Source: MICHIGAN STATE UNIV submitted to
INTEGRATED FARM-BASED REFINING FOR BIOFUEL AND CHEMICAL PRODUCTION
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1006820
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2015
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2020
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Project Director
Liao, WE.
Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
Biosystems & Agric Engineering
Non Technical Summary
The renewable fuels, chemicals, biomaterials, and power derived from plant biomass can make important contributions to energy security, rural economic development, and environmental quality. In particular, fossil energy dependence can be reduced by accelerating the development of renewable alternatives to stationary power and transportation fuel, and the United States intends to displace up to 30% of the nation's gasoline consumption, and 10% of total industrial and electric power demand by 2030. Agricultural residues are an underutilized reservoir of lignocellulosic biomass. As a result, these residues have great potential as feedstock for the production of renewable bio-based fuels and chemical products, and they could ultimately replace a non-trivial fraction of current fossil fuel use. However, the challenges associated with both the feedstock logistics and the conversion technology are the major economic barriers hindering the commercialization of lignocellulose-based biorefining.Systems integration approaches considering a concurrently engineered set of conversion processes may offer the opportunity to alleviate feedstock logistical problems and improve conversion efficiency. Therefore, the goal of the proposed study aims at developing an integrated farm-based biorefining concept that combines anaerobic digestion, algal cultivation, and biofuel and chemical production on lignocellulosic feedstock (animal manure and corn stover), makes use of synergies between process streams, and produces multiple fuel and chemical products (methane, biodiesel, biolubricant, and algal biomass), which results in improving carbon utilization efficiency and potentially improves the economics of the net process. In order to achieve the project goal, three specific objectives will be fulfilled in the coming five years: 1) optimize anaerobic microbial communities to improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion and produce stabilized solid digestate; 2) construct a robust algal assemblage for outdoor open-pond culture system; and 3) develop conversion processes to turn AD fiber into fuels and chemicals.The outcomes of the proposed research will lead to a novel farm-based biorefining system for biofuels/chemical production with minimum water/nutrient/energy consumption. The implementation of such system will create great economic value for agricultural industry, and further stimulate job creation, farm profit, and rural development. Thus, the proposed research fits well into the mission of AgBioResearch that is to engage in innovative, leading-edge research that combines scientific expertise with practical experience to generate economic prosperity, sustain natural resources, and enhance the quality of life in Michigan, the nation, and the world.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
40%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
4035370110025%
5114099202050%
4031510110025%
Knowledge Area
403 - Waste Disposal, Recycling, and Reuse; 511 - New and Improved Non-Food Products and Processes;

Subject Of Investigation
4099 - Microorganisms, general/other; 1510 - Corn; 5370 - Sewage and waste disposal facilities and systems;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1100 - Bacteriology;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of the proposed study will be to develop an integrated farm-based biorefining concept that combines anaerobic digestion, algal cultivation, and biofuel and chemical production on lignocellulosic feedstock (animal manure and corn stover), makes use of synergies between process streams, and produces multiple fuel and chemical products (methane, biodiesel, and algal biomass), which results in improve carbon utilization efficiency and potentially improves the economics of the net process. In order to achieve the goal, three specific objectives will be fulfilled in the coming five years: 1) optimize anaerobic microbial communities to improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion and produce stabilized solid digestate; 2) construct a robust algal assemblage for outdoor open-pond culture system; and 3) develop conversion processes to turn AD fiber into fuels and chemicals.
Project Methods
Three tasks will be carried out according to the objectives of this project to systematically study the integrated concept, and conclude the feasibility of such system. The description of individual tasks is as follow.1. Optimize anaerobic microbial community to improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion and produce stabilized solid digestateThis task will focus on optimizing microbial community to further improve the digestion performance by converting more hemicellulose into methane and producing a stabilized cellulose-rich fiber. Animal manure and supplemental organic wastes available on animal farm (corn stover will be the supplemental feedstock for this study) will be the feedstock for the digestion. The relationship among culture conditions, microbial communities, and digestion performance will be concluded. The digestion performance will be evaluated based on the criteria of system robustness (stability of bacteria), total solids removal, methane gas production, and solid digestate quality as soil amendment.Theoutcomes obtained from this task will lead to an indepth understanding of relationship between microbial communities and fiber components, which will guide the digestion design to realize bothmethane and high-quality AD fiber production.We expect thatwith the optimized anaerobic microbial communities, the AD fiber should have less hemicellulose (less than 10%) and more cellulose (more than 35%). 2. Constructing the robust open-pond culture for the high yield algal assemblage in outdoor culture systemThe effects of liquid AD digestate on cultivation of the algal assemblage will be studied in this task. Pilot-scale (500 L and 1000L open-pond reactors) continuous culture systems set up at MSU ADREC will be used to carry out the experiment. A completely randomized design (CRD) will be used to optimize algal biomass production.A CRD will be used on the pilot-scale algal cultivation systems to investigate factors of nitrogen concentration, phosphorus, culture temperature, and gas flow and CO2/air ratio on the growth of the algal assemblage. The culture will be continuous. The hydraulic retention time is 10 days. The impacts of culture conditions (nutrient level, carbon dioxide/air ratio, and temperature) on the overall biomass production of the algal assemblage will be evaluated using an analysis of variance (ANOVA).In order to determine optimal culture conditions to maximize algal biomass yield and minimize water and nutrient inputs, transport and kinetic models will be developed based on the experimental data of the previous subtasks. Specifically, multiple-substrate Monod models will be coupled with mass transfer equations to predict the