According to Unicef, 36 countries worldwide already face extremely high water shortage levels. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the most water-scarce region of the world and contains only 1.4 percent of the world’s renewable fresh water.
Universal access to clean drinking water is one of the world’s biggest challenges. Water resources are at risk from climate change, pollution, geographical location, and waterborne diseases in many areas. Water scarcity affects roughly 40 percent of the world’s population. According to predictions by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, drought could displace up to 700 million people by 2030.
To meet this challenge, Qatar University Chemical Engineering PhD student Haneen Abdelrazeq hopes to develop and patent a water filtration system to facilitate commercial water filtration.
Qatar has no fresh surface water resources, making rainfall and groundwater recharge the main freshwater resources. The country’s primary water resources are desalination, groundwater and reuse of treated sewage effluent (TSE). Recently, Qatar launched the National Environment and Climate Change strategy. The strategy will significantly cut groundwater extraction by 50 percent.
In the latest issue of the Qatar University Research Magazine, Haneen, a 4th-year student whose PhD thesis is related to membrane synthesis and its application in pilot-scale wastewater treatment technologies, stated that her innovation would contribute to the growing global demand for fresh drinking water.
“The development of novel materials that can withstand the harsh conditions posed by industrial processes is critical,” Haneen said.
“The mechanical stability of water filtration is the most important specification I am working on to make my designed product unique and applicable in real-life scaled-up processes."
“The experimental data findings directly support the implementation of the proposed commercialized product and contribute to satisfying the growing global demand for fresh drinking water.”
Qatar has one of the world’s highest domestic water consumption rates, where Qatari households consume an average of 430 litres of water per day.
“As an outcome of my PhD thesis, my work is focused on the contribution of technological innovations in water purification using an innovative microfiltration treatment method on the pilot scale. The idea of my innovation is to supply clean water through efficient and advanced portable water systems.
The filtration performance was optimized using the innovative system. Experimental data was used to validate the commercial performance of the proposed product,” she added.
