the BioCo research group
Prof. dr. ir. Eveline Volcke and her BioCo research group are part of the Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University. Their research mainly focuses on greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment, innovative nitrogen removal, granular sludge reactors and data evaluation.
Eveline Volcke is a full Professor at Ghent University, leading the BioCo research group. Eveline’s interdisciplinary research expertise can best be described as process engineering for biological wastewater treatment and resource recovery processes. She aims at process optimization through physical-based modelling and simulation, data treatment techniques and experimental studies. With her BioCo group and through international collaborations, Eveline has provided major insights concerning greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment, innovative nitrogen removal, granular sludge reactors and data evaluation. She co-authored more than 100 publications in journals listed in ISI Web of Science. Eveline is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA).
Master thesis topics (2022-2023)
Master thesis topics (2021-2022)
Research mission
Biosystems control ... towards a sustainable future
Research focus = efficient and sustainable process design and process control.
Sustainability = meeting the required product or effluent quality with reduced use of energy, resources or added chemicals, aiming for reuse, reduced greenhouse gas emission, more compact installations, ... in a reliable, safe, economically beneficial and socially acceptable way.
Application domain
- a priori not limited / applied methodologies are generally applicable
- environmental technology
- bioconversion processes
Methodology
Process engineering aspects, in particular the actual design and control of processes and reactors, are studied by means of:
- physical-based models (based on conservation of mass, energy, ...)
- monitoring campaigns and full-scale experiments
- theoretical systems analysis and numerical simulation
- lab-scale experiments
Ongoing research projects
Wastewater treatment
- Optimization of the aerobic granular sludge process for sustainable wastewater treatment (Janis Baeten)
- Integrated energy and greenhouse gas control for the treatment of highly concentrated wastewater (Luis Corbala Robles)
- Application of anammox-based granular sludge reactors for municipal wastewater treatment (Mingsheng Jia)
- Data enhancement for improved control of wastewater treatment (Hong Quan Le)
- Process optimization to mitigate N2O emission from innovative wastewater treatment processes (Xinyu Wan)
Waste gas treatment
Completed research projects
Wastewater treatment
- Greenhouse gas reduction through innovative nitrogen removal from wastewater (Celia Maria Castro Barros - PhD 2016)
- Monitoring and modelling of N2O emissions from innovative nitrogen removal processes (Kris Mampaey - PhD 2016)
- Modelling of microbial populations in biofilm reactors for nitrogen removal from wastewater (Thomas Vannecke - PhD 2015)
- Emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants (Matthijs Daelman - PhD 2014)
- Anaerobic methane oxidation in granular sludge reactors for sustainable wastewater treatment (Mari Winkler - postdoc 2013-2014)
Waste gas treatment
-
Microaeration for biogas desulfurization : experimental and simulation study of various reactor types (Lucie Pokorná-Krayzelova - PhD 2017)
- Design and control of air scrubbers for animal housing systems (Caroline Van der Heyden - PhD 2017)
Fermentation processes
Optimization of a two-phase fermentation process for the production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from organic and inorganic (industrial waste) substrate (Salatul Mozumder - PhD 2015)