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RESEARCH
My research focuses on applying computational and data-driven approaches to develop innovative solutions to optimize the efficiency of renewable energy and desalination systems, and to increase their economic competitiveness. This is rooted in a deep interest in the intersection of Fluid Dynamics Simulation, Optimization, and Control applied to Energy & Water systems. I give special attention to remote areas and decentralized systems, which are usually not studied well in the scientific research. The goal is to enable communities to achieve energy independence and sustainability.
Convection-Enhanced Evaporation (CEE)
Convection-Enhanced Evaporation (CEE)
for Brine Management
for Brine Management
(Ph.D. research)
From Concept to Prototype
To the Left is CEE Operation Concept; To the Right is CEE Prototype
Field testing in Delhi, January 2020.
An evaporation surface and a control volume.
Spatial profile of evaporation rate over the evaporation surface.
Cost reduction achieved by the developed data-driven predictive control.
Brine, also known as concentrate, is by-product from desalination plants and several industrial processes (such as textile dying, electroplating, oil and gas, etc.), and it represents a serious environmental challenge due to its high concentration of dissolved salts and other chemical contaminates. The key shortcoming of traditional brine management technologies is its high cost, high energy consumption. These issues are particularly challenging for small decentralized systems as small size works significantly against thermal efficiency, which increases the treatment cost further. Examples on such systems include small desalination plants in remote and decentralized communities, on-site treatment of 'produced water' in oil & gas industry, small and medium urban industries, etc. The increased number of these applications has established an urgent need for the development of modular, cost-effective technologies to promote safe brine treatment.
This research develops a controlled Convection-Enhanced Evaporation (CEE) as a modular, cost-effective brine volume reduction technology. The proposed CEE device is inspired from natural evaporation that occurs in evaporation ponds in which water is evaporated by air convection as wind blows. A key feature of CEE is the active autonomous control of the operating conditions to minimize operating cost (energy use) in real-time.
I conducted this research in close collaboration with our industry partner, both at engineering level and executive level, to understand and address the market need along with technical challenges facing industries.
Milestones:
Development, modeling and optimal control of modular convection-driven brine evaporation device for brine management
Developed a finite-difference-based mathematical model to simulate mass and heat transfer associated with brine evaporation process
Proposed a method to formulate objective functions in terms of cost ratio (instead of absolute costs) to generalize the optimization results
Developed a cost-optimization framework to achieve a cost-optimal design
Devised a data-driven optimal control approach to minimize the operating cost in real-time
Collaborating with water-treatment industry
Patent:
Journal Publications:
From Concept to Prototype
To the Left is the Operation Concept; To the Right is a Prototype
CAD model for the newly proposed cavity receiver geometry.
Simulation of the concentrated solar radiation by the Fresnel lens using the Discrete Ordinates (DO) radiation model in ANSYS Fluent
Concentrated solar energy remains an attractive renewable energy application capable of delivering high temperature thermal energy. Energy storage systems are usually integrated with solar collectors to store energy during sunshine hours to satisfy power demand during night hours and in the absence of sunshine. Molten salt is the preferred energy storage technology due to its superior thermal stability, thermal efficiency and capacity factor. Fresnel lens solar concentrators are gaining substantial attention due to their small volume, light weight, high energy density and low investment cost. This work presents a novel solar cavity receiver geometry design for point-focus Fresenl lens, and couples the system with a molten salt energy storage process.
Milestones:
Developed thermal model to design and optimize a novel solar cavity receiver geometry
Modeled solar irradiation using Discrete Ordinates (DO) method
Developed a CFD simulation for the cavity receiver in ANSYS-Fluent
Fabricated experimental setup to validate the model
Simulated thermal energy storage process integrated with Fresnel concentrator
Journal Publication:
Cost-Optimal Design of Solar-Desalination
Cost-Optimal Design of Solar-Desalination
(Research internship)
Schematic diagram showing solar proposed system and optimization variables flow.
Achieved solar fraction at different tank volumes and different number of solar collectors.
This project aimed to design a cost-optimal pilot-scale and commercial-scale solar fields and energy storage to supply heat load required by a membrane distillation (MD) plant. The research was conducted as a collaboration between NREL (focusing on the solar field) and a team of researchers from University of Connecticut (focusing on membrane distillation) with the aim of implementing the pilot plant in El Paso, Texas.
Milestones:
Designed a pilot-scale and a commercial-scale solar fields and energy storage for solar desalination application
Modeled and implemented a new XCPC solar collector model in System Advisor Model (SAM) library
Developed process cost models
Optimized system design based on performance and cost
Mini Projects
Mini Projects
People in photo (from right): Me, Sohaib Yassin, Professor Mohamed Khamis Mansour (project supervisor), Mohammad Ghadban, & Wael Jomaa.
Thermoelectric Generator Powered by a Simple Heat Source
Thermoelectric Generator Powered by a Simple Heat Source
Designed a thermo-electric generator system to harvest waste energy.
Utilized thermo-electric generator (TEG) modules to convert waste heat into electricity.
Presented in LIRA 11th exhibition (Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements).
Beirut, Lebanon 2014.
Innovative Under-Floor Heating
Innovative Under-Floor Heating
Inspired by micro-channels technology, this project utilized a mini-channels approach to enhance the heat transfer mechanism in underfloor systems in building; thus, reducing the energy use and operating cost.
Project was presented in the 17th Engineering Projects Day under theme of "Green Engineering & Renewable Energy ".
Beirut Arab University, Debbieh, Lebanon 2015.
People in photo (from right): Me & Mohammad Ghadban. Other colleborators in the project are: Wael Jomaa, Sohaib Yassin, Mohammad Nasser. Project Supervised by Professor Mohamed Khamis Mansour.
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