Chemical & Biological Analysis

To apply its vision, the center for chemical and biological analysis has established and identified his goals to work in the following areas:

• Demand driven applied research: The Center conducts applied research in the fields of environment, agriculture, industry, and supports the research activities of staff members at different department at the university.
• Human resource development: This is achieved by providing the technical training through workshops in the fields of water, soil, agriculture, and industry. Staff members of the center and the university offer the training courses and workshops. The target groups are the Palestinians working in the above fields.
• Community services: The Center provides the community with services in the area of chemical and biological analyses.

The vision is to promote scientific research at Al-Quds University towards clean environment, facilitate scientific research tools, and inspect food and environment samples to insure health safety and quality for the Palestinians.

The Centre for Chemical and biological Analysis (CCBA) at Al-Quds University has identified his goals and responsibilities towards quality in a clear commitment that is fully explained and distributed to all sections and staff members of the center to implement these goals to meet the requirements and expectations of its customers.

The policy of the CCBA is based on the chemical and biological analysis of water, wastewater, soil, food, plant, oil and any other samples keeping in mind the commitment towards international of quality and accuracy.

In order to support this policy, all staff members of the centre are committed to apply the procedures for quality and safety from the moment of receipt of the samples to the completion of delivery of test results, documentation and filing based on the ISO / IEC 17025 quality system.

Steering Committee

• Dr. Mustafa Khamis, Proffesor in Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Ibrahim Afaneh, Assistant Proffesor in Food Technology, Department of Food Technology, College of Science and Technology, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Mutaz Qotob, Associate Professor in Marine Biology, Department of Environment and Earth Sciences, College of Science and Technology, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Jawad Hasan, Assistant Professor in Hydrochemistry, Department of Environment and Earth Sciences, College of Science and Technology, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Saleh Abu Lafi, Associate Professor in Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Imad Odeh, Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Al- Quds University
• Dr. Rafiq Karaman, Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al- Quds University

Stationary Staff

Highly qualified dedicated staff carry out the different activities of the Center. Capacity building of the staff members is achieved by training them on ISO Guide 17025 quality system.

• Dr. Jehad Abbadi, Assistant Proffesor of Biology: Acting Director
• Mr. Muhannad Qurie, M.Sc. Applied Industrial Technology: Lab Technician (cv)
• Mr. Sameh Nussiebeh, M.Sc. Environmental Sciences: Lab Technician

M.Sc. Students working on funded projects

• Miss Rinad Zghari: M.Sc. Student in Environmental Sciences, funded by MERC project, under supervision of Dr. Jehad Abbadi and Dr. Mustafa Khamis
• Miss Fatima Ayyash: M.Sc. Student in Applied Industrial Technology, funded by MERC project, under supervision of Dr. Rafiq Karaman, Dr. Omar Deeb and Dr. Mustafa Khamis
• Mr. Majdi Shaheen: M. Sc. Student in Environmental Science, funded by Austrian Development Agency in cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority, under supervision of Mutaz Qutob, and Mustafa Khamis
• Miss Fida’ : M.Sc. Student in Applied Industrial Technology, funded by DFG project, under supervision of Dr. Saleh Abu Lafi and Dr. Mutaz Qutob
• Miss Tasneem Al-Ja’bari: M.Sc. Student in Environmental Sciences, funded by Austrian Development Agency in cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority, under supervision of Dr. Jawad Hasan
• Mr. Ibrahim Ayyad: M.Sc. Student in Environmental Sciences, funded by Austrian Development Agency in cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority. under supervision of Dr. Jawad Hasan

I- Wastewater reclamation, Performance and efficiency of the treatment plant

Fouling of the spiral wound UF membrane was prevented by coupling it with the hollow fiber membrane. We continued in this period to monitor all the operational (pressures and flow rates), chemical (pH, EC, BOD, COD, heavy metals), biological (TPC and FC) as well as the physical (TS, TDS, TSS) performance of this unique plant.  The database is continuously updated accordingly. From these data, we can conclude that this configuration with the cleaning protocols that were employed is still marinating excellent performance of both the spiral wound and hollow fiber membranes.  The infrastructure of plant was also modified so that real close loop configuration was employed. For this purpose, all backwash, brine of the UF and brine of the RO are collected is special tanks and then pumped to the main wastewater collection system to be retreated again.  This zero discharge configuration is to be tested for future performance and environmental impact. Still we need to work on introducing a suitable sludge treatment system so that the treated sludge could be collected and tested on land application to improve soil fertility.

