Author Archives: Nadjib Drouiche

About Nadjib Drouiche

Dr. Nadjib Drouiche is a multidisciplinary researcher and policy analyst with an extensive academic background and a strong record of scientific publications across several domains. His research interests span semiconductor technology, energetics, and environmental sciences, with a particular emphasis on desalination, wastewater treatment, and sustainable water management.

From Living Labs to Digital Twins: A New Path for Scaling Sustainable Innovation

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Every year, governments, research institutions and industries invest billions of dollars in pilot projects designed to demonstrate innovative solutions for water, energy, agriculture, waste management and climate adaptation. Many of these initiatives successfully prove that new technologies work under real operating conditions, yet surprisingly few are replicated on a larger scale. Once a project ends, the knowledge it generated often remains confined to reports, scientific publications and the experience of the teams involved. The next region wishing to implement a similar solution frequently has to repeat much of the same work, consuming additional time, funding and technical resources. This persistent … Continue reading →

Best Practices for the Operation and Maintenance of Seawater Desalination Plants

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Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination has become one of the most widely deployed technologies for securing potable water in water-scarce regions. Its rapid expansion is driven by technological maturity, modularity, and continuous improvements in energy efficiency. Despite these advances, the long-term performance of desalination plants is still strongly dependent on operation and maintenance (O&M) practices rather than on design alone. Extensive research has demonstrated that fouling, scaling, and operational instability remain the dominant causes of performance decline in full-scale SWRO plants, leading to increased energy consumption, reduced permeate quality, and higher life-cycle costs [1–3]. The global desalination sector has evolved … Continue reading →

The Role of Dissolved Gases and Ionic Composition in Reverse Osmosis Desalination

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As global water stress intensifies, seawater desalination has become one of the cornerstones of water security in arid and semi-arid regions. From the Gulf countries to the Mediterranean basin, Australia, and parts of North America, desalination plants now produce tens of millions of cubic meters of drinking water every day. Reverse osmosis (RO) has emerged as the dominant desalination technology due to its increasingly competitive energy efficiency and the continuous improvement of membrane performance [1]. However, beyond traditional operational parameters such as salinity, pressure, and recovery rate, one critical factor often remains underestimated: seawater temperature. Its influence extends far beyond … Continue reading →

Desalination at a Turning Point: Breakthrough Innovations Driving Sustainable Water Production

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Desalination has become one of the most important technological pillars for addressing global water scarcity. As climate change intensifies droughts, population growth increases water demand, and industrial development places additional pressure on freshwater resources, desalination is evolving from an alternative water source into a strategic component of water security [1,2]. Recent advances presented at international scientific forums reveal that the sector is undergoing a profound transformation. No longer focused solely on producing freshwater from seawater, modern desalination is increasingly characterized by resource recovery, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, digitalization, and integration with renewable energy systems. One of the most significant breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Startup Ecosystems in the Era of the Knowledge Economy: Challenges, Best Practices, and International Models

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Innovative entrepreneurship has become a major driver of economic competitiveness, industrial diversification, and the creation of skilled jobs in the contemporary global economy. In a context marked by the acceleration of digital transformation, the rapid development of AI, and the transition toward a knowledge-based economy, startup ecosystems are now recognized as strategic instruments for sustainable growth. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, historically dependent on natural resources and traditional economic models, is currently undergoing a gradual transformation toward economies increasingly driven by innovation and digital technologies. This evolution has been accompanied by the proliferation of incubators, investment funds, … Continue reading →

Valorization of Desalination Brines into Molten Salts, Carbonates and Thermal Fluids

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The management of brines generated from seawater desalination has become a central issue in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly in Mediterranean basin countries and the Middle East. The rapid increase in desalination capacity, especially through reverse osmosis, has helped secure access to drinking water but has also generated a growing stream of hypersaline discharges. Global estimates indicate that worldwide brine production now exceeds 140 million m³/day, or more than 50 billion m³/year, with continuous growth driven by industrial desalination development [1]. One of the most widely studied pathways is the transformation of salts contained in brine into materials for thermal … Continue reading →

