The laboratory of environmental biotechnology, established in 1983, was one of the earliest labs working on environmental biotechnology in China. Oriented by achieving mutual infiltration among environmental science, biology, ecology, engineering and other subjects, aimed at studying and settling regional and national environmental issues by use of biological means, the lab focused on the research of application basis and engineering technology. The major research interests of the lab include: (1) Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation, involved in treatment and reuse of municipal and high concentrated organic wastewater via physicochemical pretreatment, anaerobic/aerobic biological technologies and membrane technology. (2) Organic Waste Treatment and Recycling, involved in production of valuable biomass energy and compost from organic waste via anaerobic and aerobic biological technologies.
The lab seeks the truth, innovation and progress, develops the principle of "every person can develop his talents, and all wisdom is made full use" and creates the delight and harmonious research atmosphere by the flexible mechanism of "orienting humanism, seeking excellence, encouraging innovation, tolerating failure". Currently, there are 3 full professors, 1 associate professor and more than 20 graduate and doctoral candidates in the lab.
Since the establishment of the laboratory, more than 20 projects supported by Chinese government including National Key R&D Program and National Natural Science Foundation and more than 10 projects from companies have been finished successfully. More than 20 patents of invention have been authorized, and 6 Awards for Science and Technology Progress have been achieved. More than 100 SCI research papers have been published in major journals in environmental science and technology field, such as Water Research, Bioresource Technology, etc. The lab receives about 2 doctoral candidates, 6-8 graduate students and 6-8 undergraduates every year.
Current Staff:
Head of research group: Xiufen Li, Professor
Staff: Zhaozhe Hua, Professor
Xinhua Wang, Professor
Yueping Ren, Associate Professor
Main research area:
1. Anaerobic technology for wastewater and waste treatment and energy recover
3. Membrane-based biological technology for wastewater treatment and reclamation
3. MFC technology for recovering electricity from organic wastewater and waste
4. Aerobic compost for treating and recycling of fermented waste residue
Research Projects:
1. Study on treatment technologies and demonstration project for rural potable water and wastewater in Northwest China (National Key R&D Program) (2016-2020)
2. Study on key technologies and equipment for reusing waste membrane materials (863 program) (2012-2015)
3. Investigation and application of the electron transfer characteristics based on the chemically modified anode of sediment MFC. (NSFC) (2011-2013)
4. Studying on impacting mechanisms of high salinity on forward osmosis membrane fouling and fouling control strategies in anaerobic forward osmosis membrane bioreactors. (NSFC) (2016-2019)
5. Preparation and application of high performance SMFC anode material-hybrid graphene paper. (NSFC) (2016-2019)
Selected Publications and Patents:
1. Xiu-Fen Li*, Yue-Ping Ren, Xin-Hua Wang. Preparation of conductive microfiltration membrane and its performance in a coupled configuration of membrane bioreactor with microbial fuel cell. RSC Advances, 2017, 7: 20824-20832.
2. Jin-Meng Liu, Xin-Hua Wang*, Zhi-Wei Wang, Yu-Qin Lu, Xiu-Fen Li*, Yue-Ping Ren. Integrating microbial fuel cells with anaerobic acidification and forward osmosis membrane for enhancing bio-electricity and water recovery from low-strength wastewater. Water Research, 2017, 110: 74-82.
3. Xin-Hua Wang*, Tao-Zhan Hu, Zhi-Wei Wang, Xiu-Fen Li*, Yue-Ping Ren. Permeability recovery of fouled forward osmosis membranes by chemical cleaning during a long-term operation of anaerobic osmotic membrane bioreactors treating low-strength wastewater. Water Research, 2017, 123: 505-512.
4. Na Yang, Yue-Ping Ren*, Xiu-Fen Li*, Xin-Hua Wang. Effect of short-term alkaline intervention on the performance of buffer-free single-chamber microbial fuel cell. Bioelectrochemistry, 2017, 115, 41-46.
5. Xiu-Fen Li, Peng-Fei Nie, Yue-Ping Ren, Xin-Hua Wang. Recovery of metal components from sulfide mineral tailings by microbial fuel cell. US Invention Patent Number: US 9,755,261 B2.