In this period, we would like also to report on our attempts to quantify the standard operating procedures and cost for optimizing the cleaning protocol for this unique system.

II- Microbial Removal from secondary treated wastewater using Ultra-filtration and Reverse Osmosis Technologies

By Jehad Abbadi, Rinad Zghari, and Mustafa Khamis

In eastern Mediterranean countries including Palestine, the demand on water is growing rapidly due to rapid population growth, urbanization and socioeconomic development. Both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are facing a series of wastewater and sanitation-related problems: large-scale discharge of untreated wastewater, leaking of collected wastewater from sewer systems and cesspits, water treatment plants that do not function or function only poorly and uncontrolled reuse of untreated wastewater by the irrigation sector. This is causing many diseases related to contaminated drinking water. Statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that there were more than 17,000 cases of water-related illnesses during recent two years in Gaza. However, since many symptoms are often confused with other sicknesses, some researchers feel as many as 25 outbreaks go unreported for every one reported, since many people are exposed to potentially harmful microbes and pesticides, through drinking tap water and taking showers (UNEP, 2003). One reason for these increasing health problems is that it is difficult to treat chlorine effectively, after using it as a disinfectant (Tavakoli, et al., 2005)

The major source of both human and fecal coliform in drinking water in   Gaza is the direct and indirect contamination by raw or treated wastewater. Poor treatment allows the coliform to persist.  The results of water samples collected from wells and networks in the Gaza Strip by the Ministry of Health indicated that most wells for drinking water were free from organisms. However, some pathogens will survive for only a short time in the water, so the chance of them causing an illness is small. Others may survive for months like guardian, amoeba and cryptosporidium. If the water is not treated or poorly treated for pathogens, a susceptible person will suffer from illness.

One of the most widely used wastewater treatment processes is the activated sludge process. It is a cost effective treatment method under optimal conditions, but bulking can be a chronic problem in some plants (Lim et al., 2004). The use of membranes for wastewater treatment was limited to particular situations due to their high costs (management and plant costs), and suspected to microbial fouling (Lubello et al., 2003). After passing through the UF units, the water can be disinfected by chlorination with its health and environmental consequences (Tavakoli, et al., 2005). Reverse osmosis membranes are capable of rejecting bacteria, salts, sugars, proteins, dyes and other constituents that have a molecular weight greater than 150-250 daltons. RO membranes, like all membranes, are subjected to fouling by “cake layer” formation, (Radcliff and Zarnadze, 2004), but coupling the membrane systems with other technologies such as the pretreatment using activated sludge process and using a further treatment using the reverse osmosis technologies could be the most efficient in treating wastewater efficiently along with rejecting microbes and reducing membrane fouling without chlorinating the final effluent.

The main objectives of this study are:

• To determine the efficiency of hollow-fiber and spiral wound in terms of removing bacteria from waste water.
• To screen a wide range of bacterial species present in wastewater that has certain health significance, and checking their presence in the inlet wastewater and monitoring the efficiency of their removal using our treatment system. The microbes under investigation are: Escherichia coli, Enterococci bacteria, Shigella, Salmonella, in addition to Total coliform bacteria, Fecal coliform bacteria, and Total plate count.
• To perform modeling experiment for bacteria having health significance or found in low count in the inlet wastewater under investigation such as E.scherichia coli, Enterococci, Salmonella, and Shigella  as microbial models  to be inoculated in a certain count (105 -107 cfu/ml) influent then passed through AST-UF filters (hollow fiber) and Nirosoft- UF (spiral wound) and RO filters and record their rejection efficiency.

