Author Archives: Salman Zafar

About Salman Zafar

Salman Zafar is the Founder of EcoMENA, and an international consultant, advisor, ecopreneur and journalist with expertise in waste management, waste-to-energy, renewable energy, environment protection and sustainable development. His geographical areas of focus include Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. Salman has successfully accomplished a wide range of projects in the areas of biomass energy, biogas, waste-to-energy, recycling and waste management. He has participated in numerous conferences and workshops as chairman, session chair, keynote speaker and panelist. Salman is the Editor-in-Chief of EcoMENA, and is a professional environmental writer with more than 300 popular articles to his credit. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management and environmental sustainability in different parts of the world. Salman Zafar can be reached at salman@ecomena.org or salman@bioenergyconsult.com

Working of a Modern Biogas Plant

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Biogas plants are decentralized energy system that can lead to self-sufficiency in heat and power requirements, and at the same time reduces environmental pollution. A biogas plant stabilizes organic waste through natural biological process in the absence of air and transforms waste into biogas and biofertilizer. Such facilities are well-suited to wet organic material and are commonly used for treating biodegradable waste materials such as waste paper, grass clippings, leftover food, sewage and animal waste. The components of a modern biogas (or anaerobic digestion) plant includes manure collection, anaerobic digester, effluent treatment plant, gas storage, and CHP or electricity generating equipment.    … Continue reading →

What Are the Environmental Benefits of Electric Cars

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People are moving away from driving gas-powered vehicles at a tremendous rate for financial and environmental reasons. We have looked at a few key areas where using electric cars will benefit us in the areas we live in and in our wallets. Considering the first Tesla to hit the road was less than twenty years ago (2003), we have seen a dramatic shift towards electric vehicles from small manufacturers all the way through to major car producing companies. This shift has enormous environmental benefits for all of us and will continue to do so for generations to come. 1. Clean … Continue reading →

10 Top Ways to Make Your Life Green

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No one is small enough to make a difference. When it comes to protecting the planet, each and every individual matter. Being green is not only good for the environment, but it also helps in saving money and safeguarding our health. We can do a lot of ‘green’ things in our daily lives to reduce waste generation, clean the air, conserve natural resources, save energy and protect wildlife. Here are 10 top ways to make your life green, and thus becoming good environmental stewards for the Earth: 1. Turn Down the Heat Reducing domestic energy consumption can help in minimizing … Continue reading →

Financing Solar Panels: Are Solar Panels Financially Feasible For You?

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Solar panels are taking off and that’s the cold, hard truth. In recent years, the residential solar energy market has seen incredible growth. While the particular business segment still has a long way to go, figures don’t lie and the foreseeable future all point to the technology’s development. But if you haven’t joined the bandwagon just yet, you may be asking yourself if the homeowners who’ve already done it are worth emulating.  Is it even feasible, to begin with? Hearing “well that really depends” as a response can be off-putting, so this article aims to thoroughly discuss the financial factors … Continue reading →

Medical Wastes in GCC

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There has been a growing awareness of the need for safe management of medical waste all over the world. Medical Waste are generated by all health sectors including hospitals, laboratories, diagnostic and research centers, dental and medical clinics, blood banks, mortuaries and autopsy centres, veterinary hospitals, industrial laboratories etc. Medical wastes which pose the greatest risk to human health are infectious waste (or hazardous medical waste) which constitutes 15 – 25 percent of total healthcare waste. Infectious wastes may include all waste items that are contaminated with or suspected of being contaminated with body fluids such as blood and blood products, used catheters … Continue reading →

Energy from Wastes via Thermal Route

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Thermal (or thermochemical) conversion systems consist of primary conversion technologies which convert the waste into heat or gaseous and liquid products, together with secondary conversion technologies which convert these products into the more useful forms of energy being heat and electricity. A wide range of technologies exists to convert the energy stored in wastes to more useful forms of energy. These technologies can be classified according to the principal energy carrier produced in the conversion process. Carriers are in the form of heat, gas, liquid and/or solid products, depending on the extent to which oxygen is admitted to the conversion process … Continue reading →

Masdar’s Partnership with GDF Suez for Morocco CSP Project

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Masdar and GDF Suez are working in a consortium as one of the pre-qualified bidders for the 200MW Noor II and 100MW Noor III CSP projects in Morocco. The winning bidders are expected to be announced in September this year and in a recent interview with CSP Today, Yago Mancebo, Investment Manager at Masdar, spoke about Masdar’s first experience in the bidding process for a CSP project and their reasons for partnering with GDF Suez. Masdar has a strong portfolio of CSP projects behind them (Gemasolar and Shams 1), whilst their partner GDF Suez are one of the biggest independent … Continue reading →

10 Easy Editing Tips for Your Perfect Essay

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Starting an essay may be difficult but the real agony lies in finishing. Most students assume that the complexities of essay writing lie in figuring out the topic, creating a good thesis, presenting the facts and supporting your arguments. Well, this could not be further from the truth! Granted, this part of the work requires a lot of effort and skill. However, the secret to writing a perfect essay lies in your editing skills. Editing requires more than the usual spell-check. Spell-checkers may fail to pick up a few errors that the human eye would. All the facts and statistics … Continue reading →

7 Unique Ways the World is Adapting to Limited Resources

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Globally speaking, we use 30 percent more of the earth’s non-renewable resources than is sustainable. Unsustainability means using resources at a quicker rate than they can regenerate, therefore limiting their availability for future generations. Resource limitations include deforestation, degraded soil, polluted air and water sources, water table depletion, acidic oceans, and declines in biodiversity. One of the most impactful ways for the consumer goods industry to help the planet is to play a part in adapting to the decreased availability of resources and sustainability. This means redesigning consumer products and production systems to use fewer environmentally harmful or resource-depleting raw … Continue reading →

Energy Globe Award: Participate in the Largest Environmental Award!

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Energy Globe Award annually honors outstanding, sustainable projects in the field of environment and energy. The award is presented nationally in more than 180 countries, as well as internationally in 5 categories: Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Youth. With applications a year from more than 180 countries, Energy Globe Award has become the largest environmental prize worldwide. The international category winners are awarded in a ceremony which is broadcasted all over the world, receive a total of 10,000 Euro as prize money and are in the spotlight of international media coverage. Projects with a focus on the conservation of resources, … Continue reading →

How Education Can Help in Tackling Global Warming?

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Climate scientists are sure that humankind contributed to Global Warming. Increase in temperatures create a potential for rising sea level and reducing land surface on which people can live, undermining water and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, and human health. Struggle for resources is likely to provoke armed conflicts and mass migration. Since this problem is aggravating very rapidly, actions should be taken to prevent or at least slow down further climate change and adapt to its effects. Local responses proved to be ineffective. Therefore, states should develop a complex of behavioral, institutional and technological approaches, mix different strategies, combine policies, … Continue reading →

Energy Perspectives for Jordan

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The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an emerging and stable economy in the Middle East. Jordan has almost no indigenous energy resources as domestic natural gas covers merely 3% of the Kingdom’s energy needs. The country is dependent on oil imports from neighbouring countries to meet its energy requirements. Energy import costs create a financial burden on the national economy and Jordan had to spend almost 20% of its GDP on the purchase of energy in 2008. In Jordan, electricity is mainly generated by burning imported natural gas and oil. The price of electricity for Jordanians is dependent on price … Continue reading →

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