Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Jian Yu
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
Keynote: A novel bioprocess for value-added products from carbon dioxide and renewable power
Biography:
Jian Yu has obtained his PhD in1991 from University of British Columbia, MSc from Zhejiang University (1985) and BEng from Zhejiang Institute of Technology (1982). He was an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (1994-2001) and is currently a Research Professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa (2001 to till date). His research interest is in the area of biochemical engineering for production of value-added products from renewable resources. He has published more than 70 research papers in peer-reviewed journal as the first and/or corresponding author, in addition to numerous book chapters and conference papers and presentations. He has three patents that have been licensed to companies and one technology has been successfully scaled up to commercial production.
Abstract:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a prime green-house gas emission from industrial processes. It can be converted into bio-oil by microalgae via conventional photosynthesis. The CO2 fixation rate, however, is quite low and affected by the intermittent solar radiation. Cupriavidus necator, a hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium, was grown on CO2 and H2 in dark gas fermentation to produce single cell proteins and Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). Sunlight is captured by photovoltaic modules and immediately converted to H2 as a stable energy source via water electrolysis. The clean H2 and O2 are used by C. necator in CO2 assimilation. Under the chemolithotrophic conditions, the average CO2 uptake rate was 1.2 kg m-3 h-1. The molar ratios of H2/CO2 was 7.3 and the biomass/H2 yield was 1.4 g g-1. The overall energy efficiency from H2 to biomass was 22.4%. Under nutrient control, the PHB content of dry cell mass was 65 wt%. The polymer productivity was 1.87 g L-1 d-1, 14 times higher than oil productivity by a typical bio-oil-producing microalga. PHB is a biodegradable thermoplastic that can find various environmentally friendly applications. The biopolyester can also be converted into small functional chemicals (C3-C4). Specifically, PHB was degraded and deoxygenated on a solid phosphoric acid catalyst, generating a hydrocarbon oil (C6-C18) from which a gasoline-grade fuel (77 wt% oil) and a biodiesel-grade fuel (23 wt% oil) were obtained via distillation. Aromatics and alkenes were the major compounds, depending on the reaction conditions. This work demonstrated a bioprocess through which bioplastics and high-grade liquid fuels can be directly produced from carbon dioxide. The novel bioprocess can be continuously operated regardless the intermittency of renewable powers.
Keynote Forum
Jeewon Lee
Korea University, Korea
Keynote: Nano/biomaterial engineering through molecular reassembly on proteinticle scaffold
Time : 09:30-10:30
Biography:
Dr. Jeewon Lee has pursued his Ph.D in Biochemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, USA. He is currently working as a Professor in Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Korea University. His Research areas and interest are from the fields of Protein Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, Recombinant gene Expression, Protein Engineering and Microbial Proteomics.
Abstract:
Proteinticles are nanoscale three-dimensional (3D) particles that are synthesized through self-assembly of multiple subunit proteins inside cells. Each proteinticle has a specific biological function and conformation (size, shape, symmetry pattern, and surface topology), including viral capsids1-5 and various cellular 3D structures5-10 such as proteasome, ferritin, chaperonins, etc. A notable advantage of proteinticles is that a variety of heterologous proteins/peptides (e.g. bioprobes to capture disease-specific biomarkers1,5-7, cancer celltargeting ligands2,3,8,9, fluorescent proteins4, recombinant peptides for on-site synthesis or conjugation of various nanomaterials2,3, etc.) can be genetically presented on the proteinticle surface with preserving their native function and structure through site-specific modification of subunit proteins. This suggests that proteinticles can be used as structurally versatile scaffolds for nano/biofunctional integration. In this lecture, I will introduce several important examples of functionally integrated nano/biomaterials that were developed through welldesigned molecular reassembly on the surface of proteinticle scaffolds: 3D bioprobes for accurate and rapid in vitro diagnosis, clinically feasible multimodality agent for cancer theragnosis, and industrially promising enzyme nanoparticles comprising genetically reassembled catalytic units. This novel approach of material engineering based on molecular reassembly using proteinticle scaffolds may provide a general platform for the facile production of a broad range of utility nano/biomaterials..
Keynote Forum
Sam H Y Hsu
City University of Hong Kong, China
Keynote: Electrochemical properties of Pb-based hybrid perovskite materials for renewable energy applications
Time : 10:30-11:30
Biography:
Sam H Y Hsu’s research interests involve the material design, synthesis, processing, imaging, spectroscopy and solar energy application, aiming to explore fundamental properties and interactions of hybrid perovskite semiconductors and functional metallopolymer materials for developing efficient solar energy conversion processes. He has keen interests in photoinduced charge transfer processes, interfacial electron transfer, electrochemical hydrogen generation and photoredox reactions for photovoltaics and solar fuel production. The investigations between material phenomena rely heavily on concepts and techniques of material and physical engineering, consisting of photophysics, electrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry, scanning photoelectrochemical microscopy imaging, ultrafast transient absorption and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra.
