Civil Engineering / İnşaat Mühendisliği
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Article Citation - WoS: 13Citation - Scopus: 14Boron Removal From Geothermal Brine Using Hybrid Reverse Osmosis/Microbial Desalination Cell System(Elsevier, 2023) Jarma, Yakubu A.; Kabay, Nalan; Baba, Alper; Ökten, Hatice Eser; Gören, Ayşegül YağmurAgriculture sector leads worldwide as the most water consuming sector with water demand. Since natural water resources cannot keep up with the demand, a shift from conventional water resources to unconventional ones is needed. While geothermal water was gaining importance for its energy content, small-scale (<10 L/s) energy plants were not required to reinject their spent geothermal brine. As geothermal resources align with agricultural areas in Western Anatolia, discharge of untreated brine might have severe adverse effects on crop yields and soil quality. In this study, we investigated use of spent geothermal brine for irrigation after treatment with Reverse Osmosis/Microbial Desalination Cell (RO/MDC) hybrid process. Treatment efficiencies for B, COD, As, Li, Fe, Cr concentrations and energy production values were determined. Treated water was initially evaluated for irrigation considering three quality categories (I, II, and III) comprised of parameters such as electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), along with sodium, chloride and boron concentrations. Additionally, magnesium adsorption ratio (MAR) and permeability index (PI) were used to evaluate for irrigation suitability. Although B concentrations in MDC-treated permeate (3.29 mg/L) and concentrate (2.99 mg/L) streams were not low enough to meet Quality I criterion (<0.7 mg/L), they can be still utilized in irrigation of moderate-to-high tolerant plants. Furthermore, PI and MAR parameters pointed to suitability for irrigational use. © 2022Article Citation - WoS: 40Citation - Scopus: 47Boron in Geothermal Energy: Sources, Environmental Impacts, and Management in Geothermal Fluid(Elsevier, 2022) Mott, A.; Baba, Alper; Hadi Mosleh, Mojgan; Ökten, Hatice Eser; Babaei, Masoud; Gören, Ayşegül Yağmur; Feng, C.; Recepoğlu, Yaşar Kemal; Uzelli, Taygun; Uytun, Hüseyin; Morata, Diego; Yüksel Özşen, AslıThe problem of hazardous chemicals in geothermal fluid is a critical environmental concern in geothermal energy developments. Boron is among the hazardous contaminants reported to be present at high concentrations in geothermal fluids in various countries. Poor management and inadequate treatment of geothermal fluids can release excessive boron to the environment that has toxic effects on plants, humans, and animals. Despite the importance of boron management in geothermal fluid, limited and fragmented resources exist that provide a comprehensive understanding of its sources, transport and fate, and the treatment strategies in geothermal energy context. This paper presents the first critical review from a systematic and comprehensive review on different aspects of boron in geothermal fluid including its generation, sources, toxicity, ranges and the management approaches and treatment technologies. Our research highlights the origin of boron in geothermal water to be mainly from historical water-rock interactions and magmatic intrusion. Excessive concentrations of boron in geothermal fluids have been reported (over 500 mg/L in some case studies). Our review indicated that possible boron contamination in geothermal sites are mostly due to flawed construction of production/re-injection wells and uncontrolled discharge of geothermal water to surface water. The dominancy of non-ionic H3BO3 species makes the selection of the suitable treatment method for geothermal waters limited. Combining boron selective resins and membrane technologies, hybrid systems have provided effluents suitable for irrigation. However, their high energy consumption and course structure of boron selective resins encourage further research to develop cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 11Geothermal Potential of Granites: Case Study- Kaymaz and Sivrihisar (eskisehir Region) Western Anatolia(Elsevier, 2022) Chandrasekharam, Dornadula; Baba, Alper; Ayzit, Tolga; Singh, Hemant K.Radiogenic granites are gaining importance due to their ability to generate a substantial amount of electricity and support the advancement of agricultural and water sectors. In the western Anatolian region, such granites occupy a cumulative area of 6910 km2 varying from 7 to 20 μW/m3, far above the heat generated by the average continental crust of 5 μW/ m3. One cubic. The granite plutons of the Eskisehir region are amongst such granites with radioactive heat generation kilometer of such granite can generate 79 × 106 kWh of electricity. In the present case, the Eskisehir granites are capable of generating 616 million kWh of carbon-free electricity. Besides electricity, the heat from the granites can be utilized for space heating and greenhouse cultivation. This energy can also be utilized for the generation of fresh water from the sea through the desalination