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    OPTIMAL SIZING AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF LITHIUM BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM IN AN ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK WITH LARGE PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PENETRATION IN PALESTINE
    (An-Najah National University, 2025-05-08) Jaradat, Tha'er
    This work evaluates the integration of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) into Palestine’s fragmented power grid, focusing on environmental, technical, and economic dimensions. A multi-method framework combines life cycle assessment (LCA), techno-economic optimization, and market attractiveness analysis. Using ReCiPe 2016 methodology in openLCA, lithium-ion iron phosphate batteries (LFP) demonstrated the lowest environmental burden, with a 89% reduction in global warming potential (GWP) when charged via photovoltaic (PV) systems versus grid electricity. Linear optimization for a 25 MVA/33 kV network with 7 MWp PV capacity identified an optimal BESS size of 120 Ah/33 kV, achieving a 1% loss of load probability (LOLP) and annual savings of $0.367 million. The BESS market attractiveness index (BMAI) revealed Palestine’s score (1.907) lags behind regional peers like Turkey (2.964) and Israel (2.729), hindered by weak policies and limited storage infrastructure. Key contributions include: (1) a novel integration of LCA with grid-specific optimization to balance sustainability and reliability; (2) development of the BMAI for cross-country energy storage market benchmarking; and (3) actionable policy pathways, such as hybrid PV-BESS incentives and recycling programs, to align Palestine’s energy transition with regional advancements. This work underscores the viability of BESS systems for reducing emissions, enhancing grid resilience, and advancing energy security in politically constrained environments.
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    THERMALLY STABLE MONTMORILLONITE/SAND COMPOSITE FOR THE REMOVAL OF PHENAZOPYRIDINE FROM WATER BY ADSORPTION, FOLLOWED BY THERMAL REGENERATION: REUSABILITY IN BATCH AND CONTINUOUS FLOW SYSTEMS
    (An-Najah National University, 2025-06-23) Madi, Shatha
    Since water is the essence of life, preserving it is imperative. However, the problem of pharmaceutical contamination in water sources has grown to be a global concern due to recent developments, particularly in the industrial and pharmaceutical sectors. The expulsion of waste products draining into water sources, primarily by industrial and human waste, is causing severe damage, ranging from aquatic life to human health. Therefore, finding efficient, eco-friendly, and low-cost methods that can be applied on a large scale for practical water purification is the general direction recently. In order to process water pollution with pharmaceutical contaminants, an effective and sustainable method is presented in this work using adsorption integrated with the thermal decomposition technique. Adsorptive removal of the pharmaceutical model phenazopyridine hydrochloride (PHY) from water was applied using the prepared adsorbent montmorillonite/sand composite (Mnt/sand), which is repeatedly regenerated by thermal decomposition of the adsorbed PHY, considering the high thermal stability of the adsorbent material. In addition to the batch system, this method was applied to the column system as a practical application. Variant parameters are examined for both systems, examining the supervision adsorption process and its mechanism. For the batch system, the effects of pH, initial concentration, adsorbent amount, and temperature were determined and optimized. The adsorption showed high efficiency in the acidic region, with a maximum percentage of removal 91% at pH 5, which is parallel to the initial pH of the PHY solution, also neutral pH gave relative performance, but decreased at high basic medium pH (10). Adsorption was increased as the amount of Mnt/sand increased, with an optimized amount of 0.5 g, removing 96% of 20 ppm, 100 mL PHY solution reaching the equilibrium within 20 minutes (pH 5, 25◦C). For the initial concentration parameter, inverse relations exist, as it increased the efficiency decreased. Langmuir isotherm model with the highest fitting (R2 = 0.99) indicated a monolayer adsorption mechanism with a homogeneous surface for the adsorbent. The Kinetic study determined the order of the adsorption process, which followed pseudo-second order model. In addition, activation energy was calculated, taking a value of 30.4 kJ/mol. Thermodynamic parameter values specified spontaneous and endothermic adsorption, as a result of negative values of ΔG at different temperatures, and the positive value of ΔH, respectively, implying a strong affinity between PHY and Mnt/sand. Column adsorption experiments were considered with various parameters involving flow rate, concentration, effluent temperature, and column height. A decrease in the flow rate of the effluent enhanced the adsorption performance. The same for concentration, as it decreased the adsorption efficiency increased. While improved column working was observed with a longer column height. Optimized column parameters were determined through continuous adsorption experiments to be 10 ml/min, 50 ppm, 6 g, 8 cm,25 ◦C, pH 5, which revealed a high efficiency performance of 97%. Characterization of Mnt/sand described its components and structural features. X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated a high degree of crystallinity of Mnt/sand, and it showed sand and montmorillonite peaks combined in the spectrum, emphasizing the emergence of both sand and montmorillonite. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed porosity and aggregation of the adsorbent granules. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was essential to approve the thermal stability of adsorbent material, which was detected for Mnt/sand up to 800 ◦C. Also, it was used to determine the thermal decomposition temperature of free PHY, which was found to be 650 ◦C. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum of the contaminated Mnt/sand evidence PHY adsorption, due to the appearance of PHY peaks in the spectrum, while the disappearance of PHY functional groups peaks after regeneration asserts that thermolysis left a clear adsorbent afterwards. The reusing process was based on the thermolysis technique, which was applied to the polluted adsorbent, breaking adsorbed PHY molecules into CO2, H2O, and other volatile gases at 650 ◦C, whereas the Mnt/sand maintains its efficiency during thermal regeneration operation, according to its high thermal stability. Thermolysis temperature study supported with computational study was applied to investigate the possibility of saving energy by reducing the temperature required for thermolysis, minimizing it to 550◦C showing equivalent performance, without any efficiency loss. In conclusion, these results showed operative performance for both batch and column systems, using the prepared adsorbent Mnt/sand for adsorptive removal of PHY. This validates using the adsorption-thermolysis technique as an efficient, economical, scalable, and reusable technique for water treatment from pharmaceutical pollutants.
