Unconventional Water Sources Research Articles

Multi-criteria analysis in Artemia farming site selection for sustainable desert ecosystems planning and management (case study: Siahkouh Playa, Iran)

Arid environments and desert ecosystems which contain several potential resources such as unconventional water sources are remarkable areas for developing projects. To prevent undesirable consequences caused by desert conditions, it is necessary to determine which areas are suitable. The current study identified suitable areas for the development of Artemia farming in the Siahkouh Playa, Yazd, Iran using the multi-criteria decision-making method based on the TOPSIS technique. The decision-making group was determined, and then, the most important criteria in determining a suitable area in the study region were identified. The second questionnaire was designed to determine the rate of each criterion in choosing the best alternative. The results showed that three main factors are effective in determining a suitable area for Artemia farming units in a desert ecosystem, which, according to their importance were environment, technology, and socioeconomics. Results also indicated that the best choice among the three alternatives is to consider the geomorphological faces as the assessing and monitoring unit of other criteria in arid regions and desert ecosystems. In the current research area, clay pan geomorphological features were found to be suitable for Artemia farming.

The Critical Need for Increased Selectivity, Not Increased Water Permeability, for Desalination Membranes

Desalination membranes are essential for the treatment of unconventional water sources, such as seawater and wastewater, to alleviate water scarcity. Promising research efforts on novel membrane materials may yield significant performance gains over state-of-the-art thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, which are constrained by the permeability–selectivity trade-off. However, little guidance currently exists on the practical impact of such performance gains, namely enhanced water permeability or enhanced water–solute selectivity. In this critical review, we first discuss the performance of current TFC membranes. We then highlight and provide context for recent module-scale modeling studies that have found limited impact of increased water permeability on the efficiency of desalination processes. Next we cover several important examples of water treatment processes in which inadequate membrane selectivity hinders process efficacy. We conclude with a brief discussion of how the need for enhanced selectivity ...

Improved Fog Collection Using Turf Reinforcement Mats

AbstractImpoverished communities are particularly vulnerable to increasing water scarcity. The development of low-cost technologies that improve access to unconventional water sources, such as the freshwater contained in fog, is one way to address water scarcity. Passive fog collectors, sited to maximize exposure to orographic and advection fog, are typically constructed using 35% Raschel mesh stretched within a structural frame. To assess improvements to this technology, the fog collection potential of nonwoven turf reinforcement mats (TRM), underwent preliminary testing in a laboratory fog tunnel and more conclusive testing at a field site in Lima, Peru. In fog tunnel tests, both of the two tested TRM specimens increased fog collection yields over 35% Raschel mesh by 26 and 33% respectively. At one field site, the tested mats increased fog collection yields over 35% Raschel mesh by 62 and 75% respectively. At a second field site, these materials increased collection volumes over the 35% Raschel mesh by ...

Microbial-Influenced-Corrosion-Related Coiled-Tubing Failures and Equipment Damage

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 173658, “Microbial-Influenced-Corrosion-Related Coiled-Tubing Failures and Equipment Damage,” by Scott Sherman, SPE, Duane Brownlee, SPE, and Sarkis Kakadjian, SPE, Trican Well Service, prepared for the 2014 SPE Coiled Tubing and Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 24–25 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Microbial-influenced corrosion (MIC) has been implicated in few corrosion-related challenges in the well-service industry in the past. Recently, however, the industry is observing an increase of MIC-related equipment damage. This upsurge of MIC coincides with a switch to unconventional water sources, including recycled water. This paper is an overview of premature coiled-tubing and other-well-servicing-equipment failures and pumping-equipment damage related to MIC. Introduction Recycled fracturing water has been found to contain high levels of bacteria, typically on the order of 106–109 colony-forming units (CFU) per mL. The bacteria can originate from essentially anywhere in the water-handling system: the water source, transportation, storage, pumps, or downhole. Tanks and pits used for storage of flowback water are ideal habitats for bacteria; typically, these are sessile environments; the water temperature is commonly 15–35°C; and organic compounds found in the water such as oil carryover, surfactants, or polymers can be ideal carbon and energy sources for many microbial species. Higher-than-normal bacteria populations and clear evidence of MIC have been identified from flowback water in the Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Haynesville, and Horne River shale plays. MIC Microbes do not have a significant impact on general metal corrosion. MIC, on the other hand, is localized. This is because microbes tend to locate themselves in out-of-the-way locations such as cracks and pits or under scale or other deposits, presumably because these places are less affected by the flow of passing fluids. Once one or more species have attached themselves to a surface, many more species follow suit. It is through this process that a biofilm is built. MIC occurs where the biofilm and the metal come into contact. Probably the most notorious and widely studied of the microbes implicit in MIC are sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and acid-producing bacteria, although iron-oxidizing bacteria, sulfate-reducing archaea, thiosulfate- reducing bacteria, nitrate-reducing bacteria, and methanogenic archaea are also known to be involved.

Opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology in the green economy.

In a world of finite resources and ecosystem capacity, the prevailing model of economic growth, founded on ever-increasing consumption of resources and emission pollutants, cannot be sustained any longer. In this context, the “green economy” concept has offered the opportunity to change the way that society manages the interaction of the environmental and economic domains. To enable society to build and sustain a green economy, the associated concept of “green nanotechnology” aims to exploit nano-innovations in materials science and engineering to generate products and processes that are energy efficient as well as economically and environmentally sustainable. These applications are expected to impact a large range of economic sectors, such as energy production and storage, clean up-technologies, as well as construction and related infrastructure industries. These solutions may offer the opportunities to reduce pressure on raw materials trading on renewable energy, to improve power delivery systems to be more reliable, efficient and safe as well as to use unconventional water sources or nano-enabled construction products therefore providing better ecosystem and livelihood conditions.However, the benefits of incorporating nanomaterials in green products and processes may bring challenges with them for environmental, health and safety risks, ethical and social issues, as well as uncertainty concerning market and consumer acceptance. Therefore, our aim is to examine the relationships among guiding principles for a green economy and opportunities for introducing nano-applications in this field as well as to critically analyze their practical challenges, especially related to the impact that they may have on the health and safety of workers involved in this innovative sector. These are principally due to the not fully known nanomaterial hazardous properties, as well as to the difficulties in characterizing exposure and defining emerging risks for the workforce. Interestingly, this review proposes action strategies for the assessment, management and communication of risks aimed to precautionary adopt preventive measures including formation and training of employees, collective and personal protective equipment, health surveillance programs to protect the health and safety of nano-workers. It finally underlines the importance that occupational health considerations will have on achieving an effectively sustainable development of nanotechnology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-069X-13-78) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A simulation impact evaluation of social-economic development on water resource use

Due to the fast growth of the economy and population, the water scarcity issue has aroused widespread critical concern. In fact, reasonable structure, adaptive patterns and effective regulation of the economy, society and water resources can bring a harmonious future. Therefore, the study of how to balance economic social growth and water resources is of great importance. A model of the water resource, society and economy system of the Tongzhou district was designed by Stella. The model established here attempts to analyze future trends in social-economic development and the impact of the economic and population growth on water use in the Tongzhou district under three scenarios. The results reveal that the water shortage is very serious. If the current trends persist, the existing water supply will not be able to meet the water demand in the future. Tongzhou district's water shortage will be 162.50 million m3 in 2020 under the business-as-usual scenario. Therefore, it is necessary to develop unconventional water sources and improve the water-saving capacity of production and life to alleviate the water tensions. This research offers insight into larger questions regarding economic growth and water resource management in general.

Applications of nanotechnology in water and wastewater treatment

Providing clean and affordable water to meet human needs is a grand challenge of the 21st century. Worldwide, water supply struggles to keep up with the fast growing demand, which is exacerbated by population growth, global climate change, and water quality deterioration. The need for technological innovation to enable integrated water management cannot be overstated. Nanotechnology holds great potential in advancing water and wastewater treatment to improve treatment efficiency as well as to augment water supply through safe use of unconventional water sources. Here we review recent development in nanotechnology for water and wastewater treatment. The discussion covers candidate nanomaterials, properties and mechanisms that enable the applications, advantages and limitations as compared to existing processes, and barriers and research needs for commercialization. By tracing these technological advances to the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials, the present review outlines the opportunities and limitations to further capitalize on these unique properties for sustainable water management.