micro-algal growth under different environmental conditions. Outdoor cultivation will be conducted to verify the optimal culture conditions. Parameters to reflect the system performance, such as nutrient uptake, carbon utilization, and biomass composition, will be analyzed to confirm the long-term algal stability under the optimal culture conditions.The success of this task will elucidate the relationship between the algal assemblage and culture conditions, and conclude a robust system with high algal biomass yield and productivity. We expect that average algal biomass productivity will reach 30 g/m2/day year-round.3.Developing conversion processes to turn AD fiber into fuels and chemicalsThis task will apply the non-detoxified hydrolysis process on AD fiber and link it to the robust and high-density fungal fermentation. The experiment will be divided into three consecutive subtasks: 1) use dilute alkaline and acid to treat AD fiber and followed by direct enzymatic hydrolysis to produce sugar cocktails (including glucose, xylose, acetic acid and other components); 2) employ a robust fungal cultivation to accumulate lipids; and 3) convert lipids into biodiesel or biolubricant.3.1. Hydrolysis of AD fiber for mono-sugar productionA combined hydrolysis process will be developed in this project. The dilute alkali pretreated and dilute acid pretreated AD fiber slurries will be mixed to improve efficiencies of both acid and alkali treatment and remove additional neutralizer step, and then cellulases will directly apply on the neutralized slurry to release mono-sugars from the AD fiber. Combined hydrolysis under different pretreatment reaction conditions followed by enzymatic hydrolysis will be conducted to convert fibers into fermentable sugars of hexose and pentose. The effects of temperature, acid/alkali concentration, reaction time on sugar and acetate production will be studied by a completely randomized design (CRD), and the results will be analyzed by a General Lineal Model (GLM) using the Statistical Analysis System program 9.0 (SAS institute Inc., NC). ANOVA tables of different responses (total sugar, glucose and xylose yield) will be used to evaluate the factors.3.2. Two-stage fungal lipid accumulation process on lignocellulosic hydrolysateA two-stage fermentation process using a low-power microbubble aeration technology will be developed. A microbubble generation technology of fluidic oscillation is being implemented at PI's lab. It employs a gas disperser that have a horizontal nozzle/gas flow path to mechanically generate smaller microbubbles with high energy demand . Two 7 L fermenters are modified to accommodate such technology, which will be used for the two-stage fungal lipid accumulation.First Stage (Biomass production): We will optimize two parameters (yeast extract supplements and cultivation time) to generate the proper culture so that cells proliferate fast in the early stage.The biomass will be harvested to determine the biomass yield. The optimal culture condition for first-stage will be obtained by statistical comparison of biomass in terms of biomass yield, productivity, and concentration.Second stage (Lipid production): The whole broth in first-stage culture will be transferred into fermentor including hydrolysates with different concentrations and continue culturing with a concurrent depletion of nitrogen. We will monitor lipid productivity from hydrolysate media. We will also measure the dissolved oxygen, sugar concentrations, acetate consumption during the second stage of the culture.3.3. Conversion of lipids to biodiesel and biolubricantThe wet fungal biomass obtained from fermentation broth will be first dried. Then different amount of n-hexane will be added to the fungal biomass to extract lipids. The upper layer of lipid with hexane will be separated by centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min. The separated lipid will be transesterificated using ethanol:lipid molar ratios of 1:1 to 10:1. The esters (FAEE) are a high-quality biodiesel.The esters can be further refined to produce biolubricant. The main component of biolubricant - ethyl oleate can be distilled out from the easters. The effects of temperature, biomass/hexane ratio, extraction time, and ethanol:lipid ratio of transesterification on ethyl oleate production will be studied by a completely randomized design (CRD), and the results will be analyzed by a General Lineal Model (GLM) using the Statistical Analysis System program 9.0 (SAS institute Inc., NC). ANOVA table will be used to evaluate the factors on ethyl oleate yield.The outcomes from this task will conclude a high-efficiency lignocellulosic biodiesel and biolubricant production system with a targeted lipid yield of 12 g biodiesel or biolubricant/100 g dry AD fiber. We also expect that the water usage for the conversion process will be reduced in half.

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience: Animal farms mainly dairy farms and swine farms Bioenergy companies for both methane and cellulosic biofuel production Power industry on carbon capture and utilziation Environmental consulting companies Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) to establish anaerobic digestion research capacity Indian tribes in the State of Michigan on community-based waste/wastewater handling practices The U.S. Department of Defense - Army for renewable energy and clean water production The U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agricutural environment The U.S. EPA on waste/wastewater treatment/utilization Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three undergraduate courses (BE360 Microbial Systems Engineering, CHE/BE468 Biomass Conversion Engineering, and HRT461 Seminar in Plant, Animal and Microbial Biotechnology) and one graduate course (ESP801 Physical, Chemical, and Biological Processes of the Environment) have been continuously updated based on the new research outcomes from this project in the past 5 years. A total number of students in these classes are approximately 450. Eight graduate students (5 PhDs and 3 Masters) were working on aforementioned research topics, and another eight undergraduate students were assisting the graduate students to carry out the experiments during the reporting period. Two research scholars from China and one short-term scholar from Nepal were working in my group on anaerobic digestion related research topics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Online platform, conferences, workshops, and tours have been continuously used to disseminate the outcomes of the project. As listed in the publication section, numerous journal papers and conference presentation and workshops related with the studied concept have been given to different audiences (professional societies, universities, and industrial associations). In addition, 5-6 tours per year were given to a wide variety of domestic and international groups including local stakeholders, Indian tribes, as well as international collaborators. