Haoran Yuan

Scalable microbial fuel cell (MFC) stack for continuous real wastewater treatment.

A tubular air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) stack with high scalability and low material cost was constructed and the ability of simultaneous real wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation was investigated under continuous flow mode. At the two organic loading rates (ORLs) tested (1.2 and 4.9kg COD/m(3)d), five non-Pt MFCs connected in series and parallel circuit modes treating swine wastewater can enable an increase of the voltage and the current. The parallel stack retained high power output and the series connection underwent energy loss due to the substrate cross-conduction effect. With continuous electricity production, the parallel stack achieved 83.8% of COD removal and 90.8% of NH(4)(+)-N removal at 1.2kg COD/m(3)d, and 77.1% COD removal and 80.7% NH(4)(+)-N removal at 4.9kg COD/m(3)d. The MFC stack system in this study was demonstrated to be able to treat real wastewater with the added benefit of harvesting electricity energy.

Nitrogen-doped carbon sheets derived from chitin as non-metal bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution

Affordable, efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) are critical for various energy technologies. Herein, we report that an activated carbon sheet (ACS) derived from chitin is an efficient non-metal bifunctional electrocatalyst for both ORR and OER. In alkaline media, the as-prepared ACS exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction, which was significantly superior to an unactivated carbon sheet (CS) and comparable to the commercial Pt/C catalyst with excellent durability and resistance to the crossover effect. Meanwhile, the same ACS also presents high catalytic activity towards OER, with a small overpotential of ∼1.64 ± 0.02 V versus RHE. The excellent electrocatalytic properties of the ACS originated from the combined effect of optimal nitrogen doping, high surface area, and porous architecture. This work demonstrates that the ACS is a promising material candidate with high-performance in electrocatalytic applications in energy technologies.

Endogenously enhanced biosurfactant production promotes electricity generation from microbial fuel cells.

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is considered as a promising green energy source and energy-saving pollutants treatment technology as it integrates pollutant biodegradation with energy extraction. In this work, a facile approach to enhance endogenous biosurfactant production was developed to improve the electron transfer rate and power output of MFC. By overexpression of rhlA, the key gene responsible for rhamnolipids synthesis, over-production of self-synthesized rhamnolipids from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 was achieved. Strikingly, the increased rhamnolipids production by rhlA overexpression significantly promoted the extracellular electron transfer of P. aeruginosa by enhancing electron shuttle (pyocyanin) production and increasing bacteria attachment on the anode. As a result, the strain with endogenously enhanced rhamnolipids production delivered 2.5 times higher power density output than that of the parent strain. This work substantiated that the enhancement on endogenous biosurfactant production could be a promising approach for improvement on the electricity output of MFC.

Nonactivated and Activated Biochar Derived from Bananas as Alternative Cathode Catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cells

Nonactivated and activated biochars have been successfully prepared by bananas at different thermotreatment temperatures. The activated biochar generated at 900°C (Biochar-act900) exhibited improved oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances in alkaline media, in terms of the onset potential and generated current density. Rotating disk electron result shows that the average of 2.65 electrons per oxygen molecule was transferred during ORR of Biochar-act900. The highest power density of 528.2 mW/m2 and the maximum stable voltage of 0.47 V were obtained by employing Biochar-act900 as cathode catalyst, which is comparable to the Pt/C cathode. Owning to these advantages, it is expected that the banana-derived biochar cathode can find application in microbial fuel cell systems.

Modelling of ammonia combustion characteristics at preheating combustion: NO formation analysis

In order to improve the combustion characteristics and flame stability of NH3-air flame, preheating the reactants at different temperature was proposed in this study. We focused on the formation of NO at NH3 preheated combustion because NH3 is a typical fuel-nitrogen. The NO formation characteristics of premixed NH3-air mixtures at various preheating temperatures of the reactants were numerically analysed. The Miller and Bowman mechanism was applied in the numerically calculation of all species. The results show that the formation reaction rates of thermal NO from N + O2 → NO + O, and N + OH → NO + H increase with the increase of preheating temperatures of the reactants at fuel lean condition. Higher decomposition reaction rate of N + NO → N2 + O at stoichiometric condition finally results in a lower formation of NO comparing to that at fuel lean condition. At fuel rich condition, the reactions of NH2 + NO → N2 + H2O, NH + NO → NNH + OH have grate effect on the decomposition of NO at all preheating temperatures of the reactants, which results in an extremely low formation of NO, showing a potential for reducing NO formation in NH3 combustion.