III-Efficiency of the membrane technology towards pharmaceutical removal from waste water

By Rafiq R. Karaman, Omar Deeb and Mustafa Khamis

Among the top twenty medicines that have been found to be frequently used in the West Bank and Jerusalem (1) is the well known pain killer agent, aspirin. In addition to its uses as antipyretic and pain killer, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is used once daily in low doses, 75 mg and 100 mg, as prophylactic medicine for the prevention of blood aggregation. The latter (blood aggregation) is the most common cause for heart attack among people over the age of 35 (2-3)

As the first stage in testing the capability and the effectiveness of the membrane plants, kinetic experiments on aspirin have been carried out at different pH values. The kinetic results at room temperature reveal that aspirin undergoes hydrolysis to salicylic and acetic acids via a general base catalyzed process and the rate of the hydrolysis is first order and pH-independent.  Chart 1 illustrates the mechanistic pathway of aspirin hydrolysis.

Since our previous results, using UV-visible techniques, on the role of activated sludge in accelerating or inhibiting the rate of hydrolysis of aspirin resulted in a complex and problematic data we have chosen to investigate the sludge process using HPLC techniques (4) where both the reactants and products can be displayed simultaneously.  Using the HPLC methods, we have succeeded to establish optimal conditions for the separation of the products from the reactants where the retention time difference between the reactant, aspirin, and the product, salicylic acid, is exceeding 1.4 minutes. In the following subtitles we introduce our preliminary results on the study of hydrolysis of aspirin in the presence and absence of sludge utilizing HPLC methods.

IV- Reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture

By Adnan Rashid, Muhannad Qurie, Jehad Abbadi and Mustafa Khamis

Reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture becomes a routine practice in different parts of the world.  However, certain negative environmental impact on soil properties and plant response were observed due to the salt content of the treated wastewater. In this project, we try to investigate the effect of improving water quality on the soil and plant properties. These can be achieved   by treating wastewater to RO level and then prepare a mix  from RO and  Ultra- filtration (UF) treated wastewater which mimic the fresh water characteristics from electrical conductivity point of view.  Chickpea (homous) was chosen for this experiment due firstly to its popularity in Palestine and other parts of the world. Secondly, due to our previous experiment with activated sludge irrigation of chickpea this revealed that not all cultivars are responding positively to irrigation with this type of water.

V Isolation of the most promising saponins for future in vivo sex inversion trials in tilapia fish

By Saleh Abu Lafi, Fida, and Mutaz Qotob

Growing mono sex, all-male population of fish is highly desirable in some species in aquaculture, including tilapia, due to higher growth rates of males, better coloration and as men of controlling reproduction. Efforts done to investigate the possibility of natural saponins derived from fenugreek (helbeh) and isolate the most promising saponins for future in vitro sex inversion. The invitro biological activity assay was based on the tritiated water assay using microsomes isolated from ovaries of females fish. Fenugreek saponins by using semi prep HPLC and Assume to be the most promising for masculinzation treatments

VI Cost and tariff for small scale wastewater treatment plants: Comparison between decentralized advanced membrane plants and conventional plants in West Bank.

By Majdi Shaker Shaheen, Mutaz Qutob, and Mustafa Khamis

The aim of this project is to compare the cost efficiency of most medium and large scale wastewater treatment plants in the West Bank in terms of the implemented technology and cost effectiveness to help the decision maker to choose the best and suitable technology for the Palestinian community.

M. Sc. Student: Mr. Majdi Shaker Shaheen, B. Sc. in Physics from Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine in 2000, worked as a Science teacher for five years in UGU schools in Hebron.

