An-Najah National University

Hassan Arafat

 

 
  • Wednesday, March 24, 2010
  • Sustainable Waste Management in the Mediterranean Region: Impacts of Socio-economical and Political Factors
  • Published at:11th MRM Meeting 2010 – WS n° 02
  • Solid waste management is a key task of city councils and municipalities throughout the world in order to keep cities tidy and clean. Focus is often on the technologies such as collection, transportation, recycling, storage, and disposal of wastes. However, solid waste management must be seen in a much wider perspective that includes health to people and environment, conscious use of resources (materials and energy) and goods, as well as welfare and economic livelihood to business and people. Waste prevention, energy saving, reuse, recycling, and material and energy recovery, thereby, become concrete challenges to administrations, businesses and individuals in the urban areas. Up-to-date urban solid waste management demands a well designed mix of, for example, policy, administration, corporate social responsibility, business economy and motivation and education of the individual citizen. Successful implementation of such management of solid waste then becomes strongly dependent on the local and regional soc
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  • Monday, January 19, 2009
  • Chemical and microbiological quality of desalinated water, groundwater and rain-fed cisterns in the Gaza strip, Palestine
  • Published at:Desalination, Volume 249, Issue 3, 25 December 2009, Pages 1165-1170
  • The aim of this study was to assess the physiochemical and microbiological quality of the domestic water through one-year long surveillance in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Water samples were taken from rain-fed cisterns, groundwater from the water network, and desalinated water. For certain chemical parameters, such as nitrate, a high percentage of water samples from all sources exceeded the limits of the Palestinian Standard Institution and the World Health Organization (WHO). Total dissolved solid (TDS) readings were non-compliant for most samples from groundwater and water from rain-fed cisterns, but the TDS quality was far better in desalinated water. As far as microbiological quality is concerned, high percentages of non-compliance were observed for total Coliform and fecal Coliform in most water samples, which was also reflected by the high incidence of water-borne diseases in Gaza Strip. The study reveals a clear superiority of quality for desalinated water, but also the need to adopt better practices (maint
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  • Thursday, January 1, 2009
  • Enhanced solid waste management by understanding the effects of gender, income, marital status, and religious convictions on attitudes and practices related to street littering in Nablus – Palestinian territory
  • Published at:Waste Management
  • Litter is recognized as a form of street pollution and a key issue for solid waste managers. Nablus district (West Bank, Palestinian Territory), which has an established network of urban and rural roads, suffers from a wide-spread litter problem that is associated with these roads and is growing steadily with a well-felt negative impact on public health and the environment. The purpose of this research was to study the effects of four socio-economic characteristics (gender, income, marital status, and religious convictions) of district residents on their attitudes, practices, and behavior regarding street litter generation and to suggest possible remedial actions. All four characteristics were found to have strong correlations, not only with littering behavior and practices, but also with potential litter prevention strategies. In particular, the impact of religious convictions of the respondents on their littering habits and attitudes was very clear and interesting to observe.
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  • Saturday, November 1, 2008
  • Ultrafiltration of polysaccharide–protein mixtures: Elucidation of fouling mechanisms and fouling control by membrane surface modification
  • Published at:Separation and Purification Technology
  • This work describes the fouling behavior of polysaccharide–protein mixture solutions by investigation of adsorptive and ultrafiltration fouling. Alginate, dextran, myoglobin and bovine serum albumin were used as model foulants. Three commercial poly(ether sulfone) (PES) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with nominal cut-off of 10, 30 and 100 kg/mol and a PES-based thin layer hydrogel composite (TLHC) membrane, synthesized by photo-initiated graft copolymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA) and having a cut-off of 10 kg/mol were used. The effects of pH, foulant concentration, ionic content and proportion of protein to polysaccharide in the solution on fouling were investigated. The results showed that significant water flux reductions and changes in membrane surface property were observed after static adsorption for PES membranes for all feed solution conditions. This water flux reduction decreased with increasing the pH of the solution. Addition of monovalent ions could either increase o
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  • Saturday, November 1, 2008
  • Preparation of thin-film-composite polyamide membranes for desalination using novel hydrophilic surface modifying macromolecules
  • Published at:Journal of Membrane Science
  • A new concept for the preparation of thin-film-composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane by interfacial polymerization on porous polysulfone (PS) support using novel additives is reported. Hydrophilic surface modifying macromolecules (LSMM) were synthesized both ex situ by conventional method (cLSMM), and in situ within the organic solvent of the TFC system (iLSMM). The effects of these LSMMs on the fouling of the TFC RO membranes used in the desalination processes were studied. FTIR results indicated that both cLSMM and iLSMM were present in the active layer of the TFC membranes. SEM micrographs depicted that heterogeneity of the surface increases for TFC membranes compared to the control PS membrane, and that higher concentrations of LSMM provided smoother surface. AFM characteristic data presented that the surface roughness of the skin surface increases for TFC membranes compared to the control. The RO performance results showed that the addition of the cLSMM significantly decreased the salt rejection
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PROFILE

Hassan Ali Arafat
Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering Professor with research and teaching interests in water and wastewater processes (especially desalination), environmental Protection, and quality assurance in higher education and academic performance assessment and development.
 
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PUBLISHED ARTICLES

 
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