemical Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Throughout the Middle East, water is scarce and soil quality is poor, so
it is difficult to grow food for a sustainable economy.  Fortunately, many Middle Eastern nations have
abundant energy reserves that can be used to ameliorate problems with water and
food. This presentation will address the
water, energy and food (WEF) nexus in the Qatar as a model for other
energy-rich nations in the Middle East.

The
objective of the Qatar WEF Nexus research project is to determine the quantity
of food, arable land and liquid transportation fuels (outputs) that that can be
produced from waste heat, seawater and biomass residues (inputs). The project has the following components:

• Waste heat is captured from gas turbines
  and converted to electricity.
• The resulting electricity powers Advanced
  Vapor Compression desalination, which produces freshwater from seawater.
• Via hydroponics and aquaponics, the
  resulting freshwater is used to grow crops and fish.
• Using artificial wetlands, wastewater
  effluent from sewage treatment plants is converted to clean water and wetland
  biomass.
• Agricultural residues, wetland biomass,
  the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW), and sewage sludge are
  converted to carbon-neutral gasoline and jet fuel via the MixAlco process.
• Undigested residues from the MixAlco process are used as
  compost to create arable land.
• Arable land is used to grow land-based crops,
  such as hay for grazing cattle, horses and sheep.

Currently, Qatar produces 1450 MW of
uncaptured waste heat from electric power plants, from which about 143 MW of
electricity can be produced. Through Advanced
Vapor Compression desalination, this electricity can convert seawater to 382 million
m3/yr of freshwater. This
amount of additional water production is equal to 68% of current Qatari
desalination production, and can be produced with no additional consumption of primary energy. This additional water can be used to replace
the 220 million m3/yr
extracted from the aquifer for agriculture. Furthermore,
some of the remaining water can be used to grow hydroponic crops (29.2 million
m3/yr), including staples such as rice. The remaining 133 million m3/yr
can be injected to replenish the aquifer, which is more than 3 times the
natural recharge rate.

Once these agricultural
systems are established and artificial wetlands are installed, Qatar will
produce waste biomass. The undigested
residue can be converted to compost that can be blended into soil to produce about
731 ha/year of arable land for conventional agriculture, such as grazing
cattle, horses, and sheep.

From waste organic
material, about 59 million gallons/yr of hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline and jet
fuel) can be produced and sold to markets that pay a premium price for these
carbon-neutral fuels.

Biography

Dr. Mark
Holtzapple received his chemical engineering degrees from Cornell University
(BS, 1978) and the University of Pennsylvania (PhD, 1981).  After his formal education, he served as a
captain in the US Army Natick R&D Center and worked on a miniature air
conditioner for soldiers wearing chemical protective clothing. In 1986, he joined the faculty in the
Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He has received many awards for teaching and
research, including the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the
president and vice president of the United States. His research focuses on sustainability,
including conversion of waste biomass to fuels, chemicals and animal feed;
high-efficiency engines and air conditioners; conversion of waste heat to
electricity; high-torque electric motors; and water desalination.

Process Intensification: Towards Green Processing, Sustainability and Pollution Minimization

Dr. Hassan G. Gomaa

Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering,
Western University, Ontario, Canada

With a world of growing
population and unsustainable
use of energy and resources, humanity is being confronted with crucial
challenges, including shortage of energy, resources, water, and increased greenhouse gases emissions and environmental pollution. In order
to meet the demands of future sustainable supply and consumption and to protect the environment, the global system in general, and the chemical process
and energy supply-chains in particular, have to undergo dramatic and
structural changes. To this end, sustainable synthesis of new systems and the
reconstruction of existing ones can be considered as
a core innovative activity within the sustainable development of society, where
chemical and energy supply-chains are no exceptions. In this regard, process intensification can be an
important vehicle to facilitate achieving these goals.

Process intensification
is defined as a set of often radically innovative principles ("paradigm
shift") in process and equipment design. Such principles can yield significant
benefits in terms of process and chain efficiency, capital and operating expenses,
quality, waste, and process safety, and
can potentially contribute
to the competitiveness of process industries by making industrial processes
faster, more efficient and less damaging to the environment.

In this contribution, a fundamental view on process intensification
is presented, which encompasses the underlying generic principles and different
approaches to realize these principles. Possibilities for process intensification
where improvements have been reported in the literature will be presented. Examples of process intensification methodologies followed by different researchers, including those in our lab, will be
discussed together with review
of basic results and the metrology associated for the
characterization of applications and technologies in order to
guide the design of the intensified process.