VII Efficiency of the membrane technology in terms of Aspirin removal from wastewater

By Fatimah Ayesh, Rafiq Karaman, Omar Deeb, Mustafa Khamis

As the first stage in testing the capability and the effectiveness of the membrane plants, kinetic experiments on aspirin have been carried out at different pH values. The kinetic results at room temperature reveal that aspirin undergoes hydrolysis to salicylic and acetic acids via a general base catalyzed process and the rate of the hydrolysis is first order and pH-independent. Then Kinetic of the hydrolysis of aspirin in the presence of sludge was studied, finally efficiency of the membrane technology in removal of aspirin and salicylic acid from wastewater was studied all steps were carried out using HPLC.

IIX Project Title:- Effect of the Olive Mill Wastewater(OMWW) on Soil Properties (chemical and physical)

By Ibrahim Ayyad and Jawad Shqier

The olive mills wastewater contains high amounts of organic pollutants and high concentration of phenolic compound that negatively affects soil, underground water. This project aims to study the effect of olive mills wastewater on soil, properties in terms of chemical and physical properties. Research also will address the movement of phenolic compound in soil depth and their effect on the microbial activity of soil.

M. Sc. Student: Mr. Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim Ayyad, a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Chemical Technology from Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, Palestine, 2010.

IX Fate and occurrence of Olive mill at the environment survey and feasible pretreatment     alternatives case study “The Southern West Bank”

By Tasneem Al-Jabari, and Jawad Hasan

The study focusing on the olive mill wastewater (OMWW); that result from olive oil production. OMWW is a liquid effluent that has a brown to reddish brown color. It is considered as a great pollutant due to its high organic COD load, and because of the presence of phytotoxic and antibacterial phenolic substances which resist biological degradation. This OMWW confronted to a serious ecological problem in the West Bank due to their toxicity and their seasonal production, and because of the lack of appropriate alternative technologies for treatment. In this project our objective is to determine the quantity & quality of OMWW and their fate in the environment by carrying out a survey on olive mill in Hebron & Bethlehem discrete. The task will include field screening and sampling to make lab analysis of certain parameters (pH, EC, Total solids, COD, oil & grease, polyphenols, volatile phenol, and nitrogen-organic). This allows us to develop new treatment technologies depend on combination between biological and chemical treatment.

Donor: This work is part of the project of Capacity building and institutional reform to obtain integrated administration water and sanitation services in rural communities, Funded by the Austrian Development Agency in cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority.

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At Al-Quds University

The wastewater treatment plant at Al-Quds University is consisted of activated sludge process followed by two cut-off membrane filter machines (Hollow fiber UF followed by Spiral wund UF), followed by a reverse osmosis system.

Activated sludge treatment system

A locally made package wastewater treatment plant was installed at Al-Quds university main campus at Abu-Dies in 1998. It is based on the activated sludge extended aeration treatment process. The generated wastewater (black and grey wastewater and runoff water) is collected from different places of Al-Quds University campus in a two-stage primary settling basin then pumped to the treatment plant.

The hydraulic retention time in an aeration tank of the wastewater treatment plant is 16-20 hours. The microorganisms metabolize the organic matter which subsequently decreases BOD value of treated wastewater. The activated sediment in the clarification tank is circulated to the aeration tank with special pump. Wastewater is then treated with aluminum sulfate as coagulating agent to promote the removal of suspended solids before filtration with sand filter. The destruction of high population of microbes is carried out by chlorination using Tricolor as disinfectant. The treated wastewater is collected for reuse in a special pond. Part of activated sludge secondary treated wastewater is connected to the UF hollow fiber system without treatment with chlorine for farther treatment by filtration technologies.

Ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis plant

Two small scale membrane treatment plants with a capacity of 12 m3 /day were installed at the site in 2004 and 2006 from local companies.