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the past five years, the integrated farm-based biorefining concept has been comprehensively studied. The biorefining concept includes three main components of anaerobic digestion, solid digestate utilization, and algal cultivation of liquid digestate. Anaerobic digestion systems were first optimized to improve the efficiency of anaerobic microbes and produce stabilized solid digestate for cellulosic biorefining. A one-pot mechano-biological process was then developed to efficiently convert carbohydrates in the solid digestate to mono-sugars for other value-added chemical production. A robust algal assemblage was screened and selected to utilize nutrients in the digestate for production of protein-rich algal biomass and reclaim the water. Finally, a detailed analysis of the integrated farm-based biorefining has been conducted. The outcomes of individual objectives are briefly described as follow. Objective 1: Optimizing anaerobic microbial communities to improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion and produce stabilized solid digestate This objective investigated the effects of mixtures of agricultural wastes and energy crop on solid digestate quality and biogas production. The feedstock mixtures of dairy manure and switchgrass (DM:SG) had the similar lag phase with the control feedstock of dairy manure, while was shorter than the feedstock mixtures of dairy manure and corn stover (DM:CS). Under the stable digestion conditions, the mixture of DM:SG at the mixture ratio of 80:20 had the highest methane production of 138 mL/g total solids (TS) loading; the mixtures of DM:SG and DM:CS at the mixture ratio of 60:40 had the highest VS reduction of 25.8%; and the mixture of DM:SG at the mixture ratio of 60:40 had the highest cellulose and xylan reduction of 40.4 and 40.7%, respectively. Two bacterial phyla (Firmicultes and Bacteroidetes) and three archaeal genera (Methanosarcina, Methanobrevibacter, and Methanobacterium) were the abundant microbial communities in all tested digestions. The statistical analysis concludes that anaerobic digestion can homogenize the feedstocks to generate solid digestates with uniform-format carbohydrate composition and similar mono-sugar conversion. The mean cellulose and xylan contents of the solid digestates were 26.6% and 15.2%, respectively. The corresponding mean glucose and xylose conversions of the solid digestates were 82.3% and 98.7%. This study clearly concludes that mixing animal wastes with energy crops and other crop residues can enhance methane production and generate a homogenous lignocellulosic feedstock, amendable for fuel and chemical production, which provides a new approach to address the logistic and conversion challenges that current biorefining technologies encounter. Objective 2: Constructing a robust algal assemblage for open-pond culture of liquid digestate from anaerobic digestion Excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus remaining in anaerobically digested manure effluent, have major impacts on the environment if disposed of inappropriately. Algal cultivation, with the advantage of a faster uptake of nutrients in effluent streams, represents one of the best processes for the removal of excessive nutrients. Meanwhile, algae have also been proved as one of the most promising non-food-crop-based feedstock for biofuels production. This study applying ecological approach on an open algal cultivation system elucidated that non-filamentous green algae, especially Chlorella, were able to tolerate high nutrient loadings in a five-month cultivation; a chemically pretreated anaerobically digested (AD) effluent which contained 200 g/m3 of total nitrogen and 2.5 g/m3 of total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) provided an optimal nutrient concentration for the cultivation of selected algae. Additionally, the cultivation of selected algae with optimal pretreated AD effluent in a pilot-scale semi-continuously fed raceway pond revealed a stable algal biomass productivity of 6.83 g/m2/d. Objective 3: Developing conversion processes to turn AD fiber into fuels and chemicals A novel, mechano-biocatalytic one-pot process was developed by this objective to efficiently release monosaccharides from lignocellulosic materials in an environmentally-friendly manner. The process synergistically integrates ball milling and enzymatic hydrolysis to complete pretreatment and hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials in a single step without chemical supplements. High sugar titer and conversion from lignocellulosic materials were simultaneously achieved. Among four studied feedstocks (solid digestate, corn stover, switchgrass, and miscanthus), corn stover demonstrated much better sugar concentration and conversion. Under the preferred reaction condition, the glucose concentration reached 55.20 g/L with a glucose conversion of 88.63%. The corresponding xylose concentration was 20.06 g/L with a xylose conversion of 67.34%. The energy and exergy analyses further indicate that the studied process had better energy and exergy profiles than the conventional combined hydrolysis process. The average energy consumption of the mechano-biocatalytic process for four feedstocks was 1.05 kWh-e/kg dry biomass that was 56% lower than the average energy consumption (2.37 kWh-e/kg dry biomass) of the conventional process. The corresponding average exergy efficiency of the mechano-biocatalytic process was 67% that was much higher than the average efficiency (52%) of the conventional process. These results show that the mechano-biocatalytic one-pot process as an environmentally friendly approach can significantly simplify the pretreatment and hydrolysis and enhance their efficiencies for advanced fuel and chemical production. Based on these objectives, the concept of integrated farm-based biorefining has been concluded. The system includes three unit operations of anaerobic digestion (AD), algal cultivation, and bioethanol production. The AD process produces methane and pretreats the fiber for bioethanol production. The algal cultivation on liquid AD effluent further reduces the environmental impacts of excess nutrients in the agricultural residues and generates a protein-rich algal biomass. Finally, a bioethanol process utilizes the carbohydrates in the AD treated fiber to produce ethanol. The IFBBR concept can make a major contribution to next generation biofuel production and create a win-win solution for both agricultural operations and biorefining industry. A regional centralized bioethanol refinery can be established in the farmland surrounded by cattle/dairy producers (Fig. 5). For example, in order to establish a 20 million gallon ethanol biorefinery (20 million gallon ethanol per year) in the United States, it needs 571 ton dry cellulose per day. A medium size cattle/dairy farm with 1,000 cows generates 8.5 ton dry manure per day. Using AD to treat this manure mixed with corn stover available on-farm (weight ratio of 4:1), each farm could produce 1.3 tons of dry cellulose per day. Therefore, 439 medium size cattle/dairy farms could produce the cellulose for 20 million gallons of ethanol production. Implementation of AD on a national scale with 1.2 million cattle producers would yield approximately 18.1 million dry tons of cellulose annually as biorefinery feedstock in the U.S. The year round operation, as compared with seasonal grain-based feedstock, plus relatively large space for forage storage on cattle and dairy farms, could provide a local supply system for biomass distribution, significantly reducing the transportation and storage cost for lignocellulosic ethanol production. Therefore, the integration of anaerobic digestion, algal cultivation, and lignocellulose biorefining can create a win-win-win solution for fuel ethanol production, animal operations, and the environment.