This study highlights the groundwater hydrogeochemical characteristics and processes (hydrochemistry characteristics, ion exchange, and salinization) and quality suitability assessment for irrigation purposes from five wells in the Greenbelt area located in northwestern Al-Najaf Governorate, Iraq. The suitability of groundwater for irrigation was assessed based on the irrigation water quality index (IWQI) for thirteen parameters and groundwater quality indices such as total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), soluble sodium percent (SSP), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), total hardness (TH), permeability index (PI), potential salinity (PS), Kelley’s ratio (KR), and magnesium hazard ratio (MHR). The IWQI’s average values ranged between 76–139. The results of IWQI for the first and second sampling sites showed values of 139 and 104, respectively, indicating that the groundwater was unsuitable and unsafe for irrigation. In contrast, the IWQI for the third, fourth, and fifth sites were 83, 97, and 76, respectively, indicating that the groundwater was safe and possibly used for irrigation. The EC, TDS, PS, and MHR indices were all found to be unsuitable for irrigation in all five sites, and the KR index was also found to be unsuitable for agricultural irrigation in about 80% of the sites, while it was found that the indices of SAR, SSP, RSC, PI, and TH for all sites were suitable and safe for irrigation. As a result of this study, it has been determined that groundwater in the study area is unsuitable for agricultural irrigation. For sustainable groundwater exploitation, it is advised that a continuous water-quality-monitoring program should be implemented, as well as the development of suitable management practices.

Reverse osmosis is a major process that produces soft water from saline water, and its output represents the majority of the overall desalination plants production. Developing efficient membranes for this process is the aim of many research groups and companies. In this work, we studied the effect of adding cellulose micro crystals (CMCs) and cellulose nano crystals (CNCs) to the support layer and thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane on the desalination performance. SEM, TEM, ATR-FTIR, and contact angle measurements were used to characterize the membrane’s properties; and membrane’s performance were evaluated by water flux and NaCl rejection. Filling 2% of CNCs gel in the support layer improved the water flux by +40%, while salt rejection maintained almost the same, around 95%. However, no remarkable improvement was gained by adding CNCs gel to m-phenylenediamine (MPD) solution, which was used in TFN membrane preparation. Filling CMCs powder in TFN membrane led to a slight improvement in terms of water flux.

A composite, three-layered membrane for membrane distillation was prepared from electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers supported by commercial polyethersulfone (PES) nanofiber based nonwoven from E.I. duPont de Nemours company (DuPont). The membranes were tested in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) using a 5.0 M sodium chloride brine as a feed solution. The triple layer membrane combines the hydrophobicity of PVDF and the robustness of the PES. The triple layer membrane demonstrated excellent performance in DCMD (i.e., relatively high water flux compared to the commercial PVDF membrane and a complete salt rejection of the brine) with mechanical properties imparted by the PES layer. This work is the first to demonstrate the use of a commercially produced nanofiber nonwoven for membrane distillation.