Biography

Professor Hassan Gomaa has been with the Particle Technology Research Center at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, Ontario, Canada, since 2008. Before that, Dr. Gomaa worked for more than 25 years in many industrial and consulting fields in Canada including nuclear power, process design and control, computer modeling and simulation of large operating plants, project management, and development of sustainable technologies for environmental applications. He received his BSc and MSc from Alexandria University in Egypt and his PhD from the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada, which were followed by post doctorate research at both UNB and Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA, all in chemical engineering. Professor Gomaa's main research has been mainly in the field of adopting process intensification techniques, particularly flow modulation and oscillatory motion, in phase contacting and membrane systems for use in chemical and environmental applications. He has more than 100 publications that include refereed periodicals and conference papers as well as classified industrial reports. He has been awarded number of competitive government research and industrial projects grants and is currently holding the Canada Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant award. Dr. Gomaa has supervised projects and research of more than 60 persons including undergraduate, graduate, post doctoral and research engineers. He has also taught several courses including transport phenomena, process intensification and green process engineering at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, both in Canada and abroad, and is currently a full member of PEO in Canada.

Polymeric Membranes for Water Reuse, Seawater Desalination and Osmotic Power Generation

Professor (Neal) Tai-Shung Chung

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore,
Water Desalination & Reuse Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Clean water,
clean energy, global warming and affordable healthcare are four major concerns
globally resulting from clean water shortages, high fluctuations of oil prices,
climate changes and high costs of healthcare. Clean water and public health are
also highly related, while clean energy is essential for sustainable prosperity.

Among many
potential solutions, advances in membrane technology are one of the most
direct, effective and feasible approaches to solve these sophisticated issues. Membrane
technology is a fully integrated science and engineering which consists of
materials science and engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering,
separation and purification phenomena, environmental science and
sustainability, statistical mechanics-based molecular simulation, process and
product design.

In this
presentation, we will introduce our efforts
on membrane development for water
reuse, seawater desalination and osmotic power generation. In the beginning, we will
introduce the basic science of hollow fiber fabrication, then talk about the
ultrafiltration membrane development as a pre-treatment for seawater RO. After
that, focuses will be shifted to nano-filtration, forward osmosis and osmotic
power generation. Various material and fabrication strategies to enhance
membrane performance will be discussed.

Biography

Dr.
Tai-Shung (Neal) Chung is the Provost's Chair Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
National University of Singapore. His research focuses on
polymeric membranes for clean water and clean energy. In 2005-2008, he worked
as a Senior Consultant for Hyflux, and led and built its membrane research
team. He became a Fellow in the Academy of Engineering Singapore in 2012 and
received IChemE (Institute of Chemical
Engineers, UK) 2014 Underwood Medal for
exceptional research in separations and
Singapore President's Technology Award in 2015. 

Themes of the Conference

The conference will
cover the following topics of interest including, but not limited to: 

I. Water regulation and policies

• gas and oil industry
• public health, water quality
  standards and analytical methods
• water rights and transfer
• agricultural, sewage and pollutant
  discharge
• runoff storm water
• water conservation, recycling and
  reuse
• coastal, ground and surface water
• sustainable water management

II. Water resources and sustainable development
of the region

• regional water supply strategies
• water development plan policies
• information technology for water monitoring and management
• sustainable water management strategies and planning
• water ecology and sustainability
• water security systems
• water basin management
• III. Progress in water protection and
  remediation
• remediation of groundwater
• treatment methods of water
• fouling, scaling and corrosion control
• identification and removal of pathogens
• technologies of water leakage detection
• seawater intrusion
• groundwater pollution

IV. Desalination

• hybrid and novel
  desalination processes/systems
• solar-based desalination systems
• membrane treatment processes
• thermal and membrane desalination of seawater and brackish water
• renewable energy options for integrated power generation and
  desalination

V. Wastewater treatment

• membrane bioreactors
• advanced oxidation processes
• industrial wastewater treatment
• remediation of stable organic contaminants
• produced water treatment in oil and gas industries
• removal of specific compounds
• chemistry of wastewater treatment
• biofiltration

VI. Water and energy

• RO and FO energy recovery
• renewable and sustainable energy resources
• integrated energy-water planning
• clean energy
• combustion and gasification
• energy analysis and modeling
• energy conservation
• energy efficiency
• energy generation
• energy management
• geothermal energy
• hydrogen energy
• nanotechnologies for energy
• photovoltaic energy
• primary energy resources
• socioeconomic aspect of energy
• solar and wind energy
• sustainable energy management
• thermodynamics of ecosystems
• waste-to-energy process

VII. Environmental impact

• water management and climate change
• waste minimization and pollution
• water risk (physical, regulatory, reputation)

VIII. Economic management and development
of water resources

• economics of water
• financing technological/ innovative solutions for water projects
• water project financing
• water offset project management
• water scarcity modeling
• economics and costing of wastewater treatment

IX. Environment

• air pollution policy
• air quality management
• carbon capture
• climate change
• ecosystem restoration
• environment development
• environmental monitoring
• environmental protection
• environmental sensing
• environmental toxicology
• green technology
• oil spills
• pollution prevention
• regional and global studies
• sustainability

X. Other water-related topics

Accommodation