process. Hydrofracturing of the granites to create a fracture network connecting injection and production well is being replaced with closed-loop system that do not require knowledge about the stress pattern of the region and reduce the risk of induced micro-seismicity that was a bottleneck for developing EGS projects. Although the currently estimated cost of electricity generated from EGS projects is 9 euro cents/kWh, this cost will get reduced due to technological development in drilling technology. The Western Anatolian region has an additional advantage over the cost, since the drilling depth to capture the heat from the granites is shallow (∼3 km) which gives further benefit to the cost due to the reduction in drilling depth cost. In addition to high radiogenic granites, the presence of curie point temperature at shallow depth, high heat flow, and high geothermal gradient makes this region a warehouse of energy making Turkey energy-food and water independent in the future.Article Citation - WoS: 7Citation - Scopus: 11Utilization of Membrane Separation Processes for Reclamation and Reuse of Geothermal Water in Agricultural Irrigation of Tomato Plants-Pilot Membrane Tests and Economic Analysis(Elsevier, 2022) Jarma, Yakubu A.; Karaoğlu, Aslı; Senan, Islam Rashad Ahmed; Meriç, Mehmet Kamil; Kukul, Yasemin Senem; Özçakal, Emrah; Barlas, Neriman Tuba; Çakıcı, Hakan; Baba, Alper; Kabay, NalanThe quality of irrigation water is critical for enhancing agricultural productivity. As a result, this research was carried out with the aim of treating spent geothermal water before it is used for agricultural irrigation. While doing that, cost analysis of the system was taken into consideration as well. The product water was targeted to suit irrigation water standards for tomato plants. Two commercially available pressure driven membranes (NF8040-70 as NF membrane and TM720D-400 as RO membrane) were employed for this task. A constant applied pressure of 15 bar and 60% of water recovery were kept constant during the product water production while mode of operation for the membrane system was continuous. According to Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization irrigation water standards and the results obtained from this study, it was clearly seen that both NF and RO product waters meet the quality I class irrigation water standards with respect total dissolved substances (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), concentrations of Na+ and Cl− ions. Quality 1 means that the produced water will not cause any environmental effect when employed for irrigation purpose. Nevertheless, the produced water was found not to obey the irrigation standards with respect to sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and boron concentration (quality III class). Quality III explains that the water will cause soil infiltration problems when employed for irrigation purpose. Since most of the minerals needed for plant growth were rejected by NF and RO membranes, an appropriate mixing ratio of the product water with well water for remineralization was determined. Mixing 50 and 60% of well water with the product waters of NF (50%) and RO (40%) membranes, respectively was found to be the optimum mixing ratios to produce the requested water quality for tomato irrigation. Quality II class irrigation water which can be applied with caution was targeted in terms of SAR as well as boron concentration (2–4 and 4–6 mg/L) while determining the mixing ratios. The cost of the product water was found as 0.76 and 1.56$/m3 for NF and RO processes, respectively.Article Citation - WoS: 29Citation - Scopus: 40Geothermal Resources for Sustainable Development: a Case Study(Wiley, 2022) Baba, Alper; Chandrasekharam, DornadulaTurkey's primary energy source is fossil fuels, with a contribution of 55%. According to the International Energy Agency forecast, fossil fuels will continue to be the primary energy source for the next decade. The current CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-based energy are 400 Mt. If the present energy usage trend continues, then the emissions will cross 500 Mt by 2030. However, Turkey has large scope to mitigate climate-related issues and follow sustainable development agenda by increasing the share of geothermal energy as a primary energy source mix. The country established a strong geothermal energy program in 1984 by installing a 17 MWe geothermal power plant in Kızıldere and made tremendous progress in this field. Currently, the power generation has crossed 1665 MWe. Turkey has drawn a new road map to enhance its primary energy source mix by developing its radiogenic granites (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) for power generation and carbon dioxide capture programs. This is an emerging technology that is being recommended for Turkey. Currently, France, Australia, and the United Kingdom are surging ahead in implementing Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), and France has established a pilot power plant using EGS and generating 10 MWe. The United Kingdom will be starting