Borg El-Arab Research Articles

Performance Evaluation of Artificial Neural Networks in Estimating Global Solar Radiation, Case Study: New Borg El-arab City, Egypt

Performance Evaluation of Artificial Neural Networks in Estimating Global Solar Radiation, Case Study: New Borg El-arab City, Egypt

Urban design in favor of human thermal comfort for hot arid climate using advanced simulation methods

Improving outdoor human thermal comfort could be considered as one of the most important targets for achieving successful open space designs. In hot arid climate, residential neighborhoods are responsible for the high request of energy to provide cooling needs for the occupants’ comfort. The main problem is the non-responsive contemporary urban design to human thermal comfort and energy. In this context, this paper aims at testing specific landscape parameters that could enhance outdoor human thermal comfort. The study is limited to the microclimate at urban open space and will be conducted in New Borg El-Arab (hot arid city according to Middleton and others [1], Alexandria, Egypt). The adopted methodology is based on the use of ENVI-met 4.0 software to measure four thermal indices (air temperature, relative humidity, MRT and PMV) and assess outdoor human thermal comfort in an existing neighborhood. In addition, different design scenarios that emphasize different landscape elements were also assessed. The results of this analysis depict changing street networks, landscape design and materials could enhance the level of thermal comfort in the urban open spaces.

Dyes bio-sorption by two marine algae and their applications on industrial effluents from Borg El-Arab region, Egypt

Dyes bio-sorption by two marine algae and their applications on industrial effluents from Borg El-Arab region, Egypt

Instability improvement of the subgrade soils by lime addition at Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt

Subgrade soils can affect the stability of any construction elsewhere, instability problems were found at Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt. This paper investigates geoengineering properties of lime treated subgrade soils at Borg El-Arab. Basic laboratory tests, such as water content, wet and dry density, grain size, specific gravity and Atterberg limits, were performed for twenty-five samples. Moisture-density (compaction); California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS) were conducted on treated and natural soils. The measured geotechnical parameters of the treated soil shows that 6% lime is good enough to stabilize the subgrade soils. It was found that by adding lime, samples shifted to coarser side, Atterberg limits values of the treated soil samples decreased and this will improve the soil to be more stable. On the other hand, Subgrade soils improved as a result of the bonding fine particles, cemented together to form larger size and reduce the plastiCity index which increase soils strength. The environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) is point to the presence of innovative aggregated cement materials which reduce the porosity and increase the strength as a long-term curing. Consequently, the mixture of soil with the lime has acceptable mechanical characteristics where, it composed of a high strength base or sub-base materials and this mixture considered as subgrade soil for stabilizations and mitigation the instability problems that found at Borg Al-Arab, Egypt.

Performance Improvement of Roof Transparent Solar Still Coupled With Agriculture Greenhouse

In Egyptian desert, growing plants is difficult due to harsh climate (hot at the daytime and cold at the night), infertile soil, low average rainfall and lack of fresh water for irrigation purposes. A set of simple transparent solar stills are integrated with a new solar driven agriculture greenhouse (GH). The stills are placed at the GH roof to use the extra solar radiation (above that required for plant photosynthesis process) for water desalination. In addition to water desalination concept the solar still units even reduce the cooling load during the daytime. A net of aluminum metal coated with black colour is placed on the base of the solar still units to raise the water temperature (enhance desalination process) and provide partially shading for the GH. Using aluminum net decreases also the number of solar still units required to produce the required amount of GH fresh water leading to a significant cost reduction. The main objectives of this work are sizing of the aluminum net, spacing between solar still units to obtain the threshold of plant requirements. Also fresh water production and greenhouse climatic conditions that plant needs (temperature, relative humidity, air velocity and amount of oxygen) are simulated. Numerical simulation was carried out for the hottest day of Borg Elarab, Alexandria (Egypt).