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhong, Y., Chen, R., Rojas-Sossa, J., Isaguirre, C., Mashburn, A., Marsh, T., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. Anaerobic co-digestion of energy crop and agricultural wastes to prepare uniform-format cellulosic feedstock for biorefining. Renewable Energy 147, 1358-1370.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Wang, L., Long, F., Liao, W., Hong, L. 2020. Prediction of anaerobic digestion performance and identification of critical operational parameters using machine learning algorithms. Bioresource Technology 298, 122495.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhong, Y., Forst, H., Bustamante, M.1, Li, S.1, Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. A mechano-biocatalytic one-pot approach to release sugars from lignocellulosic materials. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 121, 109675.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Uludag-Demirer, S., Olson, N., Ives, R., Nshimyimana, J. P., Rusinek, C.A., Rose, J. B., Liao, W. 2020. Techno-economic analysis of electrocoagulation on water reclamation and bacterial/viral indicator reductions of a high-strength organic wastewater  Anaerobic digestion effluent. Sustainability 12, 2697.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2020 Citation: Francesca, V., Liao, W., Simona, P. 2020. Life cycle assessment of agro-industrial by-products reuse: a comparison between anaerobic digestion and conventional disposal treatments. Green Chemistry (In press)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Bioenergy and fuel research and development in the U.S. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Integrated farm-based biorefining for value-added energy and chemical production. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Research gaps of bioenergy technology commercialization. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. An energy-neutral and chemical-free feedstock treatment system for lignocellulosic biorefining. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. A combined biological and chemical solution to capture CO2 from power industry. Oral presentation at the 2019 Algae Biomass Summit. Orlando, FL. September 16-19
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Synergy of biological and chemical processes for high-efficiency CO2 capture and utilization. Oral presentation at the 2019 AIChE meeting. Orlando, FL. November 11
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lee, I., Sanyal, O., Liao, W. 2019. Nanostructured layer-by-layer (LBL) surface modification of nanofiltration membranes for effluent treatment. Oral presentation at the 2019 AIChE meeting. Orlando, FL. November 13
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Frost, H., Uludag-Demirer, S., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. An energy-neutral feedstock handling system to produce lignocellulosic fuels and chemicals. Oral presentation at the 2020 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Online. July
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xu, M., Uludag-Demirer, S., Smerigan, A., Fang, D., Zhou, L., Liu. Y., Liao, W. 2020. Effects of pyrogenic carbonaceous materials on anaerobic digestion of swine manure. Oral presentation at the 2020 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Online. July
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Cutshaw, A., Daiek, C., Zheng, Y., Frost, H., Marks, A., Clements, D., Uludag-Demirer, S., Hsiao, P., Smith, M., Narayan, R., Verhanovitz, N., Clary, W., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. A pilot-scale algal cultivation and biomass utilization of amino acid salt solution and polymer production on power plant flue gas. Oral presentation at the Algae Biomass Summit 2020. September 16.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zheng, Y., Czajka, J., Daiek, C., Tang, Y., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. Development of a robust algae-bacteria assemblage to efficiently accumulate biomass on formate. Oral presentation at the Algae Biomass Summit 2020. September 29.


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting peroid, the PI along with his colleagues from The Energy and Resource Institute in India hosted a three-day Indo-US workshop (30 attendees) on recent advances in advanced biofuel technologies at New Delhi, India in Spetember 2019. The PI gave an invited seminar "A self-sustaining wastewater utilization integrating solar-bio-nano-technologies" for a group of domestic and international attendees (60 people) at the 2019 Water for Food Global Conference at Lincoln, NE in April, 2019. The PI gave a keynote talk "A food-energy-water nexus concept to sustainably manage organic wastes and wastewater" at MSU Environmental Science & Policy Program (ESPP) Research Symposium 2018 (60 people): Climate-Food-Energy-Water. East Lansing, MI. November, 2018. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three undergraduate courses (BE360 Microbial Systems Engineering, CHE/BE468 Biomass Conversion Engineering, and HRT461 Seminar in Plant, Animal and Microbial Biotechnology) and one gradaute course (ESP801 Physical, Chemical, and Biological Processes of the Environment) have been continuously updated based on the new reseach outcomes from this project. Five graduate students (3 PhDs and 2 Masters) were working on aforementioned research topics, and another five undergraduate students were assisting the graduate students to carry out the experiments during the reporting period. Two research scholars from China and one short-term scholar from Nepal were working in my group on anaerobic digestion related research topics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Online platform, conferences, workshops, and tours have been continuously used to dissemiate the outcomes of the project. For instances, three oral presentations related with the research topics of anaerobic digestion, algal cultivation, and integrated biorefining were given at the 2019 annual ASABE international conference in Boston, MA. More than 100 people who are interested in these technologies were in the audiences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?According to the project objectives, the following tasks will be carried out in the next reporting period: 1). Investigating the effects of modified biochar (with increased charges and surface area) and formic acid on anaeobic microbial communities and corresponding digstion performance; 2) Optimizing the polyurethane production from algal proteins; and 3) Conducting yeast fermentation on the hydrolysate from mechano-biocatalytic process to produce ethanol and value-added chemicals.