Effect of Adsorbent Diameter on the Performance of Adsorption Refrigeration

Adsorbents are important components in adsorption refrigeration. The diameter of an adsorbent can affect the heat and mass transfer of an adsorber. The effect of particle diameter on effective thermal conductivity was investigated. The heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerant and the void rate of the adsorbent layer can also affect the effective thermal conductivity of adsorbents. The performance of mass transfer in the adsorber is better when pressure drop decreases. Pressure drop decreases with increasing permeability. The permeability of the adsorbent layer can be improved with increasing adsorbent diameter. The effect of adsorbent diameter on refrigeration output power was experimentally studied. Output power initially increases and then decreases with increasing diameter under different cycle time conditions. Output power increases with decreasing cycle time under similar diameters.

Heat Transfer during Microwave-Assisted Desorption of Water Vapor from Zeolite Packed Bed

This study attempted to quantify the effect of microwave-assisted desorption of water vapor from a zeolite packed bed. Specifically, an experiment was carried out comparing water vapor desorption using hot air and microwave heating. In the experiment, the temperature in the zeolite packed bed and humidity at the inlet and outlet of the adsorption column were measured.Then, the heat transfer behavior was quantified by calculating the heat balance of a zeolite packed bed, and the effect of microwave irradiation was examined. The results showed that microwave heating is effective for desorption at the beginning.

Insight into forced hydrogen re-arrangement and altered reaction pathways in a protocol for CO2 catalytic processing of oleic acid into C8–C15 alkanes

A new vision of using carbon dioxide (CO2) catalytic processing of oleic acid into C8–C15 alkanes over a nano-nickel/zeolite catalyst is reported in this paper. The inherent and essential reasons which make this achievable are clearly resolved by using totally new catalytic reaction pathways of oleic acid transformation in a CO2 atmosphere. The yield of C8–C15 ingredients reaches 73.10 mol% in a CO2 atmosphere, which is much higher than the 49.67 mol% yield obtained in a hydrogen (H2) atmosphere. In the absence of an external H2 source, products which are similar to aviation fuel are generated where aromatization of propene (C3H6) oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) involving CO2 and propane (C3H8) and hydrogen transfer reactions are found to account for hydrogen liberation in oleic acid and achieve its re-arrangement in the final alkane products. The reaction pathway in the CO2 atmosphere is significantly different from that in the H2 atmosphere, as shown by the presence of 8-heptadecene, γ-stearolactone, and 3-heptadecene as reaction intermediates, as well as a CO formation pathway. Because of the highly dispersed Ni metal center on the zeolite support, H2 spillover is observed in the H2 atmosphere, which inhibits the production of short-chain alkanes and reveals the inherent disadvantage of using H2. The CO2 processing of oleic acid described in this paper will significantly contribute to future CO2 utilization chemistry and provide an economical and promising approach for the production of sustainable alkane products which are similar to aviation fuel.

Optimization of biodrying pretreatment of municipal solid waste and microbial fuel cell treatment of leachate

The biodrying pretreatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) and the treatment of leachate were investigated. The biological oxygen demand (BOD) and NH4+-N concentration of leachate from MSW biodrying pretreatment were measured, and the optimal conditions for MSW biodrying pretreatment and microbial fuel cell (MFC) performance were established. The results show that the optimal temperature and time for biodrying pretreatment of MSW were 40°C and 6 day, resulting in 30% weight loss of MSW, 20,800 mg/L leachate BOD, and 1,410 mg/L leachate NH4+-N. Effects of leachate properties on MFC performance were then studied. The optimal conditions for electricity generation of the MFC were neutral pH, 5,093 mg/L leachate BOD, and 341 mg/L leachate NH4+-N. The stable voltage of MFC generated using diluted leachate was 0.32 V, and the removal efficiencies of BOD and NH4+-N by the MFC were 86.0 and 88.8% after 7 day of treatment, respectively. These findings provide guidelines for the pretreatment of MSW and the treatment of leachate, and for further research and actual engineering application.

A General Method Towards Efficient Synthesis and Fluorescence Tuning of Carbon Black-Derived Carbon Dots via Controlled Liquid Oxidization

Efficient synthesis and controlled modification of carbon dots (CDs) with tuneable properties on the basis of facile technical routes are of great significance for user-defined applications as well as more insightful understanding of the unique fluorescence from carbon nanomaterials. In this work, we report an improved nitric acid oxidization method towards low-cost and rapid preparation of fluorescent CDs. This is achieved by using industrial carbon black specimens as the precursor and implementing a reduced pressure distillation for the purpose of eliminating excessive acids. Unexpectedly, the product exhibits an interesting dual luminescence behaviour with tuneable characteristics that differs from all previously reported CDs. The strongest emissions at fixed or varied excitations can be simultaneously tuned from blue to green or yellow by simply prolonging the time of acid oxidization. These emissions show distinct stabilities in acid and alkaline environments, thereby making the resultant CDs very promising candidates for pH probes. It is further revealed that this simple synthesis and fluorescence tuning strategy is also applicable to CDs from other carbon blacks.