its 3 MWe power plant. The hydrothermal source, in combination with Enhanced Geothermal Systems, can contain the annual CO2 emissions to 500 Mt and reduce the per-capita CO2 emissions to 4.5 tons annually. One of the greatest contributions to climate mitigation and sustainable development made by the geothermal industry is the sequestration of CO2 from the Kızıldere geothermal power plant for the manufacturıng of dry ice and use CO2 from the Tuzla geothermal power plant for minimizing scaling. This dry ice technology can be extended to the cement industry to capture 18 billion CO2 being emitted annually from clinker manufacturıng units. The dry ice will be useful in combating forest fires that are common in Turkey. The article discusses the new technological developments that Turkey is adopting to mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable development goals.Article Citation - WoS: 6Citation - Scopus: 6Valuing Groundwater Heritage: the Historic Wells of Kadıovacık(Springer, 2021) Yüceer, Hülya; Baba, Alper; Özcan Gönülal, Yasemin; Uştuk, Ozan; Gerçek, Deniz; Güler, Selen; Uzelli, TaygunThe consideration of the subject of water resources, seen as a part of cultural heritage, generally includes water-related architectural structures such as bridges, aqueducts, and cisterns. Groundwater resources and related structures, however, receive little attention as heritage assets, and they are mostly forgotten together with the valuable information they hold. In this sense, this study aims to provide an accurate assessment of groundwater heritage and to suggest proposals for conservation through the case of the historic wells of Kadıovacık village in the Urla district of İzmir. Although the region where the village is located is rich in groundwater resources, the residents have suffered from drought for ages due to the specific geological characteristics of the Kadıovacık polje. The limited amount of water resources in Kadıovacık village have karstic characteristics and have shaped the life and topography of the region. To access and harvest this limited groundwater, a group of wells had been constructed on the ridge of the hill. These wells have been idle since 1980s with the supply of city main water. In line with the aim, a comprehensive heritage valuation by an interdisciplinary group of experts is essential to reveal the significance of the relatively humble wells. Accordingly, a multi-method system is used, including historical, social, cultural, architectural, geological, hydrogeological, and environmental aspects. The results show that although the wells are generally considered to be less important as heritage assets in terms of their physical features, an in-depth evaluation demonstrates their high significance for the village community.Article Citation - WoS: 13Citation - Scopus: 18Integrated Pressure-Driven Membrane Separation Processes for the Production of Agricultural Irrigation Water From Spent Geothermal Water(Elsevier, 2022) Jarma, Yakubu Abdullahi; Karaoğlu, Aslı; Tekin, Özge; Senan, Islam Rashad Ahmed; Baba, AlperThe application of different pressure-driven membranes to treat the spent geothermal water to be used for agricultural irrigation was explored in this study. Firstly, individual performances of different commercially available nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes attached to a mini-pilot membrane test system were studied. For the single membrane test TR-NF and NF90 as NF membranes and TR-BWRO, Vontrone, TR-SWRO and BW30 as RO membranes were employed while combination of TR-NF with TR-BWRO, Vontrone, TR-SWRO and BW30 was employed in the integrated study (with and without pH adjustment).When performances of individual membranes were investigated, the permeate fluxes obtained it was found that there was no significant flux drop with the experimental time (4 h) in all the studies. In terms of boron removals, boron was partially removed in single membrane study as 22.7–23.6% and 30.6–56.8% by NF and RO membranes, respectively. For the integrated NF + RO membrane configuration (without pH adjustment), boron removals were in the range of 42.1–59.4% while 91.3–95.4% of boron removal was obtained in the integrated NF + RO (at elevated pH). It was found that the produced water complied with class I quality with respect to irrigation water parameters with the exception of boron and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), while the pH of the product water in the integrated NF + RO study at elevated pH was found to be in class III. Hence, produced water will be suitable (class II) for irrigation if 30% of well water should be blended with the product water in the integrated NF + RO studies (with and without pH adjustment) as well as pH adjustment when necessary.Article Citation - WoS: 58Citation - Scopus: 76Utilization of Renewable Energy Sources in Desalination of Geothermal Water for Agriculture(Elsevier, 2021) Tomaszewska, Barbara; Gökçen Akkurt, Gülden; Kaczmarczyk, Michal; Bujakowski, Wieslaw; Keleş, Nazlı; Jarma, Yakubu A.; Baba, Alper; Bryjak, Marek; Kabay, NalanThe