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Carbon-based conductive particles of biochar and activated carbon were used to enhance interspecies electron transfer of anaerobic microbes and improve carbon utilization efficiency of methane production during swine manure digestion. Both biochar and activated carbon significantly increased the methane production of swine manure digestion, which concluded that carbon-based conductive particles, particular residue-based biochar, are very good additive to enhance digestion performance of nitrogen-rich organic wastes. Metagenomic analysis of the microbial communities discovered that conductive particles greatly increase the abundance of archaea, and indirectly demonstrate the enhanced interspecies electron transfer between anaerobic bacteria and archaea. Objective 2: The DOE funded algae project was carried out at the pilot-scale algal cultivation facility at the MSU power plant. The algae have been growing in the 100 L photobioreactor for 18 months without any contamination and other cultivation issues. The highest biomass concentration and productivity reached 1.2 g/L and 1.15 g/L/day, respectively. The resulted algal biomass contains a large amount of proetin (more than 56% of dry biomass). A mechano-chemical protein extraction and hydrolysis process has been developed to extract algal proteins and convert them into amino acid salt solution. The CO2 capture test demonstrated that the algae-based amino acid salt solution has a superior CO2 capture capability compared to the corresponding pure amino acid salt solution. An indepth study is being carried out to delineate the relationship between amino acid, CO2, and water at molecular level. Objective 3: The novel mechano-biocatalytic one-pot process has been applied to generate mono-sugar stream from four lignocellulosic feedstocks of solid digestate from anaerobic digestion, corn stover, switchgrass, and miscanthus. The process synergistically integrates ball milling and enzymatic hydrolysis to complete pretreatment and hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials in a single step without chemical supplement. High sugar titer and conversion from lignocellulosic materials were simultaneously achieved. Among four studied feedstocks (solid digestate, corn stover, switchgrass, and miscanthus), corn stover demonstrated much better sugar concentration and conversion. Under the preferred reaction condition, the glucose concentration reached 55.20 g/L with a glucose conversion of 88.63%. The corresponding xylose concentration was 20.06 g/L with a xylose conversion of 67.34%. The energy balance analysis further indicates that the studied process had a better energy profile than conventional combined hydrolysis technology. The average energy consumption of the mechano-biocatalytic process for four feedstocks was 1.45 kWh-e/kg dry biomass, which was 35% lower than the average energy consumption (2.25 kWh-e/kg dry biomass) of the conventional pretreatment and hydrolysis process.

Publications

  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ruan, Z., Wang, X., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2019. Corn. In Integrated Processing Technologies for Food and Agricultural By-products, Pan, Z., Zhang, R., and Zicari, S. (Eds.), Academic Press, Cambridge, MA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Liao, W. 2018. An integrated algae solution to address carbon dioxide and wastewater challenges of the power industry. Oral presentation at the 2018 Algae Biomass Summit. Houston, TX. October 14-17
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. A self-sustaining wastewater utilization integrating solar-bio-nano-technologies. Oral presentation at the 2019 Water for Food Global Conference. Lincoln, NE. April 29-30
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Rojas-Sossa, J.1, Zhong, Y., Valenti, F., Blackhurst, J., Marsh, T., Kirk, D., Fang, D., Dale, B., Liao, W. 2019. Effect of ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) treated corn stover on anaerobic microbes and corresponding digestion performance. Biomass and Bioenergy 127, 105263.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Uludag-Demirer, S., Liao, W., Demirer, G. 2019. Volatile fatty acid production from anaerobic digestion of organic residues. In Microbial Lipid Production  Methods and Protocols, Balan, V. (Ed.), Humana Press, New York, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Zheng, Y., Clements, D., Cheng, S., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2019. Synergistic Integration of Gas Separation and Algal Cultivation to Capture CO2. Oral presentation at the 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Boston, MA. July 8-10
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. A food-energy-water nexus solution to sustainably manage organic wastes. Oral presentation at the 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Boston, MA. July 8-10
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Xu, M., Uludag-Demirer, S., Smerigan, A., Fang, D., Zhou, L., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2019. Effects of biochar and activated carbon on anaerobic digestion of a nitrogen-rich organic waste  swine manure. Oral presentation at the 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Boston, MA. July 8-10
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Bioenergy and fuel research and development in the U.S. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Integrated farm-based biorefining for value-added energy and chemical production. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. Research gaps of bioenergy technology commercialization. Oral presentation at Indo-US Workshop on Recent Advances in Advanced Biofuel Technologies  Understanding the Challenges for Moving towards Commercialization, New Delhi, India. September 5-6
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Liao, W. 2019. A combined biological and chemical solution to capture CO2 from power industry. Oral presentation at the 2019 Algae Biomass Summit. Orlando, FL. September 16-19


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting peroid, the PI gave a lecture "A food-energy-water nexus concept towards global sustainability" for a group of graduate students and professors at University of Guandalajara, Mexico in Spetember, 2017. The PI hosted a two-week USDA FAS supported workshop of "Ecological and circulatory agricultural technologies" for a group of scientists and administrators (5 people) from Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in August, 2018. The PI hosted the session "Advanced teratment technology on food & organic wastes/bioproducts management" at 2018 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) annual international meeting. The audience were about 20 people. The PI giave a seminar "a combined biological and chemical flue gas utilization system towards carbon dioxide capture" to a group of engineers, scientists, and adminstrators (60 people) at Pittsburg, PA in August, 2018. The PI gave a seminar "Sustainable management of wastes and wastewater using food-energy-water nexus approaches" to a group of students and faculty (50 people) at Ann Arbor, MI in Feburary, 2018. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three undergraduate courses (BE360 Microbial Systems Engineering, CHE/BE468 Biomass Conversion Engineering, and HRT461 Seminar in Plant, Animal and Microbial Biotechnology) and one gradaute course (ESP801 Physical, Chemical, and Biological Processes of the Environment) have been continuously updated based on the new reseach outcomes from this project. More undergraduate students were recruited by my research group to conduct the research related with the project. Three undergradaute students worked in my lab during the summer to carry out mechano-biocatalytic process of lignocellulosic biomass, algal cultivation, and metagenomic analysis of microbial communities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Online platform, conferences, workshops, and tours have been continuously used to dissemiate the outcomes of the project. For instances, a press release has been published to introduce the algal project at the MSU power plant. The PI was invited by University of Guandalahara, Mexico to visit Mexican tequila companies and help them developing anaerobic digestion based solutions to treat their high-strength wastewater. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?According to the project objectives, the following tasks will be carried out in the next reporting period: 1). Investigating the effects of modified biochar (with increased charges and surface area) on anaeobic microbial communities and corresponding digstion performance; 2) Optimizing the composition of algae-based amino acid salt solution to maximizing the CO2 absorption efficiency; and 3) Studying the bacterial and fungal fermentation on the hydrolysate from mechano-biocatalytic process to produce muconic acid and fungal biomass.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure with crop residue (corn stover) and energy crop (switchgrass) was studied to evaluate the effects of anaerobic digestion on dynamic changes of microbial communities and the quality of digetate as the feedstock for biorefiing. The experimental data demnstrated that the carbohydrate composition and hydrolyzibility of all solid digestates from different feedstock mixtures were not statistically different under the stabilized anaerobic digestion. This result concluded that anaerobic co-digestion can serve as a biological pretreatment to handle a variety of energy crops and agricultural wastes and generate a homogenized lignocellulosic feedstock for fuel and chemical production. A journal manuscript on this topic is under reiview. In addition, we continued our study using biochar as conductive particles to enhance digestion performance. Adding biochar into anaerobic digestion of swine manure significantly increased the gas production, which indicated that biochar is a very good additive to enhance digestion performance of nitrogen-rich organic wastes. Matogenic analysis of the microbial communities is being carried out to discover the relationship between biochar, manure nutrients, and anaerobic microbes. Objective 2: The algal research was funded by DOE last October. The DOE funded project was carried out at the pilot-scale algal cultivation facility. The algae have been growing in the 100 L photobioreactor for more than 6 months without any contamination. The biomass concentration and productivity reached 1.2 g/L and 0.5 g/L/day, respectively. the resulted algal biomass is rich in protein, which is currently investigated as the feedstock for and amino acid based chemical and polymer production. Objective 3: A novel mechano-biocatalytic process has been developed in this reporting period. The process synergistically integrate ball milling and enzymatic hydrolysis to directly convert lignocellulsic biomass into mono-sugars with high titer and yield. The novel process does not need corrosive chemicals and thermal energy to do the conversion. A manuscript of the new mechano-biocatalytic process has been developed and under review.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Valenti, F., Liao, W., Porto, S.M.C. 2018. A GIS-based spatial index of feedstock-mixture availability for anaerobic co-digestion of Mediterranean by-products and agricultural residues. Journal of Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining 12(3), 362-378.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Valenti, F., Zhong, Y., Sun, M., Porto, S. M. C., Toscano, A., Dale, B.E., Sibilla, F., Liao, W. 2018. Anaerobic co-digestion of multiple agricultural residues to enhance biogas production in Southern Italy. Journal of Waste Management 78, 151-157.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Paritosh, K., Yadav, M., Mathur, S., Balan, V., Liao, W., Pareek, N., Vivekanand, V. 2018. Organic fraction of municipal solid waste: overview of treatment methodologies to enhance anaerobic biodegradability. Frontiers in Energy Research 6, 75.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Valenti, F., Porto, S.M.C., Dale, B.E., Liao, W. 2018. Spatial analysis of feedstock supply and logistics to establish regional biogas power generation: A case study in Sicilian region. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 97, 50-63.


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting period, the PI co-hosted the session "Challenges & Opportunities for Microalgal Technologies" at the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering 2016 Conference, and gave two seminars about algae cultivation and utilization to a group of canadian scientists and engineers (approximately 20 people). The PI presented the anaerobic digestion and related technologies that the PI's research group is developing to a group of engineers and military personnel (15 people) at Forty Riley, KS at the end of 2016. The PI also gave a seminar of the integrated biorefining concept to a group of chemists (50 people) at Center of Research Excellence in Chemistry in October, 2016. The PI also gave a seminar of biogas production and utilization to a group of engineers, scientists, and managers (30 people) from Honeywell UOP LLC at Chicago in January, 2017. The PI gave a webinar about synergies between anaerobic digestion and nutrient reconvery, water reclamation, and value-added chemical production to EPA Nutrient Recycling Challenge program (20 people on the webinar) in Feburary, 2017. The PI gave a University seminar at University of Bologna, Italy about food-energy-water research and development in the U.S. to a group of engineers and scientists (30 people) in June, 2017. The PI gave a seminar of the food-energy-water nexus solutions to a group of scientists (20 people), and toured them to MSU ADREC facility at 2017 MSU Eco-resource restoration workshop for Jianghan University, China in August, 2017. The PI gave a talk about wastewater utilization technologies to a group of army engineers from Army TARDEC, and toured them to MSU pilot digester facility in August, 2017. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Besides continuously updating the new reserach outcomes into three undergraduate courses (BE360 Microbial Systems Engineering, CHE/BE468 Biomass Conversion Engineering, and HRT461 Seminar in Plant, Animal and Microbial Biotechnology) and two gradaute courses (BE892 Biosystems Engineering Seminar, and ESP801 Physical, Chemical, and Biological Processes of the Environment), we offered summer intern opportunities to undergraduate agricultural engineering students to carry out the topics related with the project. Two undergraduate students worked in my center for 10 weeks during the summer, 2017 to carry out both microbial community analysis of anaerobic digestion, and mechanical pretreatment of the digestate to prepare mono-sugars for value-added chemical produciton. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Website, conferences, meetings, and tours have been used to dissemiate the studied technologies to different groups of interest. Both ADREC and PI websites have been updated to reflect the latest progresses on the project. Several press releases on algal cutlivaton and wastewater/water treatment have been published on MSU and CANR websites to let general pulic know what the project has achieved. In addition, some specific meetings were hosted for targeted audience. For instance, I communicated with Army TARDEC on wastewater treatment technologies by conference calls and site visits in 2016, which led to a project that we are carrying out for Army TARDEC. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Three targets are planed for the next reportig period: 1) clearly understanding effects of biochar (condictive particles) on anaeobic microbial communities and corresponding digstion performance of biogas production and digestate quality; 2) developing a cascade conversion process to efficiently utilize algal biomass for value-added chemical production; and 3) further studying the interaction between anaerobic treatment and ball milling of lignocellulosic materials to realize an energy-neutral and chemcial-free ligncoellulosic pretreatment process.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Metagenomic tools including MiSeq Illumina DNA sequencing and bioinformatics of DNA data for microbial communities in anaerobic digstion systems have been implemented. The protocol to identify bacterial and archaeal communities in digestion has been established. these tools have been used to carry out to optimize anaerobic digestion of coffee processing residues for biogas and value-added byproduct production. A journal paper has been published based on this study. Biochar from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass as conductive particles has been used as the additive to improve interspecies electron transfer and consequently enhance digestion performance. A very interesting disocvery is that with addition of biochar, the digestion shows a very good capacitity to tolerate some toxic inhibitors (like aromatic compounds in biooil from pyrolysis), so that anaerobic digestion can be integrated with thermal conversion to synergetically generate biogas and produce valule-added fuel/chemcials. A manuscript is under development for this subject. Objective 2: The pilot-scale algal cultivation system has been continuously operated at the MSU power plant. The results from the operation led to a peer-reivewed article and a recently funded DOE project. The DOE project will focus on using algal biomass to produce value-added chemicals/fuels, and improve the efficiency of carbon capture at power plant. Objective 3: A ball mill study on solid digestate concludes that ball mill is a very good pretreatment process to carry out the size reduction of water-impregated digestate fiber. three ball materials of stainless steel, zirconia, and agate have been tested. Agate demonstrated better grinding efficiency than other two. The mono-sugar production from the combined anaerobic digestion and agate mill treatment showed a good improvement on the conversion and yield. The energy demand is much less than using conventional acid and alkali thermal treatment.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Zanotti, M., Ruan, Z., Bustamante-Roman, M., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2016. A sustainable lignocellulosic biodiesel production integrating solar- and bio-power generation. Green Chemistry 18, 5059-5068.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, Z., Liao, W., Liu, Y. 2016. A sustainable biorefinery concept to convert agricultural residues into value-added chemicals. Biotechnology for Biofuels 9, 197.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, F., Chen, R., Yue, Z.B., Liao, W., Marsh, T. L. 2016. Phylogenetic analysis of anaerobic co-digestion of animal manure and corn stover reveals linkages between bacterial communities and digestion performance. Advances in Microbiology 6, 879-897
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Aguilar, R., Bustamante, M., Kirk, D., Miranda, J., Baudrit, D., Aguilar, J., Rodriguez, W., Reinhold, D., Liao, W. 2016. Technical and economic feasibility of an on-site solar-bio-powered organic wastes utilization system in Central America. Journal of Environmental Management 184, 371-379
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Zhong Y., Liu, Z., Isaguirre, C., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2016. Fungal fermentation on anaerobic digestate for lipid-based biofuel production. Biotechnology for Biofuels 9, 253
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Liu, Z., Liu, Y., Oyetunde, T., Hollinshead, W. D., Hermanns, A., Tang, Y., Liao, W. 2017. Exploring eukaryotic formate metabolisms to enhance microbial growth and lipid accumulation. Biotechnology for Biofuels 10, 22
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pelaez-Samaniego, M. R., Hummel, R. L., Liao, W., Ma, J., Jensen, J., Kruger, C., Frear, C. 2017. Approaches for adding value to anaerobically digested dairy fiber. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Review 72, 254-268
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bustamante-Roman, M., Liao, W. 2017. A self-sustaining high-strength wastewater treatment system using solar-bio-hybrid power generation. Bioresource Technology 234, 415-423
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: MacLellan, J., Chen, R., Yue, Z.B., Kraemer, R., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2017. Effects of protein and lignin on cellulose and xylan analyses of lignocellulosic biomass. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 16(6), 1268-1275
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Li, Q., Liu, Y., Liao, W., Powers, W. 2017. Microalgal cultivation using animal production exhaust air: technical and economic feasibility. CLEAN - Soil, Air, Water 45(4) 1500309
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pavlik, D., Zhong, Y., Elizabeth, C., Liao, W., Morgan, R., Clary, W., Liu, Y. 2017 Microalgae cultivation of carbon dioxide sequestration and protein production using a high-efficiency photobioreactor system. Algal Research 25, 413-420
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rojas-Sossa, J. P., Murillo, M., Marsh, T., Larsen, N., Uribe, L., Uribe-Lorio, L., Miranda, A., Solis, K., Rodriguez, W., Kirk, D., Liao, W. 2017. Effects of coffee processing residues on anaerobic microorganisms and corresponding digestion performance. Bioresource Technology 245, 714-723


