Lecture: Hydrothermal Processing of Biowaste and Algae into Biofuels Integrated with Nutrient Reuse, Wastewater Treatment and Carbon Capture – An Environment-Enhancing Energy Paradigm 

Lecturer: Prof. Yuanhui Zhang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Time: 9:00 am, June 7, 2016 

Location: Meeting Room 205 of Administration Building 

Lecture Abstract: Agricultural and biofuel production addictively rely on fossil fuel-derived fertilizer, which is the largest single source of reactive nitrogen in biosphere contributing to climate change. However, single-cycle nature fertilizer use would not meet the increasing food and bioenergy demand.  Renewable energy can be obtained via various viable sources such as solar, wind and even geothermal. However, there is no clear sustainable pathway for renewable liquid fuels yet.  A new paradigm, dubbed as “Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2-Energy)”, and a demonstration lab-scale system has been established at University of Illinois, which has a capacity of 2 gallon/day biocrude oil production from manure and algae grown in the manure water treatment system. 

In this system, biowaste is first converted into biocrude oil via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). Second, fast-growing algae/bacteria are cultivated in the wastewaters from original liquid waste and HTL reactor to uptake excess nutrients and capture carbon dioxide.  Finally, the algae/bacteria will be fed back to the HTL process to be converted into additional biocrude. This has shown that E2-Energy process can reuse nutrients 3 (by experiment) to 10 (by modeling) times, which amplifies the original biomass by the same factor. 

Introduction of Lecturer: Yuanhui Zhang, graduated in 1978 from Shandong University of Technology, and earned MS and PhD in 1985 and 1989, respectively from University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He is the Endowed Innoventor Professor in Engineering, and the Associate Head of Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He is also a professor of Mechanical Science Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Bioengineering, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is a registered professional engineer; a Fellow of American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); a Fellow of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). His research areas include thermochemical conversion of biowaste and algae into crude oil, indoor air quality engineering and volumetric particle tracking velocimetry. He has published over 270 scientific papers and is the Author of a Textbook “Indoor Air Quality Engineering”. Professor Zhang teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses including research methodologies for graduate students.