Abstract:
The organometallic halide perovskite materials have attracted tremendous attention due to impressive features, including its direct bandgap of ~1.55 eV, high absorption coefficient, ambipolar charge-carrier mobilities, long exciton lifetimes/diffusion length and low exciton binding energy. A liquid junction photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell with methylammonium lead iodide (MeNH3PbI3) is of interest for several reasons. A liquid junction system produces a photoactive junction simply upon immersing the semiconductor in solution, which simplifies the assembly of the cell. It also allows one to do the rapid synthesis and combinatorial screening for novel hybrid materials with different dopants on them. A liquid junction PEC cell based on p-type MeNH3PbI3-based perovskites with large open-circuit voltage is developed. MeNH3PbI3 perovskite is readily soluble or decomposed in many common solvents. However, the solvent, dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), can be employed to form stable liquid junctions. These were characterized with photoelectrochemical cells with several redox couples, including I3-/I-, Fc/Fc+, DMFc/DMFc+ and BQ/BQ•- (where Fc is ferrocene, DMFc is decamethylferrocene, BQ is benzoquinone.) in CH2Cl2. The solution-processed MeNH3PbI3 shows cathodic photocurrents and hence p-type behavior. The difference between the photocurrent onset potential and the standard potential for BQ/BQ•- is 1.25V, which is especially large for a semiconductor with a band gap of 1.55 eV 1, 2 A PEC photovoltaic cell, with a configuration of p-MeNH3PbI3/CH2Cl2, BQ (2 mM), BQ•- (2 mM)/carbon, shows an open-circuit photovoltage of 1.05 V and a short-circuit current density of 7.8 mA/cm2 under 100 mW/cm2 irradiations. Overall optical-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency is 6.1%. The PEC cell shows good stability for over 5.0 hours under irradiation.
Biography:
Dr. Sun Tao is a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Biotechnology at Loughborough University. His research efforts in Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine (TERM) mainly focus on the mechanistic understanding of cell-cell, cell-scaffold interactions during tissue formation; investigation of scale-down & up issues in TERM using scale-down and scale-up tissue culture models; bioreactor development for cell & tissue cultures; reconstruction of engineered human tissues for diagnostic and clinical purposes; clinical trial of engineered human skins.
Abstract:
A generic research platform with 2-dimensional (2D) cell culture technology, a 3-dimensional (3D) tissue model, and a scaled-down cell culture and imaging system, was developed and utilized to obtain the mechanistic understanding of tissue formation. When cultivated onto tissue culture plates (TCPs), human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) behaved individually and had no strict requirement on seeding density for proliferation; while immortalized keratinocytes (HaCat cells) relied heavily on initial densities for proliferation and colony formation, which was facilitated when co-cultured with HDFs. HDFs and HaCat cells mono- or co-cultured in serum or serum-free medium were then compared and analyzed via the platform. It was demonstrated that serum depletion had significant influence on the attachment of HaCat cells onto TCPs, porous substrates and scaffolds, which was further enhanced by the pre-seeded HDFs. When mono-cultured on TCPs, both HDFs and HaCat cells were less proliferative in medium without serum than with serum. However, both cell types were successfully co-cultured in serum free medium. Based on the results from 2D cultures, co-culture of both cell types on modular substrates and cellulosic scaffolds in serum free medium were conducted successfully. The generic research platform thus demonstrated great potential for in-depth understanding of tissue regeneration, which could inform the mechanism-based manufacturing processes for engineered tissues and organs..
Biography:
Dr. Ping Zhang has been an assistant professor in Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau since November 2017. He received his B.S. degree in Environmental Science from Nankai University, Tianjin, China in 2006. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees both in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 2008 and 2011, respectively. He obtained his professional engineer (P.E.) license in the dual disciplines of Chemical/Environmental Engineering in the State of Texas in 2016. He is also a Chartered Chemist (CChem) of Royal Society of Chemistry of the U.K. since 2017. His research interests are solid precipitation and deposition, oilfield mineral scale control and environmental aquatic chemistry.