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    EXPLORING GENETIC DIVERSITY OF PALESTINIAN OLIVE TREES
    (An-Najah National University, 2025-06-19) Alomary, Ahmad
    The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) holds deep cultural, ecological, and economic importance in Palestine and the broader Mediterranean region. Despite the historical and environmental relevance of Palestinian olive populations, particularly ancient trees and traditional cultivars, their genetic diversity and structure have remained understudied. This research aims to genetically characterize 142 olive samples including ancient canopy trees, rootstocks, wild olives, and local cultivars. The sampling strategy was designed to cover diverse agro-ecological zones and land use types, with samples collected from five major olive-growing governorates in the West Bank: Jenin, Tubas, Nablus, Hebron, and Bethlehem. Leaf samples were collected and georeferenced using GPS, and basic morphological characteristics were documented to support field verification and traceability. The study employed ten highly polymorphic Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers to assess allelic diversity, heterozygosity, population structure, and genetic differentiation. Results revealed substantial genetic variation among the sampled populations, with an average of 13.1 alleles per locus and high observed heterozygosity (Ho = 0.820) indicating high genetic diversity. Negative fixation indices at most loci indicated a healthy level of outcrossing and minimal inbreeding. The markers UDO-043, DCA3, DCA9, and GAPU103A exhibited the highest allelic richness, demonstrating their utility in distinguishing genotypes and identifying potential candidates for breeding programs. A Neighbor-Joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree and Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) both confirmed the presence of genetically distinct clusters, with the Nabali (Baladi) cultivar dominating the clonal canopy group and diverse genotypes appearing among the rootstock and wild populations. Comparison with 746 international olive genotypes further underscored the genetic uniqueness of Palestinian olives, supported by a ΦPT value of 0.245 (P < 0.001) and Nei’s genetic distance of 0.604. These results affirm that Palestine harbors valuable and distinct olive genetic resources that have been shaped by centuries of local adaptation and traditional propagation practices. The findings emphasize the urgent need to conserve ancient olive orchards as critical genetic reservoirs. Strategies such as the establishment of national germplasm banks, re-genotyping of cultivar collections, and community-based conservation efforts are essential. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of olive biodiversity in Palestine and offers foundational data for sustainable breeding programs, conservation planning, and cultural heritage preservation in the face of climate change and agricultural modernization.
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    FINITE VOLUME METHOD FOR SOLVING NAVIER STOKES EQUATIONS IN FLUID DYNAMICS
    (An-Najah National University, 2025-06-24) Abu Arrah, Abdulraheem
    Several equations, particularly the Navier-Stokes equations, govern fluid dynamics. These equations are essential for describing fluid motion, which helps us understand many natural phenomena. The Navier-Stokes equations present significant challenges for researchers in mathematics and engineering due to their complexity and the difficulties in obtaining analytical solutions. As a result, it has become necessary to explore alternative methods for solving these equations, particularly through numerical approaches. Since numerical methods yield approximate solutions, it is vital to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in addressing the Navier-Stokes equations. One such numerical method is the finite volume method (FVM), which provides approximate solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations. In this thesis, we conducted a thorough examination of the finite volume method using various examples of the Navier Stokes equations that have analytical solutions. We began with simpler cases and gradually increased the complexity while also comparing our numerical results with the analytical solutions to assess how closely they aligned with the exact solutions. This comparison enabled us to evaluate the effectiveness of the method. We encountered issues related to the stability and accuracy of the numerical solutions based on the specific conditions we examined while employing this method. As a result, we discussed the numerical schemes related to the Finite Volume Method (FVM) and the criteria for selecting a specific scheme, especially concerning the Peclet number. We then evaluated the effectiveness of each scheme by applying them to the same case. The results obtained from the finite volume method for solving one-dimensional steady state Navier-Stokes equations, with a suitable choice of discretization scheme, provided accurate solutions with excellent stability. However, we observed that when high Peclet numbers were used, solution instability emerged, necessitating the implementation of higher-order discretization schemes. Future research could build on this method by looking at flow situations in two or three dimensions and improving computing efficiency with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and better discretization schemes.
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    A PROPOSED METHOD FOR MITIGATION THE UNBALANCED CURRENTS IN POWER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK WITH PV SYSTEMS
    (An-Najah National University, 2025-04-23) Raed Aref Kmail, Ahmad
    This study aims to solve the problem of uneven electricity use in homes that share a three-phase power supply. This unevenness happens when too many houses rely heavily on just one or two of the three power lines, leading to wasted power, overloaded lines, voltage drops and even blackouts. The growing use of solar panels on homes makes this problem even worse since the amount of electricity they produce can fluctuate . To fix this, the project created a smart system that uses a microcontroller and WiFi technology to constantly monitor and adjust how electricity is distributed among the three power lines. It keeps track of how much power each house uses and how much solar energy is being produced, then automatically shifts houses between the lines to keep things balanced. Tests of this system show losses reduced from 138 kW to 9 kW—resulting in cost savings of $193.2, or $3.75 per house. The system achieved a simple payback period of less than one month. Furthermore, the lowest network voltage improved from 206 V under unbalanced conditions to 221 V after implementing the balancing solution. This study is important because it shows how to better manage modern power grids that include a lot of solar energy. By using this system, power companies can ensure a more stable and dependable electricity supply to homes while also supporting the use of renewable energy sources like solar power.