Performing Department
Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering
Non Technical Summary
Developing high value products from biomass is necessary to improve the economic sustainability and viability of future bioenergy processes. In this project, integrated biorefinery platforms and sustainable agricultural technologies will be investigated to generate value-added products and enable sustainable agricultural production. This effort will focus on development of three key objectives.Objective 1. Develop fresh produce and meat preservative from glucosinolates as a value added coproduct of oilseeds. Glucosinolates (GLS) and myrosinase (MYRS) will be extracted and isolated via selective adsorption. An adsorbent packet, in which GLS and MYRS are adsorbed on different materials, will enable controllable release of GLS and MYRS simultaneously. Subsequent hydrolysis of GLS by MYRS will release bioactive isothiocyanates in food packaging. The anti-microbial activity of isothiocyanates against food spoilage and poisoning microbes (grey mold, E. coli and Salmonella) will be quantified using FDA standard assay methods.Objective 2. Develop an electrochemical enhanced anaerobic process to convert urea in animal manure to controlled release nitrogen fertilizer and generate electricity for sustainable agriculture. An electrochemical enhanced anaerobic process, using biochar as microbial fuel cell electrodes, will be developed to enhance anaerobic digestion of manure, minimize loss of nutrients, and improve biogas quality. We will also evaluate innovative biochar electrodes to achieve complete mineralization of urea as well as immobilize nitrate in biochar as sustainable releasing fertilizer. We will optimize energy efficiency and conversion selectivity of the electrochemical anaerobic digestion to achieve simultaneously production of high quality bio-natural gas, recovery of sustainable releasing fertilizer, and production of electricity from manure wastes. Furthermore, we will evaluate N and P leaching from soil amended with biochar containing digestates to understand how biochar addition in anaerobic digestion impacts sustainable fertilization pratices.Objective 3. Develop an advanced thermochemical process to prepared graphene from lignin for use as electrodes for energy storge devices, such as Li batteries and supercapacitors. A new flash catalytic thermochemical process (FCTP), which is inspired by a recent success in high power flash graphene preparation including laser and joule heating processes, will be developed and optimized to produce 3D porous graphene from lignin. This project will also quantify how the composition and structure of different feedstocks, heating conditions, and catalysts (type and dosage) of thermochemical processes impact the resulting 3D porous graphene structure, surface chemical properties, and electric energy storage functions. Simultaneously, the reactions of FCTP will be monitored and disclosed through quantitatively analysis of volatile products. Furthermore, a deep understanding of the relationship between porous structure, surface properties of lignin based 3D porous graphene, and their functional performance of energy storage will be established. This project will also prepare bio-jet fuel from volatile co-products of FCTP. According to analysis results of FCTP's condensed volatile products, upgrading processes (such as catalytic hydrodeoxygenation) will be designed to convert the biooil of FCTP to drop-in jet fuel. Novel multifunctional catalysts will be developed. Regeneration of the spent catalysts will also be explored.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
50%
Developmental
25%
Goals / Objectives
In the proposed hatch project, Dr. Gu will focus on the following objectives to enhance sustainable agriculture:Objective 1. Develop fresh produce and meat preservative from glucosinolates as a value added coproduct of oilseeds. Objective 2. Develop an electrochemical enhanced anaerobic process to convert urea in animal manure to controlled release nitrogen fertilizer and generate electricity for sustainable agriculture. Objective 3. Develop an advanced thermochemical process to prepared graphene from lignin for use as electrodes for energy storge devices, such as Li batteries and supercapacitors.
Project Methods
Objective 1. Develop fresh produce and meat preservative from glucosinolates as a value added coproduct of oilseeds.We will develop a glucosinolate (GLS) based, slow release preservative to inhibit spoilage (Gray mold) and foodborne pathogens (E. coli, Salmonella) in fresh produce and meat. GLS and myrosinase (MYRS) will be extracted from camelina meal using methods that minimize protein and oil loss. Liquid and solid fractions will be characterized to determine mass balance and extraction efficiency. Impact of meal condition and extraction parameters (solid-liquid ratio, solvent composition, pH, mixing conditions, time, and temperature) will be evaluated and optimized. After extraction, oilseed meal will be evaluated as fish feed in collaborator laboratories.GLS and MYRS recovery will be evaluated by methods such as activated carbon, cellulose beads, and chromatography (anion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, reverse phase, and hydrophobic-ion exchange multifunctional). Adsorption/desorption data will enable us to understand how pH, moisture, and other factors impact adsorption and release of GLS and MYRS. This will also enable development of a slow release platform, which will generate isothiocyanates by accurately discharging of GLS and MYRS simultaneously. Quantification of GLS-MYRS adsorption and release will be conducted according to FDA standards. In addition, microbial inhibition will be predicted through in-situ analysis of GLS hydrolysis products, such as isothiocyanates with in-line GC-MS.Objective 2. Develop an electrochemical enhanced anaerobic process to convert urea in animal manure to controlled release nitrogen fertilizer and generate electricity for sustainable agriculture.We will develop an electrochemical enhanced anaerobic process using biochar