Abstract:
Mineral scale (scale) is the sparingly soluble inorganic deposit from aqueous solution. Scale deposition can pose a serious problem to the safe and economical operations of various industrial facilities, costing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage globally per year. Scale deposition can lead to equipment blockage with a narrowed tubing inner diameter and a reduced flow rate. In this presentation, laboratory investigation of mineral scale deposition kinetics was evaluated by use of a plug-flow type tube reactor. Compared with the conventional approach, the tube reactor has the advantage to maintain a constant solution pH, surface area and a controlled saturation index and hydraulic condition during the deposition study. Two scenarios of scale solid deposition were considered in this study, including deposition of scale on clean surfaces and also deposition of scale on a surface pre-coated with scale solid. The results show that the overall scale deposition process can be divided into multiple stages with different deposition kinetics and different solid morphologies. It is obvious that experimental conditions, such as solution chemistry, flow rate, temperature and saturation index, can have a considerable impact on scale deposition kinetics. These results provide an in-depth understanding of the process involving scale deposition onto the surface of a pipe material or a conduit. This tube reactor apparatus expands our capability of investigating mineral scale deposition kinetics and the influences of various experimental factors on scale deposition kinetics.
Biography:
Chinmoy Dutta is a M.Tech student specialized in Petroleum Exploration & Production Department under Dibrugarh University, India. His interested area of research is Enhanced oil recovery of Petroleum. In 2017 He published an paper titled "Phase behavior study for Chemically Enhanced water flooding" international journal IJESM, Volume 6, Issue 7, November 2017. He also presented two paper in oral presentation in two different international conferences. This approach is responsive to surfactant and alkali flooding in EOR analyzed with the Low saline brine.
Abstract:
The discovery of new oil reserves has steadily declining over the years, so increasing the recovery factors from the oil fields is the only logical way to meet the growing demands. With this objective the different enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are designed. It has been observed that oil recovery by water flooding is influenced by the salinity and composition of injected water. Although low saline waterflooding (LSW) has the potential to recover additional oil, its recovery is less compared to chemical and gas EOR methods. The purpose of this study is to investigate the EOR potential of the novel low saline water-alkaline-surfactant/alternated/CO2 (LSWASG) method in an oilfield of Assam, India. Reservoir cores and crude oils from an Upper Assam depleted oilfield were analysed for their characterization and for preparing the synthetic formation brine (SFB). Chemical formulations that will best recover crude oil were next screened based on interfacial tension (IFT) measurements. Finally, lab-scale core flooding experiments were conducted to evaluate the oil recovery potential of the proposed method. From the coreflooding experiments, it was observed that secondary waterflooding of crude oil saturated core plugs resulted in recovery of about 33% oil initially in place (OIIP). Additional oil recovery by low saline waterflooding in the tertiary mode was 4.8 % OIIP. However, the oil recovery with LSW combined with the selected formulation (0.5 wt% SDS + 1 wt% Na2CO3) with and without alternated CO2 gas injection increased to 19.34% and 22.57% OIIP respectively. Higher oil recovery by the synergic combination of LSW, chemicals and CO2 gas, highlighted the EOR potential of the novel LSWASG process in the Assam oilfield producing medium gravity crudes
- Hydrogen Production Research
Session Introduction
Hiroshi Irie
University of Yamanashi, Japan
Title: Construction of a solid-state overall water-splitting photocatalyst, sensitive to red-light, for solar hydrogen production
Biography:
Hiroshi Irie studied Inorganic Materials Science and received his B.E. and M.E. degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1992 and 1994, respectively. From 1994 to 1997, he worked at Sumitomo Metal Industries, LTD. as a research engineer. In 2000, he received his Ph. D. degree from the University of Tokyo in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. He was a research staff member at Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology until 2001. He joined the University of Tokyo as a research associate in 2001 (Prof. Kazuhito Hashimoto’s lab.). He became a lecturer and an associate professor at the University of Tokyo in 2006 and 2008, respectively. He was promoted to a full professor in 2009 at Clean Energy Research Center in University of Yamanashi. His current research interests include creations of high-performance energy-conversion materials, such as photocatalysts, thermoelectric materials, and so on.
Abstract:
Various photocatalytic materials aiming at water splitting have been enthusiastically investigated because produced hydrogen (H2) is attractive as a clean and renewable fuel. To date, one of the candidate methods to split water to H2 and oxygen (O2) at a ratio of 2:1 under visible light is a combined system of half reaction photocatalysts, that is, H2-evolution and O2-evolution photocatalysts. However, because such the combination system, which is termed “Z-scheme”, requires a suitable redox couple, the system is not in fact able to split pure water. For the practical application, splitting pure water with no added chemicals is presumed to be favorable.
Recently, we reported an Ag-inserted solid-state hetero-junction photocatalyst for water-splitting under visible light, similar to a Z-scheme system but is not required for a redox mediator. So, this system is capable of splitting pure water. In this system, Ag acts as a solid electron mediator for water-splitting. We selected ZnRh2O4 (band-gap (Eg) = 1.2 eV) and AgSbO3 (Eg = 2.5 eV) as H2- and O2-evolution photocatalysts, respectively. The system was able to respond to visible light up to 545 nm depending on the photo-absorption capability of AgSbO3 (in fact, defective AgSbO3). So, we replaced AgSbO3 with Bi4V2O11 (Eg = 1.7 eV) as the O2-photocatalyst. Utilizing thus constructed Ag-inserted ZnRh2O4 and Bi4V2O11 photocatalyst, the simultaneous liberation of H2 and O2 from pure water at a stoichiometric ratio was achieved under irradiation with visible light up to wavelengths of 740 nm. In place of Ag, Au-inserted ZnRh2O4 and Bi4V2O11 photocatalyst was also able to accomplish overall pure-water splitting under visible light up to 740 nm with improved activity. Detailed investigations will be discussed at the conference.