Dyes Bio-Sorption by two Marine Algae and Their Applications on Industrial Effluents from Borg El-Arab region, Egypt

ABSTRACT Batch biosorption experiments were carried out for the removal of four dyes; Drimarene yellow CL4R (Y), Drimarene blue K2RL (B), Congo Red (CR) and Malachite Green (MG) from their aqueous solutions using two raw algal biomasses namely Gelidium latifolium (Grev.) Bornet et Thuret (a red alga) and Ulva lactuca Linnaeus (a green alga). Additionally, the studied algal biomasses were applied under the optimum concluded conditions to treat real polluted industrial effluents from Borg El-Arab region, Egypt. Meanwhile these algal biomasses before and after the biosorption process were characterized using SEM and FTIR spectroscopy. Ulva lactuca has shown much better dyes biosorption efficiency particularly with solid/liquid ratio: 1/1000 g/mL, initial dye concentration: 400 mg/L, temperature: 40° C, contact time: 1 hour, pH: 1, 2, 8 and 7 for Y, B, CR and MG, respectively. This biosorption was nonspontaneous, endothermic and chemical in nature. Freundlich isotherm model fitted slightly better than the Langmuir model indicating multilayer coverage (heterogeneous sorption). The applied decolourization of coloured samples reached 97.46 %. We concluded that, algal biomasses of Ulva lactuca followed by Gelidium latifolium showed promising results in the field of water treatment and removal of water coloring. Beside that, the studied algal biomasses are considered as natural, low-cost and eco-friendly tool, so that they can help to a great extent in improving quality of water resources and to keep a clean environment via elimination of industrial pollution and its subsequent hazards on all biota especially human being.

Life Cycle Assessment for Sidewalk Pavement Types, Case Study: Extension of New Borg El-Arab City

The sustainable city concept has become an important approach globally to reduce carbon emissions and adverse impacts to the environment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered an effective approach to support decision-making for sustainable urban development. The 2035 strategic plan for the New Borg El-Arab City (NBC) suggests adding 20 km2 as an extension area to the existing built area of the city. As a result, the infrastructure of the extended area is expected to have significant environmental impacts because of the large amount of material and energy required.This paper compares the different types of sidewalk pavement material to provide information for decision makers about the environmental impacts of each type of material. It is hoped that this will help for the selection of materials that have the minimum environmental impact. This study used SimaPro software to conduct life cycle assessments for each sidewalk pavement material type and applied the IMPACT 2002+ method. It also focused on the manufacturing and installation phases. The materials chosen for comparison were mosaic tile, interlocking concrete tile and stamped concrete. The results of the LCA for each pavement type indicated that the interlocking concrete tile has the minimum diverse impact on the environment. Consequently, it is recommended for application in the extension of the NBC for sidewalk pavement.

DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW-COST OLEOPHILIC ADSORBENT BASED ON AMINATED CHITOSAN - POLY (BUTYL ACRYLATE) GRAFT COPOLYMER FOR MARINE OIL SPILL CLEANUP.

30Nov 2016 DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW-COST OLEOPHILIC ADSORBENT BASED ON AMINATED CHITOSAN - POLY (BUTYL ACRYLATE) GRAFT COPOLYMER FOR MARINE OIL SPILL CLEANUP. M. S. Mohy Eldin , Y. A. Ammar , T. M. Tamer , A. M. Omer and A. A. Ali. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Jeddah, Osfan, P. O. Box: 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Egypt. Polymer materials research department, Advanced Technologies and New Materials Research Institute (ATNMRI), City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-City), New Borg El-Arab City, P.O. Box: 21934 Alexandria, Egypt. Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Egypt.

