November 28, 2011
November 2011
The Gates Foundation funds novel sanitation technology development.
See details in the Duke Engineering story and in the Duke Chronicle Article.
For more information on the Grand Challenges Exploration Grants and funded projects, click on the following links (Grand Challenges program, Funded projects).
November 2011
Jinying Xi, Associate Professor in the School of the Environment, Tsinghua University China joins the Deshusses Lab for one year. Welcome!
October 2011
Biotechniques - 2011 Conference in La Coruna, Spain. Two presentations from our group, one poster about the determination of gypsum precipitation in biotrickling filter treating H2S. We show a detailed precipitation model and experimental data. Gypsum precipitation could be relatively common (but is never really identified). I also gave a platform presentation on our use of micro-electrodes to determine micro-gradients of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the biofilms of biotrickling filters treating various VOCs. We were able to show how DO limitation in biofilms is influenced by the reactor operating conditions.
Left is a picture Deshusses' group alumni who gathered at the conference... from left to right Xavi Gamisans, Yasutaka Morita, Anders Nielsen, me, David Gabriel.
September 2011
Converting hog waste to energy in Yadkinville NC... We are now generating many kilowatts digesting pig manure and converting it to biogas, while treating and recycling the barn flush water.
This is large project, part of Duke's commitment to become carbon neutral. The digester alone is 2 million gallons! The Deshusses' group will be evaluating and optimizing performance and environmental benefits. The general flowsheet is as shown below:
See article on Duke's web site at http://today.duke.edu/2011/09/hogwaste. See also the Google story at http://googlegreenblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/sometimes-greening-google-means-getting.html and watch the video either at the above link or directly here youtu.be/znw7t9aqrf4 (the hog waste to energy is the second project).
July 2011
Hosted Jovon and Dantavius (high school kids) for a short week in the lab.
April 2011
Invited talk in the department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia.
April 2011
Making ice cream (and teaching a little bit about low temperature) with liquid nitrogen at an elementary school in Chapel Hill... too much fun! My favorite thank you letter read, "YOU are the best ice cream!" ... very sweet!
February 2011
Anders Nielsen (Assistant Professor, Aarhus Univ. Denmark) joins the group for about 7 months, as part of a project looking at odor control and biotrickling filter. Sarah Liehrjoins the lab to work on a field demonstration and evaluation of anaerobic digestion of hog waste.
I also traveled to Quebec (very cold in February) to give a presentation in French (although French is my first language, it was only my second technical presentation in French...) on recent advances in biological techniques for air pollution control.
Deshusses' lab alumni news: Ting Zhang, who obtained his PhD from UC Riverside (jointly supervised with Prof. N. Myung) has now settled at Suzhou University on a tenure track position. Eunsung (Bryan) Kan moved back to the US and joined the Biofilm Center in Bozeman, Montana.