Hebrew University

Cleaning up oil in Arava

The Tran-Israel oil pipeline spill near the Evrona Nature Reserve in the Arava Desert has harmed flora and fauna. (photo by Menachem Zalutzki via Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection)

On Dec. 3, 2014, a fractured pipe created the biggest oil spill in Israel’s history, releasing some five million litres of crude oil far into the Arava Desert. In the days that followed, experts from around the world were contacted to clean it up, including from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

photo - Hebrew University’s Dr. Yoel Sasson (pictured here) and his colleague Dr. Uri Stoin have developed a technology that can treat waste caused by any organic compound, including oil — Hebrew University’s Dr. Yoel Sasson (pictured here) and his colleague Dr. Uri Stoin have developed a technology that can treat waste caused by any organic compound, including oil. *(photo from Yoel Sasson)*

Dr. Yoel Sasson, a professor at Hebrew University’s Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, specializes in environmental catalysis, and he and student Dr. Uri Stoin have developed a soil decontamination process that can treat waste caused by any organic compound, including oil.

According to Sasson, spills are common in countries where oil is being moved by pipes and, considering how old the pipe is in Israel, it was just a matter of time that such a leak would occur, he said.

Exacerbating the situation was that it took hours for the break to even be detected. “It’s horrible, because the oil is simply killing everything,” said Sasson. “All the farmland, the flora and fauna … nothing is left alive once the oil is there.”

The Ministry of the Environment is now in charge of cleaning up the spill and they will have to select the contractor to do the job. According to Sasson, there are several companies that have placed bids, one of which is Man Oil Group, the Swiss company licensed to commercialize this technology developed at HU.

A superoxide, the technology is a variation of an oxygen molecule. “Unlike the oxygen molecule, which is relatively inert, superoxide is a very aggressive, free agent,” explained Sasson. “And it actually oxidizes every organic material.”

It works by breaking down the organic (carbon-based) matter into water and CO₂, and the organic material very rapidly oxidizes, he explained. “Normally, within 10 minutes, oil simply disappears … the soil re-mineralizes,” he said.

“As the oil is killing everything, when you apply the agent, you do not revive the plants, but you take the soil back to its virgin condition. And then, with time, nature will come back. We estimate six to 12 months, [then] it comes 100 percent back to life.”

The CO₂ released in the process can also be neutralized and turned into sodium carbonate, which is soluble with water. With rain, it will be washed away.

Typically, technologies of this kind are termed as either “biological” or “chemical.”

Biological means bacteria is applied (i.e. eating or digesting the oil), a technique that has been used for many years. While this does work, it has some drawbacks. “It’s very slow,” said Sasson. “It would take a half a year to a year to start to see something developing. And it requires excavating the soil, digging it out, so the bacteria will have some air. They are aerobic material.

“Our method is chemical,” he continued, “which means it’s fast, a matter of minutes, actually.”

Sasson estimated that the oil did not seep deeply into the Arava soil, approximately 10 or 20 centimetres maximum. Regardless, he said, the agent is not limited to any particular depth. It can be drilled into the soil and the whole treatment can take place underground.

photo - A cormorant that fell victim to the oil spill — A cormorant that fell victim to the oil spill. *(photo by Menachem Zalutzki via Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection)*

Man Oil Group has been cleaning up oil spills with superoxide in Siberia, Africa and in the Gulf States, and is now looking at the soil in the Arava. The areas that it cleaned in Siberia were larger than that of the Arava spill, and the company has also conducted a successful test cleaning a stretch of a Swiss railway track. The track base, which is comprised of limestone, was restored to its white state, eliminating years of oil drips that were becoming an environmental problem, killing everything around it. Man Oil also conducted a test on the Arava spill site, with positive results.

According to Sasson, oil-caused damage is a worldwide problem that is very serious. But he is focused on cleaning up other contaminated areas as well, one of which is the result of military industries that have left organic pollution underground in Jerusalem.

“This particular case involves mainly those from a group of materials called ‘organic chlorine compounds,’” said Sasson. “These types of compounds, nature doesn’t recognize, and they are polluting underground water. It’s really a disaster.

“When we started, we worked on the destruction of these materials. This was very successful. But, we noticed it takes a lot of time with the authorities to get permission. It takes many years to start such a cleanup. Meanwhile, the oil cleanup is faster and is needed in many more places.”

Another application focus for Sasson is sewage sludge, a by-product of bacteria used to digest sewage waste being disposed of into the environment, causing contamination.