Performance investigation of low – Concentration photovoltaic systems under hot and arid conditions: Experimental and numerical results

In this study, a comparative performance analysis was performed between a conventional photovoltaic system and a low-concentration photovoltaic system. Two typical photovoltaic modules and two compound parabolic concentrating photovoltaicsystems were examined. A Cooling system was employed to lower the temperature of the solar cells in each of the two configurations. Experimental and numerical investigations of the performance of the two arrangements with and without cooling were presented. Experiments were conducted outdoors at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, subjected to the hot climate conditions of New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, Egypt (Longitude/Latitude: E 029°42′/N 30°55′). A comprehensive system model was established, which comprises an optical model, coupled with thermal and electrical models. The coupled model was developed analytically and solved numerically, using MATLAB software, to assess the overall performance of the two configurations, considering the concentration ratio of the concentrated photovoltaic system to be 2.4X. The results indicated that cooling the solar panels considerably improved the electrical power yield of the photovoltaic systems. By employing cooling, the temperatures of the conventional photovoltaic system and the concentrated photovoltaic system were effectively lowered by approximately 25% and 30%, respectively, resulting in a significant enhancement in the electrical power output of the photovoltaic system by 11% and that of the concentrated photovoltaic system by 15%. Furthermore, the results revealed that the concentrated photovoltaic system outperformed the non-concentrated photovoltaic system, for both non-cooling and cooling cases, by 33% and 52%, respectively. Finally, experimental verification of the numerical results revealed a good agreement for both configurations, with an average error of 4% and 5% for the photovoltaic systems and the concentrated photovoltaic systems, respectively.

Methodologies Developed for EcoCity Related Projects: New Borg El Arab, an Egyptian Case Study

The aim of the methodologies described here is to propose measures and procedures for developing concepts and technological solutions, which are adapted to the local conditions, to build sustainable communities in developing countries and emerging economies. These methodologies are linked to the EcoCity framework outlined by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. for sustainable community and neighbourhood regeneration and development. The framework is the result of a long experience in numerous EcoCity related projects, mainly Nordic and European in scope, which has been reformulated in recent years to respond to the local needs in the previously mentioned countries. There is also a particular emphasis on close collaboration with local partners and major stakeholders. In order to illustrate how these methodologies can support EcoCity concept development and implementation, results from a case study in Egypt will be discussed. The referred case study relates to the transformation of New Borg El Arab (NBC), near Alexandria, into an EcoCity. The viability of the idea was explored making use of different methodologies (Roadmap, Feasibility Study, and Residents Energy Survey and Building Consumption Assessment) and considering the Residential, Commercial/Public Facilities, Industrial, Services/Utilities, and Transport sectors.

Towards a Green Building: A Preliminary Study of Natural Ventilation on Thermal Comfort and its Impact on Residential Building in the City of New Borg El Arab

Natural ventilation considered a one of challenges of the green building design. This paper introduces a preliminary study for measuring the extent of natural ventilation on thermal comfort to the impact of indoor air quality in the residential building in the city of New Borg El Arab (Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, E-JUST as example) in relation to air velocity, relative humidity, and air temperature. New Borg El Arab climate in the site location is semi-arid Mediterranean climate, this type of climate is characterized by a brief, mild, moderate rain in winter and long warm summer months with no rain. To apply this study, a methodological procedure has been followed. A field study is conducted in a one flat from the building of the E-JUST to assess the indoor thermal conditions based on adaptive standard comfort model during the month of climate change (October through 3 experimental measuring 1st, middle, and last of the month). The indoor measured data of air temperature, air velocity and relative humidity were used to check if the apartment that choose as a case study complies the thermal comfort or not by using ASHRAE psychrometric chart. Personal observations, field measurements and ASHRAE psychrometric chart analyses show that there is significant thermal discomfort inside the domain. The results indicated that the indoor air quality in many of the cases didn’t achieve the thermal comfort for most time. This is because there is no circulation for natural ventilation in this orientation of the domain

Performance evaluation of agricultural drainage water using modeling and statistical approaches

This study assessed spatial variations in physical and chemical properties of an agricultural drain near Borg El-Arab city, Alexandria, Egypt. Pearson’s correlation coefficient indicated that salinity had strong correlations with total dissolved solids (TDS) (r 0.999, p<0.001) and Cl− (r 0.807, p 0.016), whereas, pH was considerably affected by temperature (r 0.674, p 0.067), oxidation reduction potential (ORP) (r 0.866, p 0.006) and NO3− (r 0.731, p 0.039). Those results were further confirmed by applying an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and regression models. Moreover, principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that PC1 explained 41.1% of the total variance, and had high loadings of TDS (0.46), salinity (0.46) and Cl− (0.48). Additionally, PC2 accounted for 35.2% of the total variance, and had high loadings of pH (0.53), temperature (0.48), ORP (0.40) and NO3− (0.47). The present study revealed that artificial intelligence and PCA could be used to effectively reduce the number of physicochemical parameters that may assist in the description of drainage water quality. It is recommended that the current status of the drain is suitable for reuse in irrigation purposes except at few locations containing high salinity.

