Areas of Specialization

• Sustainable bioenergy production
• Environmental biotechnology
• Waste and wastewater treatment
• Microbial fuel cell technology
• Biohydrogen production

Current Research

• Electricity generation using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC):  Using MFC to directly convert organic matter to electricity represents a completely new method of renewable energy recovery. Our studies focus on optimizing MFC to improve the power generation from various waste biomass.

• Hydrogen production using BioElectrochemically Assisted Microbial Reactors (BEAMR): Excluding oxidants from MFC system, hydrogen can be produced at cathode by adding an electrochemical potential to the system. This overcomes the fermentation barrier since any biodegradable organic matter can theoretically be used and completely degraded in this process. We are currently conducting research on the system characterization and optimization to increase the hydrogen production rate and total energy recovery.

Recent Publications

 

• Hu, H., Fan, Y., Liu H. Hydrogen Production Using Single-chamber Membrane-free Microbial Electrolysis Cells (2008) Water Research, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2008.06.015 

• Catal, T., Fan, Y., Li, K., Bermek, H., Liu, H. Effects of furan derivatives and phenolic compounds on electricity generation in microbial fuel cells. (2008) Journal of Power Sources, 180, 162-166

• Liu, H., Cheng; S., Huang, L., Logan, B.E. Scale-up of Membrane-free Single-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells. ( 2008) Journal of Power sources, 179, 274–279

• Catal, T., Li, K., Bermek, H., Liu, H. Electricity Production from Twelve Monosaccharides Using Microbial Cells. (2008) Journal of Power Sources, 175, 196-200

• Fan, Y., Hu, H., Liu H., Sustainable Power Generation in Microbial Fuel Cells Using Bicarbonate Buffer and Proton Transfer Mechanisms. (2007) Environmental Science & Technology, 41(23)8154-8158

• Fan, Y., Hu, H., Liu, H., Enhanced Coulombic Efficiency and Power Density of Air-Cathode Microbial Fuel Cells with an Improved Cell Configuration. (2007) Journal of Power Sources, 171 (2)348-354