Review and prospects of desalination as a water supply method in China

With the development of urbanization and deterioration of water environment, the fresh water shortage in eastern coastal cities of China is more and more serious. Desalination, as the only way to increase the amount of fresh water, should be more applied in this region, while the actual development is not as expected for some reasons. The study reviews the desalination status in China from the perspective such as driving force, investment, cost, policy, safety and energy. The analysis of problems makes the recommendations how to develop desalination market and make desalination as a safety water supply. In addition, the study compares desalination with wastewater reuse in water quality, cost, management, public acceptance and so on and discusses the proposal for integrated utilization of different unconventional water sources.

Advanced Treatment Process for Brackish Water Desalination

We aim to develop an energy-efficient, low-cost desalination technology for creating new, affordable water sources from brackish waters. Since Qatar has extremely limited rechargeable water sources, technologies facilitating safe use of impaired and unconventional water sources are needed. Capacitive deionization (CDI) technology can meet the unique, logistical and economic needs for inland desalination. CDI technology, unlike reverse osmosis and nanofiltration, operates under ambient pressure and can be sustained with renewable energy sources. In this process, ions move to the electrode surface and build up an electrical double layer (EDL) when an external potential is applied. Metal oxide nano-particle coatings are widely used in super-capacitors to increase the capacitance. We are employing fourth-generation CDI technology (i.e., alumina, silica nano-particle coated porous carbon) for brackish water treatment. The presence of oxides together with the functional groups on the carbon surface enhances the ion removal process. Sorption capacity of up to 0.05 mM/g electrode has been achieved for monovalent ions with high reversibility and no obvious loss of capacity in long-term operation. During regeneration, up to 50% of the charge can be harvested. Preliminary results indicate that higher sorption capacity exists for divalent cations compared to monovalent ions. Comprehensive tests are underway for various electrolytes (1:2, 2:1, 2:2) and brackish water samples to cover a wide gradient in salt concentration and ionic composition. This project will lead to the development of low-cost inland desalination systems and can be expected to boost Qatar's scientific profile in global and regional water industry.

A GIS-based decision support system for rainwater harvesting (RHADESS)

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is an unconventional water source that is increasingly adopted in South Africa. Its implementation is promoted by non-governmental organisations and government programmes to alleviate temporal and spatial water scarcity for domestic, crop and livestock production and support the overall water resources management. Unreliable water supply is one of the elements central to the poverty level of rural population. As the potential of RWH to improve water access for drinking and other basic human needs is still untapped, the technique will spread further in the coming decades. Studies on the hydrological impacts of RWH are focused on plot scale and very little is known about its impacts at catchment scale. To integrate RWH into the development and management of water resources in South Africa, there is a need to develop tools and methodologies that not only assist planners with the identification of areas suitable but also quantify the associated hydrological impacts of its wide scale adoption. This paper presents the rainwater harvesting decision support system (RHADESS) that was built to assist decision makers and stakeholders by indicating the suitability of RWH in any selected part of South Africa and quantifying the potential impacts associated with its adoption at catchment scale. RHADESS is GIS-based and uses ArcView 3.3 as a platform to assess the RWH suitability of any given area of South Africa. Results are thereafter exported into an Excel spreadsheet that contains the hydrological impact, as runoff reduction, of different levels of adoption of RWH assessed by using the Pitman model. The decision support system guides the implementation of the following RWH categories: Infield RWH and ex-field RWH and domestic RWH. RHADESS was tested in two selected quaternary catchments C52A and V13D located in the Upper Orange water management area and the Thukela water management area, respectively.

A simulation framework for water allocation to meet the environmental requirements of urban rivers: model development and a case study for the Liming River in Daqing City, China

In this paper, we describe the development of a simulation framework for allocating water from different sources to meet the environmental flows of an urban river. The model permits the development of a rational balance in the utilization of storm water, reclaimed water from wastewater treatment plants, and freshwater from reservoirs with consideration of the limited capacities of different water resources. It is designed to permit the full utilization of unconventional water sources for the restoration of river water quality by increasing river flow and improving water quality. To demonstrate practical use of the model, a case study is presented in which the model was used to simulate the environmental water allocation for the Liming River in Daqing City, China, based on the three water sources mentioned above. The results demonstrate that the model provides an effective approach for helping managers allocate water to satisfy the river’s environmental water requirements.