The first unit was equipped with two pressure vessels made from Vendor (AST technologies, model number 8000 WW 1000-2M) that house the hollow fiber membranes with 100 kD cutoff (Vendor, AST technologies, Model no. 8000- WWOUT_IN_8080). The second UF unit was equipped with 2×4 inch pressure vessels with pressure resistance up to 150 psi. Each vessel holds two separation membranes (spiral wound with 20 kD cutoff which is equivalent to 0.01 micron separation rate). The designed permeate capacity of the system is 0.5-0.8 m3/h. This membrane can remove bacteria, suspended solids, turbidity agents, oil, and emulsions. The two UF units (Hollow fiber and Spiral wund) are designed to delver 1.5 m3/h.

A reverse osmosis treatment system is installed. The RO membranes are manufactured from thin film polyamide. It consists of 1×4 inch pressure vessel made from composite material with pressure resistance up to 400 psi. The vessel holds two 4 inches special separation membranes (Manufactured in thin film polyamide with pH range 1-11 model BW30-4040 by DOW Film Tec.). Membrane anti-scalent (Product NCS-106-FG, made of phosphate in water with active ingredient of phosphonic acid disodium salt) are continuously dosed to the RO feed at concentration of 4 ppm in order to prevent deposition of divalent ions. The system is designed to remove major ions and heavy metals. The designed RO permeate capacity of the system is 0.45-0.5 m3/h.

The secondary treated effluent from the collection pond is pumped to the hollow fiber ultra-filtration unit, then to the spiral wund ultra-filtration unit. The UF permeate is collected in special tank and further fed to the RO unit were it is further treated to the required quality.

Wastewater reuse

The treated wastewater generated from the activated sludge treatment plant at A-Quds University followed by (part of it) UF and RO systems are monitored all the time by a trained operator under the direct supervision of a specialized technical and research team at Al-Quds University. Wastewater samples from different ten operational sites of the treatment plant are taken biweekly and analyzed at the Center and Biological Analysis at Al-Quds University to insure quality of treated wastewater according to the WHO and the Palestinian standards for treated wastewater non restricted for irrigation. Treated wastewater generated from this treatment plant is used to irrigate non edible trees and flower plants at the University.

Remote Monitoring System of Wastewater Treatment Plant

• Adsorption and Determination of Cr (VI) & Cr (III) in industrial wastewater using ICP-AES by Muhammad Musa Mere’b, supervised by Dr. Mustafa khamis, Dr. Adnan Rashid and Majdi Dakiky, Al-Quds Unversity, 2000.
• Analytical study of hazard elements, air pollutants in the area of Bethlehem and Hebron by Suhail M. Odeh, supervised by Dr. Rushdi Kitaneh, and Dr. M. Abu-Taha, Al-Quds University, 2001.
• Effect of nitrogen forms on tomato growth and fruit quality and improving nitrogen fixation to increase yield of chickpea and fava bean. By Jehad Muhammad Abbadi, supervised by Dr. Mustafa khamis, Dr. Adnan Rashid, and Dr. Magdi El- Dakiki, Al-Quds University, 2002.
• The response of chickpea (Cicer atietinum L) to irrigation with reclaimed waste water, by Mohhanad Saleem Quarei, supervised by Dr. Mustafa khamis, Dr. Adnan Rashid and Dr. Majdi El-Dakiky, Al-Quds University, 2002.
• Speciaition and removal of Cr (III) and Cr (VI) by continues flow method using low cost adsorbents, by Talib Mosa Ahmad Ihmied, supervised by Dr. Mustafa khamis, Dr. Adnan Rashid and Dr. Majdi El-Dakiky, Al-Quds University, 2006
• Analysis of volatiles in Palestinian honey by HS-SPME/GCMS to determine its botanical origin, by Ibrahim Hasan Ibrahim AL-Najjar, supervised by Dr. Imad Odeh, Dr.Saleh Abu-Lafi and Dr. Hasan Dweik, Al-Quds University, Dec 2004.
• Isolation and identification of the essential oils of the Palestinian Thyme (Majorrana Syriaca L.) using Head Space GC/MS, by Mohhamad Mahmoud Qabaja, supervised by Dr. Dr. Imad Odeh, Dr. Saleh Abu-Lafi and Dr. Hasan Dweik, Al-Quds University, Jan 2004.
• Effect of Treated Effluents on the persistence of Atrazine in clay loam soil cropped with Zea mays, by Jawad Ali Hasan, supervised by Dr. Jaber Masalha and Cluade Al-A’ma, Al-Quds University, April 2005.