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting period, the PI hosted a workshop on animal waste utilization for value-added chemical production to a group of professors (6) from Tuskegee University. The PI also toured several groups (including five industrial groups, three international groups, one undergraduate student group, and one graduate student group) to the MSU demonstration anaerobic digestion and algal cutlivaiton facility, and introduced the integrated biorefining concept to them. The PI also presented the research outcomes of the project at professional conferences of the 2016 ASABE annual meeting, the 38th symposium on biotechnology for fuels and chemicals, the 26th annual solid waste technical conference, and the 2015 AIChE annual international meeting. In addition, the PI also made two international presentations in Costa Rica to communicate with a group of scientists and engineers from Costa Rican biogas council on the integrated biorefining concept. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research outcomes druing the reporting period have been integrated into three undergraduate courses and two graduate courses that PI are teaching. These courses are: BE360 Microbial systems engineering, BE/ChE 468 Biomass conversion engineering, HRT461 Seminar in plant, animal and microbial biotechnology (a new course), BE892 Biosystems engineering seminar, and ESP801 Physical, chemical, and biological processes of the environment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The anaerobic digestion technologies have been disseminated to Navy officers from Naval Station Great Lakes. We are in the middle of the discussion to apply the research outcomes from this porject to develop a organic waste treatment system for the station in near future. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Metagenoimic tools will be used to discover the relationship between bacterial communities and fiber composition in the digestate, so that the digestion can be modified to accumulate more cellulose. The algal strains will be cultured in the pilot-scale photobioreactor to improve the biomass yield and productivity. The protein-rich algal biomass will be targeted. A chemical-free pretreatment process will be developed to turn solid digestate into mono-sugars to support fungal growth.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the reporting period, under Objective 1, the anaerobic microbial communities have been optimized by adjusting feedstock mixing ratio and retention time in order to obtain homogenized digestate for the following conversion to produce target biofuels. The experimental results has demonstrated that the water impregnated and homogenized digestate is amendable to the following size reduction and enzymatic hydrolysis of mono-sugar release. A manuscript is currently under development to disseminate the results. Under Objective 2, a robust algal assemblage including Chlorella, Scenedesmus, and Synechocystis has been screened and selected. The algal assemblage demonstrates strong toerance on nutrient (up to 500 mg/L TN) and stable growth performance at outdoor culture conditions. Under Objective 3, a new fungal fermentation process has been developed to utilize both solid and liquid digestate from the anaerobic digestion to accumulate lipids for biodiesel production. Since liquid digestate is used as the nutrient and water sources, fresh water is not needed to support the fermentation. A fresh-water-free process to accumulate microbial lipids has been achieved.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ruan, Z., Hollinshead, W., Isaguirre, C., Tang, Y. J., Liao, W., Liu, Y. 2015. Effects of inhibitory compounds in lignocellulosic hydrolysates on Mortierella isabellina growth and carbon utilization. Bioresource Technology 183, 18-24
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Zhong, Y., Bustamante-Roman, M., Zhong, Y., Archer, S., Chen, R., Deitz, L., Hochhalter, D., Balaze, K., Sperry M., Werner, E., Kirk, D., Liao, W. 2015. Using anaerobic digestion of organic wastes to biochemically store solar thermal energy. Journal of Energy 83, 638-64
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Wang, X. Q., Ruan, Z. H., Sears, B. B., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2015. Transgenic expression of a bacterial thermophilic amylase in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast. BioEnergy Research 8(2), 527-536
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Sanyal, O., Liu, Z., Meharg, B. M., Liao, W., Lee, I. 2015. Development of polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes to reduce the COD removal of electrocoagulation treated high-strength wastewater. Journal of Membrane Science 496, 259-266
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Wang, D., Zhu, Z., Wang, X., Bustamante, M., Xu, Y., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2015. Improving mycelium-bound lipase production by aggregating Rhizopus chinensis on a draft tube in a modified stirred tank fermentor. Process Biochemistry 50, 2019-2028
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Li, Q., Powers, W., Rozeboom, D., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2016. An integrated curtain-microalgal culture system (WCMC) to recover nutrients and mitigate air emissions from animal feeding operations. Algal Research 18, 166-174.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chen, R., Roos, M., Zhong, Y., Marsh T., Bustamante-Roman, M., Ascencio, W., Uribe, L., Lorio, L., Kirk, D., Reinhold D., Miranda, J., Baudrit, D., Aguilar, J., Rodriguez, W., Srivastava, A., Liao, W. 2016. Response of anaerobic microorganisms to different culture conditions and corresponding effects on biogas production a solid digestate quality. Biomass and Bioenergy 85, 84-93.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chen, R., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2016. Using an environmentally friendly process combining electrocoagulation and algal cultivation to treat high strength wastewater. Algal Research 16, 330-337.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Sanyal, O., Liu, Z., Yu, J., Meharg, B. M., Hong, J. S., Liao, W., Lee, I. 2016. Designing fouling-resistant clay-embedded polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes for wastewater effluent treatment. Journal of Membrane Science 512, 21-28.


Progress 09/01/15 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:During this short period, the PI toured several groups (including undergraduate students, graduate students, and private companies) to the MSU demonstration anaerobic dgiestion and algal cultivation facility, and showed them how the integrated system can facilitate future animal waste utilization, and turn an enviromental liability into a public asset. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A comprehenisve understanding of relationship between microbial communities and digestion performance, especially the effects of microbial communities on solid digestate quality will be delineated. this result will guide the deisgn of conversion process to convert solid digestate into value-added fuel and chemical products. The algal strains selected by the PI's research group from local lakes will be used as the base algal community to develop a robust algal assembledge that adapts the local enviroment and have high efficiency to treat the liquid AD effluent. The bench-scale and pilot-scale algal ponds located at the MSU ADREC will be used to carry out this ojective (Ojective 2).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting period, the lab-scale reactors (1 L reactors) have been fabricated to carry out Objective 1 of optimizing anaerobic microbial communities to improve the efficiency fo anaerobic digestion and produce stabilized solid digestate. The analytic tools to carry out the analysis have been set up as well, such as GC and HPLC for biogas and sugar analyses, and methods for metagenomic analysis of microbial communities.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Chen, R., Rojas-Downing, M., Zhong, Y., Saffron, C., Liao, W. 2015. Life cycle assessment of anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure and food waste. Journal of Industrial Biotechnology 11(2), 127-139