as a microbial fuel cell electrode. Biochar (80% wt) will be mixed with acetylene black (10% wt to enhance conductivity) and PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene, 10% wt). Biochar electrodes will be fabricated by mechanical compression on one side of a conductive belt for 10 min at 1,000 kg/cm2, followed by drying at 60°C for 12 h. The biochar electrodes will be used as working electrodes (anode and cathode) in a microbial-electrochemical anaerobic bioreactor (MEAB), while Ag/AgCl will be used as a reference electrode. To minimize biotoxicity, stainless steel wire will be used. An external potential of 0.1-1.0 V will be applied to the MEAB. Then, a cyclic voltammetry pattern will be applied with an electrochemical workstation (CHI760E) to determine the bio-electrochemical behavior (redox reactions). After determining optimal operation parameters (e.g., voltage), the effects of biochar electrodes on digester performance will be carried out using a cartridge digesters (2 L).Biochar particles will be added into one digester (treatment) at a rate of 10 g/L but not to the other digester (control). One biochar electrode equipped membrane electrochemical anaerobic digester (~0.5L) will be put into the treatment digester as well. Both digesters will be sealed, kept at 37oC, and started at the same time. Biogas yield will be measured continuously using a built-in gas flowrate meter, and composition (CH4, CO2, O2, H2S, and N2) will be analyzed using a portable GC every 2-3 days. Every week, a 50 ml liquid sample will be taken from each digester to determine alkalinity, total ammonia nitrogen, volatile fatty acid, and pH. The batch experiment will last 40-50 days. Total solids, hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, crude protein, and C/N ratio will be analyzed before and after the anaerobic digestion process using standard methods. Statistical methods, such as Frequentist framework (maximum likelihood, least squares, non-linear regression), and Bayesian framework (Metropolis-Hasting, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), importance sampling, etc.) will be used to compare results.After anaerobic digestion, the spent manure and biochar particles collected from the treatment cartridge digesters will be mixed with typical South Dakota soils to evaluate how biochar minimizes nutrient leaching. Simultaneously, NH4NO3 (0.5g/kg), Ca(H2PO4)?2H2O (0.25g/kg), and K2SO4 (0.25g/kg) will be used to mimic nutrients and mixed with soil. After mixing, soil and biochar will be filled in 3 cm diameter plastic columns to 10 cm height. Then a leaching test with 250 mL/column distilled water will be conducted weekly for ten weeks. Water samples will be collected for nutrient analysis with an elemental analyzer (N) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (K, P).Objective 3. Develop an advanced thermochemical process to prepared graphene from lignin for use as electrodes for energy storge devices, such as Li batteries and supercapacitors.Kraft lignin and hydrolysis lignin will be used as feedstocks to prepare 3D porous graphene. The flash catalytic thermochemical process (FCTP) will be initially selected according to previous graphene preparation results obtained in Dr. Gu's lab. Further optimization of the FCTP will be conducted through fine tuning parameters. All FCTP will be carried out in a customized reactor, which enables accurate atmospheric control and fast heating/cooling conditions (up to 1,500 °C/min). The outlet of reactor will connect to a liquid nitrogen cold trap to collect condensable volatiles generated, and these will subsequently be analyzed as described below. 3D porous graphene will be purified, characterized, and evaluated as electrode material in Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors. Electrodes will be prepared by casting a slurry containing the active materials prepared in this project, with polymer binders for carbon electrodes, on copper, nickel, or aluminum foil. We will use the representative commercial standard composition reported in industrial standard protocol. The rate of charging and discharging, as well as the coulombic efficiency, will be calculated by assuming all carbon active materials can achieve complete theoretic value. In addition, the operating voltage of the packed cell will be considered as an analytical parameter.We will employ a previously developed suite of methods using GC-MS/FID to characterize the condensed volatile products collected in FCTP. We will also utilize HPLC-MS with electrospray ionization to analyze these condensates. To characterize the graphene samples collected, thermal carbon analysis will be performed to calculate mass balance closure. We will use thermal desorption-pyrolysis (TD-Pyr) GC-MS/FID to develop thermal carbon profiles. The reaction mechanisms of the FCTP will be determined according to analysis results of chemicals generated in 3D porous graphene preparation processes and references of thermochemical biorefinery of lignin. Furthermore, these reaction mechanism results will be correlated to characterize results of 3D porous graphene samples, enabling us to obtain fundamental understanding of how changing specific parameters in these thermochemical reactions impact prepared 3D porous graphene structure.We will test a number of 3D porous graphene materials with a range of pore structures and surface properties from typical lignin. We will also quantitatively modify porous structure and surface function groups of 3D porous graphene by using: 1) surface oxidization (hydrothermal H2O2 or HNO3 treatment, or plasma processes which have been verified in Dr. Gu's lab), and 2) reduction (using reducing agents such as hydrozein or sodium borohydride). We will seek to determine how the surface functional groups change their electrochemical properties, such as surface wetting ability (with typical electrolytes of supercapacitor and Li-ion batteries), initial Columbic efficiency, charging /discharging capacity at specific current density, rate performance at various current density, cyclic voltammetry curves, and inner resistance.