• Waste water treatment and reuse in agriculture, by Mustafa Khamis, Jehad Abbadi, and Mohhand Quire, funded by the Belgian Government
• Waste water reuse in irrigation of olives, by Hasan Dweik, and Saleh sawalha Belgium Project, funded by the Belgian Government
• Effect of inoculation of Azospirillium brasiliense strain Cd on improving growth and yield of chick pea and fava beans, by Adnan Rashid, and Jehad Abbadi, funded by the Belgian Government
• Effect of salinity on tomato production, by Adnan Rashid, and Jawad Hasan, funded by the Belgian Government.
  Biological control using of plant diseases, by Khaled Salem , Jawad Hasan
• Effect of nitrogen Forms and salinity on quality of tomato fruits, by Mustafa Khamis and Jehad Abbadi, funded by DFG

• Bianca Hamaoui, Jihad M. Abbadi, Saul Burdman, Adnan Rashid, Shlomo Sarig and Yaacov Okon, (2001): Effects of inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense on chickpeas (Cicer arietinum) and faba beans (Vicia faba) under different growth conditions, Agronomie 21, 553-560.
• M. Khamis, J. Abbadi, B. Sattelmacher, J. Gerendás and U. Kafkafi (2002) Influence of N form (NO3- vs. NH4+) and salinity on tomato yield and fruit composition, In Horst, W. J. et al., (Eds.) Plant Nutrition, Food security and sustainability of agro-ecosystems through basic and applied research, Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht; The Netherlands, Vol. 92, pp 306-307.
• M. Haddad, M. Khamis, M. Dakiky, M. Qurie (2006): The response of chickpea cultivars to irrigation with treated wastewater. In the proceedings of the World Water Day, Amman, Jordan.
• M. Haddad, M. Khamis, M. Dakiky, A. Manassra, M. Qurie (2007): Characterization and Optimization of the Advanced Membrane Wasewater Treatment Pilot Plant at Al-Quds University, In the proceedings of the World Water Day, Rammalah, Palestine.
• Jehad Abbadi, J. Gerendás, and B. Sattelmacher (2005): Effects of N, P and K Supply on Growth and Yield of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) Compared to Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under Greenhouse Conditions. In Esendal, E. et al., (Ed.): VIth International Safflower Conference, 6-10 June, Istanbul-Turkey, pp 335-343.
• Jehad Abbadi (2007) Importance of nutrient supply (N,P,K) for yield formation and nutrient use efficiency of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) compared to sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) including an assessment to grow safflower under north German conditions. Verlag Grauer. Beuren. Stuttgart.
• Jehad Abbadi, Jóska Gerendás, and Burkhard Sattelmacher (2008): Effects of Nitrogen Supply on Growth, Yield and Yield Components of Safflower and Sunflower, Plant and Soil, 306, pp: 167-180.
• Jehad Abbadi, Jóska Gerendás, and Burkhard Sattelmacher (2008): Effects of Potassium Supply on Growth and Yield of Safflower as compared to Sunflower, Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 171, 272-280.
• Jóska Gerendás, Jehad Abbadi, and Burkhard Sattelmacher (2008): Potassium Efficiency of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) and Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 171, 1-9.
• Jehad Abbadi and Jóska Gerendás (2009): Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Safflower as compared to Sunflower. Journal of Plant Nutrition 32:6, 929 – 945.
• Jehad Abbadi and Jóska Gerendás (2009): Effects of Phosphorous Supply on Growth and Yield of Safflower as compared to Sunflower, Journal of Plant Nutrition ID: LPLA-2009-0088.R1 (under revision).