agricultural sector, which is highly dependent on water, is urged to build on improved water management practices and explore available options to match supply and demand because of the water scarcity risks and a sustainable and productive agri-food chain. Geothermal water is an energy source used to generate electricity and/or heat. After harnessing its energy, the remaining water can be used as a water source for irrigation following treatment because of its high ionic content. Geothermal fields are mostly located in rural areas where agricultural activities exist. This would be a good match to decrease the transportation cost of irrigation water. The energy demand of the desalination process for agriculture is higher, requiring additional post-treatment processes. Fossil fuels to fulfill the energy requirements are becoming expensive, and greenhouse gas emissions are harmful to the environment. Thus, efforts should be directed towards integrating renewable energy resources into desalination process. This work focuses on presenting a comprehensive review of geothermal water desalination which is powered by renewable energy and provides specific cases from Turkey and Poland. Furthermore, possible new generation renewable energy systems in desalination are introduced, considering their potential application in the desalination of geothermal water for agricultural irrigation.Article Citation - WoS: 32Citation - Scopus: 35Distribution of Geothermal Arsenic in Relation To Geothermal Play Types: a Global Review and Case Study From the Anatolian Plate (turkey)(Elsevier, 2021) Baba, Alper; Uzelli, Taygun; Sözbilir, HasanArsenic has a natural cycle as it travels underground. It can mix with geothermal fluid in different ways under the control of magmatic and tectonic processes. Geogenic arsenic is present in many geothermal fields in the world at concentrations above the limits set for human health. The arsenic content of geothermal fluids is also related to the concept of geothermal play type, which forms geothermal systems, because the natural processes that form the geothermal system also control the arsenic cycle. In this study, an attempt is made to explain the relationship between the geothermal play type concept and geothermal arsenic circulation. For this purpose, geothermal field examples are given from around the world and Turkey. The result shows that arsenic concentrations can reach significant levels along with plate tectonic boundaries in the world. When arsenic concentrations were evaluated, the effect of major faults on the Anatolian Plate was clearly seen. Also, in the Anatolian plate where volcanosedimentary units are common, geothermal fluids caused more effective alteration along with structural control and increased arsenic concentrations in geothermal systems. This interaction between structural elements, geothermal fluid, and the arsenic cycle shows that the concept of play type in geothermal systems should also be taken into consideration. It was determined that the places with high arsenic values are located within the convective-non-magmatic extensional geothermal play types such as Western Anatolian Extensional System and the North Anatolian Fault. The concept of play type in geothermal systems includes all systematic and external factors that make up these processes. For this reason, it is very important to evaluate the play type classification together with the arsenic cycle.Article Citation - WoS: 11Citation - Scopus: 15Groundwater Resources and Quality in Syria(Elsevier, 2021) Baba, Alper; Karem, Ruwad AL.; Yazdani, HamidrezaThe resources of groundwater and its pollution in Syria are identified, and pathways of contaminants to groundwater are described. Then, suggestions for improvement of groundwater quality in Syria are evaluated. Syria is located in a region where water scarcity is dominant. About 87% of all water in Syria is mainly used for irrigation, with almost 60% of this water taken from groundwater resources. The rest is used for domestic and industrial purposes, which account for 9% and 4%, respectively. Due to over-pumping and the increase in the number of unsustainable wells observed in recent decades, groundwater is quantitatively deteriorating. In general, sources of groundwater contamination fall into two main categories: natural and anthropogenic sources. Important sources of natural groundwater pollution include climate effects. About 43% of groundwater has a high concentration of SO4 and/or NaCl. This is specifically dominant in the eastern region of Syria due to the harsh environment where precipitation is relatively low, and evaporation is high. One of the major sources of anthropogenic groundwater contamination is civil war. Most of the damaged regions are located on permeable rocks, which increases the probability of groundwater contamination due to chemical weapons (CW) used. It is vital to manage and control groundwater resources well. With the increase in water contamination and with the absence of poor water management, access to drinking water will be more of a problem than it is now.