Browsing by Author "Luo, Shuai"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    C-13 Pathway Analysis for the Role of Formate in Electricity Generation by Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 Using Lactate in Microbial Fuel Cells
    Luo, Shuai; Guo, Weihua; Nealson, Kenneth H.; Feng, Xueyang; He, Zhen (Nature Publishing Group, 2016-02-12)
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    Coupling microbial fuel cells with a membrane photobioreactor for wastewater treatment and bioenergy production
    Tse, Hei Tsun; Luo, Shuai; Li, Jian; He, Zhen (Springer, 2016-11-01)
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    Development of Integrated Photobioelectrochemical System (IPB): Processes, Modeling and Applications
    Luo, Shuai (Virginia Tech, 2018-04-24)
    Effective wastewater treatment is needed to reduce the water pollution problem. However, massive energy is consumed in wastewater treatment, required to design an innovative system to reduce the energy consumption to solve the energy crisis. Integrated photobioelectrochemical system (IPB) is a powerful system to combine microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and algal bioreactor together. This system has good performance on the organic degradation, removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, and recover the bioenergy via electricity generation and algal harvesting. This dissertation is divided to twelve chapters, about various aspects of the working mechanisms and actual application of IPB. Chapter 1 generally introduces the working mechanisms of MFCs, algal bioreactor, and modeling. Chapter 2 demonstrates the improvement of cathode material to improve the structure and catalytic performance to improve the MFC performance. Chapter 3 describes the process to use microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) to generate biohythane for the energy recovery. Chapters 4 and 5 demonstrate the application of stable isotope probing to study Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 in the MFCs. Chapters 6 to 8 describe the application of models to optimize MFC and IPB system performance. Chapter 9 describes the strategy improvement for the algal harvesting in IPB. Chapter 10 describes the application of scale-up bioelectrochemical systems on the long-term wastewater treatment. Chapter 11 finally concludes the perspectives of IPBs in the wastewater treatment and energy recovery. This dissertation comprehensively introduces IPB systems in the energy recovery and sustainable wastewater treatment in the future.
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    A Review of Modeling Bioelectrochemical Systems: Engineering and Statistical Aspects
    Luo, Shuai; Sun, Hongyue; Ping, Qingyun; Jin, Ran; He, Zhen (MDPI, 2016-02-18)
    Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) are promising technologies to convert organic compounds in wastewater to electrical energy through a series of complex physical-chemical, biological and electrochemical processes. Representative BES such as microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been studied and advanced for energy recovery. Substantial experimental and modeling efforts have been made for investigating the processes involved in electricity generation toward the improvement of the BES performance for practical applications. However, there are many parameters that will potentially affect these processes, thereby making the optimization of system performance hard to be achieved. Mathematical models, including engineering models and statistical models, are powerful tools to help understand the interactions among the parameters in BES and perform optimization of BES configuration/operation. This review paper aims to introduce and discuss the recent developments of BES modeling from engineering and statistical aspects, including analysis on the model structure, description of application cases and sensitivity analysis of various parameters. It is expected to serves as a compass for integrating the engineering and statistical modeling strategies to improve model accuracy for BES development.
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    Understanding Ammonium Transport in Bioelectrochemical Systems towards its Recovery
    Liu, Ying; Qin, Mohan; Luo, Shuai; He, Zhen; Qiao, Rui (Nature Publishing Group, 2016-03-03)
    We report an integrated experimental and simulation study of ammonia recovery using microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). The transport of various species during the batch-mode operation of an MEC was examined experimentally and the results were used to validate the mathematical model for such an operation. It was found that, while the generated electrical current through the system tends to acidify (or basify) the anolyte (or catholyte), their effects are buffered by a cascade of chemical groups such as the NH₃/NH₄⁺ group, leading to relatively stable pH values in both anolyte and catholyte. The transport of NH₄⁺ ions accounts for ~90% of the total current, thus quantitatively confirming that the NH₄⁺ ions serve as effective proton shuttles during MEC operations. Analysis further indicated that, because of the Donnan equilibrium at cation exchange membrane-anolyte/catholyte interfaces, the Na+ ion in the anolyte actually facilitates the transport of NH₄⁺ ions during the early stage of a batch cycle and they compete with the NH₄⁺ ions weakly at later time. These insights, along with a new and simple method for predicting the strength of ammonia diffusion from the catholyte toward the anolyte, will help effective design and operation of bioeletrochemical system-based ammonia recovery systems.