Critical Minerals and the Water–Environment Nexus: Challenges and Pathways for Sustainable Extraction

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The rapid acceleration of the global energy transition has placed critical minerals at the center of economic, technological, and geopolitical transformations. Minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, and copper are indispensable for renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, digital infrastructure, and energy storage technologies. International institutions including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations (UN), and the European Union (EU) increasingly describe these resources as the backbone of decarbonization pathways [1]. However, the expansion of critical mineral extraction raises profound environmental concerns, particularly regarding water consumption, water pollution, ecosystem degradation, and social inequalities. While these materials are … Continue reading →

British Coal as a Warning for the Global Energy Transition

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The history of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain is often portrayed as a linear path of technological progress and economic expansion. Yet this narrative conceals structural costs that, in light of today’s energy transition challenges, deserve rigorous re-examination. The rise of coal in the 18th and 19th centuries formed the energy backbone of modern industrialization, enabling unprecedented growth in production, urbanization, and trade. However, this transformation came with deep and lasting social, environmental, and economic damages, some of whose underlying mechanisms risk being replicated today in the global energy transition, characterized by a heavy reliance on critical minerals whose … Continue reading →

Solid Waste Management in the Mediterranean – Challenges, and Success Stories

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Solid waste management in the Mediterranean region represents one of the most complex and pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century, shaped by a unique combination of demographic pressures, economic disparities, tourism intensity, and fragile ecosystems. The Mediterranean basin, home to over 500 million people and one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, generates rapidly increasing volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW), while facing persistent structural deficiencies in collection, treatment, and disposal systems. These challenges are particularly acute in the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, where institutional, financial, and technical limitations hinder progress toward sustainable waste management systems. Scale of … Continue reading →

Hazardous Waste Management in MENA: Pathways, Challenges and Opportunities

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Hazardous waste management in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has become a critical environmental, economic, and public health issue, shaped by rapid industrialization, demographic growth, urban expansion, and increasing consumption patterns. Hazardous waste, defined as waste exhibiting toxic, corrosive, reactive, or flammable properties requires specialized handling, treatment, and disposal systems to prevent harm to ecosystems and human health [1]. Globally, between 300 and 500 million tonnes of hazardous waste are generated annually, reflecting the scale of the challenge [2]. Within the MENA region, although comprehensive data remain fragmented, available evidence suggests that hazardous waste streams are rising … Continue reading →

Rethinking Desalination through Digital Twins: From Energy-Intensive Processes to Intelligent Water Systems

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The increasing global water scarcity driven by climate change, population growth, and industrial expansion has positioned desalination, particularly seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), as a strategic solution for ensuring water security. However, desalination processes remain energy-intensive, operationally complex, and sensitive to variations in feedwater quality and membrane performance. In this context, the emergence of the Digital Twin represents a paradigm shift in the management and optimization of desalination systems. What is Digital Twin? A digital twin is generally defined as a dynamic virtual replica of a physical system that integrates real-time data, physics-based models, and advanced analytics to simulate, predict, and … Continue reading →

Desalination Membranes as RDF for Cement Kilns: Opportunities and Constraints

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The rapid expansion of desalination through reverse osmosis has significantly transformed global water resource management, but it has also created a growing challenge related to the management of end-of-life membranes. These industrial wastes, mainly composed of engineering polymers such as polyamide, polysulfone, and polypropylene, exhibit physicochemical properties that, while initially optimized for filtration, may become an asset within an energy recovery framework [1-2]. The average lifespan of reverse osmosis membranes ranges from five to ten years, generating substantial waste streams worldwide [1]. As an order of magnitude, a desalination plant with a capacity of 100,000 m³/day can generate between 2,000 … Continue reading →