“You feed bacteria your waste,” said Sasson. “They convert the waste into CO₂ and water again but, at the same time, they are growing. And, normally, for one kilogram of waste, you will build up a weight of about 450 grams of bacteria (about 50 percent) and then you create a new waste. So, instead of having one kilogram of waste, now you have half a kilogram. But you’re still stuck with it, because there’s nothing to do with the bacteria. So, what we are trying to do is really decompose this waste using our agent. So far, initial experiments show it is working but, of course, we have to substantiate it and develop it into larger scale.”

At press time, Sasson was still waiting to hear from the Ministry of the Environment if the process they developed will be chosen to clean up the Arava spill.

***

The Evrona Nature Reserve rehabilitation team began its work on Jan. 12, 2015, with a meeting headed by Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Ofir Akunis. Air quality tests found that there has been a 90 percent reduction of pollution in Evrona, one of the sites most harmed by the December 2014 oil spill in Israel’s southern Arava region. Some 30 companies are now vying to be selected to decontaminate the soil that was contaminated by the oil spill. The reserve, noted Akunis, will open once there is no fear that the health of visitors could be affected. The hope is that this will be in the near future.

– Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection (sviva.gov.il)

מסביב לקולומביה הבריטית

Mideast future bleak

Prof. Shlomo Hasson of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem speaks with audience member Marvin Weintraub after his presentation on Israel’s geopolitical situation. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

While Prof. Shlomo Hasson of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem offered some hope that Israel will one day live in peace, he did not offer many reasons to be optimistic about the future of the Middle East.

Speaking to more than 150 people at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Sept. 4, Hasson put the current geopolitical situation of Israel into context, and discussed four possible futures for the Middle East in general, and for Israel in particular. These scenarios were derived at HU’s Shasha Centre for Strategic Studies, which Hasson heads.

Hasson, who is also a professor in HU’s department of geography, School of Public Policy, and the Leon Safdie Chair at the Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, began by sharing his belief, as a strategist, that, “In every crisis, there is also embedded an opportunity.”

The main issues, he explained, are Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state and its security within recognized (legitimate) borders, the conflict with Hamas and the regional upheaval. The question is which map(s) and policy(ies) can best deal with all these issues (demography, democracy, legitimacy and geography) and what are the driving forces (internal, regional and global) shaping this map.

The dilemma is not new, said Hasson. “We have always asked ourselves, ‘How can we sustain Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure and legitimate borders?’” What is new, however, is the context.

According to Hasson, the new aspects of Israel’s dilemma include that the United States doesn’t have a comprehensive Middle East strategy; the cold war in the region (states fighting each other indirectly using proxies, such as extremist groups); the region’s instability (failed states, non-state actors); the increase in criticism of Israel (even by allies) and antisemitism; and the indeterminate results of Operation Protective Edge.

About the war with Hamas over the summer, Hasson divided the results into achievements and failures. Achievements included the devastation Israel inflicted on Hamas, the tunnels it destroyed and the top commanders it killed, the effectiveness of the Iron Dome, the isolation of Hamas, the resilience within Israel and Israelis’ support of the war. On the negative side, he said, Israel did not manage to defeat Hamas; the Israeli government exhibited reactive policy, a lack of creativity and an absence of strategy during the conflict; there were rifts with the United States; the recognition of Hamas as a political actor; and, within Israel, there was bitterness and political division. Hasson questioned whether the war had achieved greater security or served as deterrence.

Hasson went through four predominant opinions on Israel’s possible future, ranging from the Greater Land of Israel to no Jewish state. One of the reasons that progress in achieving agreement is hard, he said, is because people approach it with their own “inevitability assumptions” about such things as to where Israel’s borders should lie: for example, the 1967 borders are inevitable because they stem from moral/progress imperatives, or the Greater Land of Israel borders are inevitable because of a divine promise.

Israel’s decisions and border preferences are not the only ones that will influence its future. Other forces are at work: the super powers (United States, China, Russia, European Union), regional powers (Turkey, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia/Egypt), developments in the Arab world, relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as developments within the PA.

Hasson highlighted the importance of the Sunni versus Shi’a conflict, explaining some of the possible regional outcomes: national-religious states, democracy, the prevalence of moderate autocrats or the rise of extremists. He said that Israel cannot only focus on its relations with the Palestinians, but must take a broader view, including in its strategizing the Arab world, non-state actors, regional rivalries, and global competition over resources and positions.

He described four scenarios and hypothesized their likelihood.