- Advances in Chemical Technology
Session Introduction
Ping Zhang
University of Macau, Macau, China
Title: Laboratory investigation of mineral scale deposition kinetics by adopting a plug-flow tube reactor
Biography:
Dr. Ping Zhang has been an assistant professor in Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau since November 2017. He received his B.S. degree in Environmental Science from Nankai University, Tianjin, China in 2006. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees both in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 2008 and 2011, respectively. He obtained his professional engineer (P.E.) license in the dual disciplines of Chemical/Environmental Engineering in the State of Texas in 2016. He is also a Chartered Chemist (CChem) of Royal Society of Chemistry of the U.K. since 2017. His research interests are solid precipitation and deposition, oilfield mineral scale control and environmental aquatic chemistry.
Abstract:
Mineral scale (scale) is the sparingly soluble inorganic deposit from aqueous solution. Scale deposition can pose a serious problem to the safe and economical operations of various industrial facilities, costing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage globally per year. Scale deposition can lead to equipment blockage with a narrowed tubing inner diameter and a reduced flow rate. In this presentation, laboratory investigation of mineral scale deposition kinetics was evaluated by use of a plug-flow type tube reactor. Compared with the conventional approach, the tube reactor has the advantage to maintain a constant solution pH, surface area and a controlled saturation index and hydraulic condition during the deposition study. Two scenarios of scale solid deposition were considered in this study, including deposition of scale on clean surfaces and also deposition of scale on a surface pre-coated with scale solid. The results show that the overall scale deposition process can be divided into multiple stages with different deposition kinetics and different solid morphologies. It is obvious that experimental conditions, such as solution chemistry, flow rate, temperature and saturation index, can have a considerable impact on scale deposition kinetics. These results provide an in-depth understanding of the process involving scale deposition onto the surface of a pipe material or a conduit. This tube reactor apparatus expands our capability of investigating mineral scale deposition kinetics and the influences of various experimental factors on scale deposition kinetics.
- Reservoir Engineering
Session Introduction
Chinmoy Dutta
Department of Petroleum Technology, Dibrugarh University, India
Title: Low saline water-alkaline-surfactant/alternated/CO2 flooding in Reservoir Cores
Biography:
Chinmoy Dutta is a M.Tech student specialized in Petroleum Exploration & Production Department under Dibrugarh University, India. His interested area of research is Enhanced oil recovery of Petroleum. In 2017 He published an paper titled "Phase behavior study for Chemically Enhanced water flooding" international journal IJESM, Volume 6, Issue 7, November 2017. He also presented two paper in oral presentation in two different international conferences. This approach is responsive to surfactant and alkali flooding in EOR analyzed with the Low saline brine.
Abstract:
The discovery of new oil reserves has steadily declining over the years, so increasing the recovery factors from the oil fields is the only logical way to meet the growing demands. With this objective the different enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are designed. It has been observed that oil recovery by water flooding is influenced by the salinity and composition of injected water. Although low saline waterflooding (LSW) has the potential to recover additional oil, its recovery is less compared to chemical and gas EOR methods. The purpose of this study is to investigate the EOR potential of the novel low saline water-alkaline-surfactant/alternated/CO2 (LSWASG) method in an oilfield of Assam, India. Reservoir cores and crude oils from an Upper Assam depleted oilfield were analysed for their characterization and for preparing the synthetic formation brine (SFB). Chemical formulations that will best recover crude oil were next screened based on interfacial tension (IFT) measurements. Finally, lab-scale core flooding experiments were conducted to evaluate the oil recovery potential of the proposed method. From the coreflooding experiments, it was observed that secondary waterflooding of crude oil saturated core plugs resulted in recovery of about 33% oil initially in place (OIIP). Additional oil recovery by low saline waterflooding in the tertiary mode was 4.8 % OIIP. However, the oil recovery with LSW combined with the selected formulation (0.5 wt% SDS + 1 wt% Na2CO3) with and without alternated CO2 gas injection increased to 19.34% and 22.57% OIIP respectively. Higher oil recovery by the synergic combination of LSW, chemicals and CO2 gas, highlighted the EOR potential of the novel LSWASG process in the Assam oilfield producing medium gravity crudes
- Modeling and Simulation