Biosystems Control
Prof. dr. ir. Eveline Volcke
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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)
- Modelling anaerobic granular sludge reactors (Annelies Van den Hove)
- Process optimization to mitigate N2O emission from innovative wastewater treatment processes (Xinyu Wan)
- Controlling H2S emissions from the anaerobic treatment of wastewater with a high sulfate content (Negar Zamanfar)
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
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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)