“Pax Americana,” in which the United States returns to the region as a major actor, the Arab nations engage in democratization and Israel returns to the 1967 borders was one of them. Hasson said, “If you ask me, what are the chances, or the probabilities, of this scenario, I would say … very slim. So, when people talk about the ’67 borders, I share their expectation and I have the highest respect for the people who believe in a two-state solution … unfortunately, the leading driving forces are not taking us in this direction….”

Hasson described both the regional hegemony of Sunnite moderate parties (“a moderate Hamas” may prevail in this scenario) and “clash of civilizations” (between Islamic and non-Islamic forces, but also within Islam, where the extremists will take over) as having a moderate chance of occurring, and the potential for anarchy (with even the superpowers fighting each other) as high.

The Middle East will be unstable for a long time and a two-state solution cannot come to fruition, at least in the short term, he concluded. While a bi-national state might be possible, it is not desirable from Israel’s perspective, he said, and there is a need for another approach.

Hasson recommended that Israel recognize a Palestinian state without recognizing its borders, continue to engage in negotiations with the Palestinians and work toward international legitimacy. If negotiations fail, he said Israel has “to consider the possibility of unilateral withdrawal to defensible borders because we shouldn’t give the Palestinians a veto right over Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state…. So, Israel must ensure its security and international legitimacy but also its demography.”

Hasson, referring to the Shasha Centre scenarios he outlined, predicted that Israel in 2020 will have defensible borders, and that the future will involve unilateral acts by the Palestinians (turning to the United Nations, for example) and Israel (more settlement building, for example) – “there will be mutual adaptation and, from time to time, we will have a cycle of violence in the Middle East. But, currently, we don’t see any prospect of getting to the ’67 borders.”

Dina Wachtel, executive director of the local Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, welcomed the audience, and CFHU board member Dr. Sam Bugis introduced Hasson.

DNA’s not only factor

Epigenetics: environmental effects influence how genes are turned on or off. (photo by Yuval Robichek via wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il)

Blood stem cells have the potential to turn into any type of blood cell, whether it be the oxygen-carrying red blood cells or the many types of white blood cells of the immune system that help fight infection. How exactly is the fate of these stem cells regulated? Preliminary findings from research conducted by scientists from the Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew University are starting to reshape the conventional understanding of the way blood stem-cell fate decisions are controlled, thanks to a new technique for epigenetic analysis they have developed.

Understanding epigenetic mechanisms (environmental influences other than genetics) of cell fate could lead to the deciphering of the molecular mechanisms of many diseases, including immunological disorders, anemia, leukemia, and many more. It also lends strong support to findings that environmental factors and lifestyle play a more prominent role in shaping our destiny.

The process of differentiation – in which a stem cell becomes a specialized mature blood cell – is controlled by a cascade of events in which specific genes are turned “on” and “off” in a highly regulated and accurate order. The instructions for this process are contained within the DNA itself in short, regulatory sequences. These regulatory regions are normally in a “closed” state masked by special proteins called histones to ensure against unwarranted activation. Therefore, to access and “activate” the instructions, this DNA mask needs to be “opened” by epigenetic modifications of the histones so it can be read by the necessary machinery.

In a paper published in Science, Dr. Ido Amit and David Lara-Astiaso of the Weizmann Institute’s immunology department, together with Prof. Nir Friedman and Assaf Weiner of Hebrew University, charted for the first time histone dynamics during blood development. From the new technique for epigenetic profiling they developed, in which just a handful of cells – as few as 500 – can be sampled and analyzed accurately, they have identified the exact DNA sequences, as well as the various regulatory proteins, that are involved in regulating the process of blood stem-cell fate.

Their research also yielded unexpected results: as many as 50 percent of these regulatory sequences are established and opened during intermediate stages of cell development. This means that epigenetics is active at stages in which it had been thought that cell destiny was already set. “This changes our whole understanding of the process of blood stem-cell fate decisions,” said Lara-Astiaso, “suggesting that the process is more dynamic and flexible than previously thought.”

Although this research was conducted on mouse blood stem cells, the scientists believe that the mechanism may hold true for other types of cells. “This research creates a lot of excitement in the field, as it sets the groundwork to study these regulatory elements in humans,” said Weiner. Discovering the exact regulatory DNA sequence controlling stem-cell fate, as well as understanding its mechanism, holds promise for the future development of diagnostic tools, personalized medicine, potential therapeutic and nutritional interventions, and perhaps even regenerative medicine, in which committed cells could be reprogrammed to their full stem-cell potential.

For more Weizmann Institute news releases, visit wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il.

– Courtesy of Weizmann Institute