Availability of Heavy Metals in Borg Elarab Soil and Their Uptake by Potato Plants (Solanum tuberosum L.) Irrigated with Wastewater

To demonstrate availability of heavy metals in soil uptake by potato plants irrigated with wastewater. The wastewater near Sayed Darwish village, Borg Elarab City, Alexandria, Egypt was collected. The measured heavy metals in the wastewater were compared with the permissible levels stated in environmental regulations, Law No. 48 of 1982 concerning the protection of the Nile River and waterways from pollution. Heavy metals accumulation in potato irrigated with wastewater as following: Fe (140 mg/kg), Mn (33.2 mg/kg), Zn (31.1 mg/ kg), Cu (6.3 mg/kg), Co (1.1 mg/ kg), Ni (3.2 mg/kg), Pb (2.4 mg/kg), all item are more than allowable limits, concentrations of these available heavy metals in the surface layer (0-5 cm) of irrigated soil of waste water Fe (22.9 mg/kg), Mn (18.6 mg/kg), Zn (18.2 mg/ kg), Cu (4.3 mg/kg), Co (1.7 mg/ kg), Ni (4.1 mg/kg), Pb (4.1 mg/kg), compared with irrigated soil from artesian water Fe (11.2 mg/kg), Mn(9.5 mg/kg), Zn (19.1 mg/ kg), Cu (6.2 mg/kg), Co (1.2 mg/ kg),Ni (0.2 mg/kg), Pb (1.5 mg/kg) respectively. Potato plants irrigated with such wastewater specially wastewater not safe for human and animal consumption accordingly, the study suggests and recommends remediation of wastewater using physical, chemical and/or biological methods.

Free radical scavenger activity of chitosan and its aminated derivative

1 Polymer research department, Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications. New Borg ElArab, Alexandria, Egypt. 2 Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry of Drugs, Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, SK-81404 Bratislava, Slovakia. 3 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Jeddah, Osfan, P. O. Box: 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

Application of the RAPD and miRNA markers in the genotyping of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.

Application of the RAPD and miRNA markers in the genotyping of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.

An environmentally friendly factory in Egypt based on hybrid photovoltaic/wind/diesel/battery system

The potential for using clean energy technologies in Egypt is good given the abundant solar insolation and wind resources. In contrast, many factories have suffered significant losses due to frequent blackouts in Egypt, especially at peak times of load demand. Moreover, the aim of this paper is to provide a detailed feasibility and a techno-economic evaluation of using hybrid photovoltaic/wind/diesel/battery system to satisfy the electrical energy needs for an environmentally friendly factory in New Borg El Arab city, Egypt and the city surrounding the factory. Utilizing the well-known Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Electric Renewables software to get the optimal configuration of a hybrid renewable energy system, based on the user inputs of loads, components costs, components technical details, solar and wind resources availability. The hybrid renewable energy system consisting of 60 kW of photovoltaic arrays, 100 kW of wind turbines, 40 kW of diesel generators, 50 kW of power converters and 600 batteries is found to be the optimal hybrid configuration in accordance with the system net present cost and cost of energy. The net present cost of this system is $1,684,118 and the cost of energy is $0.19/kWh. Additionally, the optimum system is the most environmentally friendly system in comparison with the other systems configurations specifically the diesel only system, because it is able to reduce a significant amount of greenhouse gases emissions. Strive to achieve the plan to become New Borg El Arab city, the first environmentally friendly Egyptian city in the near future by increasing the applications in this city that depend on the clean energy. Additionally, the same work could be applied to any other site in the world. Finally, an accurate separate techno-economic analysis of each component in the optimum hybrid renewable energy system is carried out in this study.

ENRICHED EGYPTIAN ARTEMIA AS AN EFFECTIVE LIVE FEED FOR THE BIOCHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MARINE PRAWN PENAEUS JAPONICAS

The present work was undertaken in an attempt to evaluate the effect of enriched live Artemia strains on the biochemical composition of the common prawn Peneaus in Egypt. Cysts of Artemia strains were collected during spring 2014 from El-Max and Borg El-Arab regions. Cysts were hatched under optimum conditions then treated with bran, yeast and algae. Enriched cysts were dried and used for feeding post larvae (11 days) of Penaeus japonicas for sex weeks. The obtained results revealed that there is no notable differences in the biochemical composition of the prawn that fed on enriched Egyptian strains compared with that fed on Artemia fransicana (control). However, analysis of data showed that Artemia strains collected from Borg El-Arab and enriched with yeast (G1) is the best kind of feeding to obtain excellent biochemical composition of Penaeus japonicas. In addition, 16 amino acids were detected in prawn and analysis of data appears that arginine represented the maximum value. This value was also detected in G1 which confirm the previous conclusion. Therefore, it is recommended that cheap Artemia strain collected from Borg El- Arab enriched with yeast can be used as a live feed for rearing prawn instead of the expensive imported Artemia franciscans.

Develop dynamic model for predicting traffic CO emissions in urban areas.

The greater the use of energy in the transportation sectors, the higher the emission of carbon monoxide (CO), and hence inevitable harm to environment and human health. In this concern, measuring and predicting of CO emission from transportation sector-especially large cities-is important as it constitute 90% of all CO emission. Many urban cities in developing world have not properly experienced such measurements or predictions. In this paper, for the first time, field measurements of traffic characteristics data and corresponding CO concentration have been performed for developing a model for predicting CO emissions from transportation sector for New Borg El Arab (NBC), Egypt. The performance of Swiss-German Handbook Emission Factors for Road Transport (HBEFA v3.1) model has been assessed for predicting the CO concentration at roadside in the study area. Results indicated that HBEFA v3.1 underestimate emission figures. The developed CO dynamic emission model involves the traffic flow characteristics with roadside CO concentrations. Acceptable representation of measured CO concentration has been shown by the developed dynamic CO emission model which introduces R (2) = 0.77, mean biases and frictional biases of -0.27mgm(-3) and 0.09, respectively. A comparison between predicted CO concentrations using HBEFA v3.1 and the promoted dynamic model indicate that HBEFA v3.1 estimates CO emission concentrations in the study area with a mean error and frictional biases 159.26 and 233.33%, respectively, higher than those of the developed model.

Low-energy residential buildings in New Borg El Arab: Simulation and survey based energy assessment

This article discusses the design of a very low energy residential building, with regard to the climate of New Borg El Arab City (NBC). However, since the cost of a very energy efficient building can be high, two investment scenarios, low (LIS) and high (HIS) investments, have been considered. In the first case, the design includes exclusively low cost solutions, while in the second case technologies commonly associated with Net zero houses are included. Both cases have been compared to a reference case, called business as usual (BaU), which refers to the minimum requirements of the Egyptian energy code. The final energy consumption of LIS has been estimated around 15kWh/m2, which is half of the final energy consumption of the BaU building. Particularly interesting are the results of HIS: the final energy consumption varies from 5kWh/m2 to 1.48kWh/m2 and to 0.69kWh/m2 as the PV size increases. Very low energy and net zero energy buildings have been designed in line with the local context, using envelope solutions to lower their energy needs and renewable systems to achieve a near zero or a negative final energy balance.

Assessment of agricultural drainage water quality for safe reuse in irrigation applications-a case study in Borg El-Arab, Alexandria

Assessment of agricultural drainage water quality for safe reuse in irrigation applications-a case study in Borg El-Arab, Alexandria