Titel Deelnemers "Korte inhoud" "Synthesis, characterization, and methylene blue adsorption isotherms of hydrochars derived from forestry waste and agro-residues" "Xian Zhang, Fangyuan Chen, Shiwang Liu, Jian Lou, Wanpeng Liu, Diederik Rousseau, Stijn Van Hulle" "Mason pine-derived hydrochar (MPHC), cedarwood-derived hydrochar (CHC), bamboo-derived hydrochar (BHC), coconut shell-derived hydrochar (CSHC), pecan shell-derived hydrochar (PSHC), wheat straw-derived hydrochar (WSHC), maize straw-derived hydrochar (MSHC), and rice straw-derived hydrochar (RSHC) were synthesized by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). The physicochemical properties of these hydrochars were characterized by various techniques, and the adsorption behavior of methylene blue (MB) on hydrochars from an aqueous solution was also investigated. The characterization results suggested that the hydrochars possessed various oxygen-containing functional groups (e.g., ether and hydroxyl groups, etc.). Thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that adsorption was spontaneous for all produced hydrochars. The adsorption was endothermic for CHC, BHC, CSHC, PSHC, WSHC, MSHC, RSHC, and exothermic for MPHC. The Langmuir model best described the adsorption process. MB adsorption capacity is ranked as MPHC > PSHC > CSHC > CHC > MSHC> WSHC > RSHC > BHC. The saturated adsorption value for MB on these hydrochars at 15 degrees C was 155.14, 109.24, 93.15, 91.71, 88.11, 86.36, 70.01, and 64.43 mg/g, respectively; the difference in adsorption value indicates that the type of biomass affects MB adsorption. This high adsorption capacity for MB suggests that the produced hydrochars could be utilized as a promising new adsorbent in wastewater treatment." "Study of self-heating and local strain rate in polyamide-6 and short fibre glass/polyamide-6 under tension through synchronised full-field strain and temperature measurements" "Daniele Finazzi, Yuriy Sinchuk, Ruben Sevenois, Lode Daelemans, Karen De Clerck, Gilles Robert, Wim Van Paepegem" "This paper studies thermomechanical coupling during room-temperature tensile testing of polyamide-6 (PA6) and 50 wt% short glass fibre/PA6. The tests were performed for different fibre angles (0°, 45°, 90°), moisture contents (dry, 50%RH), and strain rates (10^(-4), 10^(-2), 10^(-1) s^(-1)). Digital image correlation (DIC) was coupled with infrared thermography. The contribution of the local strains, strain rates and temperatures to the global mechanical behaviour was investigated throughout deformation. The initial thermoelastic response was used to estimate the coefficient of thermal expansion. In PA6, neck development caused significant self-heating at high strain rates, differently between dry and 50%RH. In glass/PA6, however, temperature rises were always small (< +3 °C) despite local strain rate peaks in the fracture zone. This was ascribed to limited plastic deformation, as confirmed by post-mortem microscopy. The full-field data can be highly valuable for the development of advanced constitutive models for both pure polymer and short fibre composite." "Degradation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water by use of a nonthermal plasma-ozonation cascade reactor : role of different processes and reactive species" "Changtao Chen, Chuanlong Ma, Xuetong Yang, Mikhail Gromov, Ye Tian, Kristof Demeestere, Anton Nikiforov, Stijn Van Hulle" "The widespread use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the last century has caused serious pollution of water bodies around the world, threatening the health of humans and other organisms. In this work, a novel cascade reactor configuration, comprised of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma chamber connected with an ozonation chamber was used to treat municipal secondary effluent loaded with several PFAS. The electrical energy per order (EE/O) for degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) amounts 180 and 100 kWh/m3, respectively. While the short-chain PFAS (perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA)) were difficult to be degraded, i.e. degradation percentage < 32 % after 60 min, 80–90 % of the longer PFAS (PFOA and PFDA) were degraded within 60 min. The degradation of PFAS mainly occurred in the plasma chamber rather than in ozonation chamber. This is because that reductive species produced in plasma chamber, such as hydrated electrons (eaq−) and Ar+, played a direct role in defluorination, while oxidative species, including radical dotOH, O, O2radical dot−, 1O2, O3, and H2O2, has a very limited contribution for defluorination. Enhancing the utilization of reductive species is crucial to degrade PFAS. Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA) generated during the plasma reactions may have a potential risk for environment. As such, further optimization should focus on full mineralization. This study provides an approach to solve the problem of PFAS-contaminated wastewater, which is of the importance to promote the application of nonthermal plasma technique in water treatment." "Life cycle cost assessment and economic analysis of a decentralized wastewater treatment to achieve water sustainability within the framework of circular economy" "María J. López-Serrano, Fida Hussain Lakho, Stijn Van Hulle, Ana Batlles-delaFuente" "Combining a novel biofilm reactor with a constructed wetland for rural, decentralized wastewater treatment" "Rui Zhang, Xianchang Liu, Lutian Wang, Pan Xu, Kai Li, Xiaoxiao Chen, Rong Meng, Yuewu Pu, Xuetong Yang, Diederik Rousseau, Stijn Van Hulle" "Removal of organic micropollutants from water by adsorption on thermo-plasma expanded graphite encapsulated into calcium alginate" "Marco Cuccarese, Stijn Van Hulle, Ignazio M. Mancini, Salvatore Masi, Donatella Caniani" "Nowadays, public concern is focused on the degradation of water quality. For this reason, the development of innovative technologies for water treatment in view of (micro)pollutant removal is important. Indeed, organic (micro)pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, herbicides, pesticides and plasticizers at concentration levels of & mu;g L-1 or even ng L-1 are hardly removed during conventional wastewater treatment. In view of this, thermo-plasma expanded graphite, a light-weight innovative material in the form of a powder, was encapsulated into calcium alginate to obtain a granular form useful as filtration and adsorption material for removal of different pollutants. The produced material was used to remove atrazine, bisphenol-A, 17-& alpha;-ethinylestradiol and carbamazepine (at concentration levels of 125, 250 and 500 & mu;g L-1) by top-down filtration. The effect of flow rate, bed depth and adsorbent composition was evaluated based on breakthrough curves. The experimental data was analysed with the Adams-Bohart model in view of scale-up. Under optimal conditions, removal and adsorption capacity of respectively about 21%, 21%, 38%,42%, 43 & mu;g g-1, 44 & mu;g g-1, 37 & mu;g g-1 and 87 & mu;g g-1 were obtained for atrazine, bisphenol, 17-& alpha; ethinylestradiol and carbamazepine when using 0.12 g of thermo-plasma expanded graphite to treat 200 mL at 500 & mu;g L-1 (for each compound) of solution obtaining at contact time of 20 min. The granular form of TPEG obtained (GTPEG) by entrapping in calcium alginate results to have a good adsorbent property for the removal of carbamazepine, atrazine, bisphenol A and 17-& alpha; ethinylestradiol from water at concentration levels between 250 and 500 & mu;g L-1. Promising results confirm the adsorbent properties of TPEG and push-up us to investigate on its application and improve of its performance by evaluating different entrapping materials." "The ozone-activated peroxymonosulfate process for the removal of a mixture of TrOCs with different ozone reactivity at environmentally relevant conditions : technical performance, radical exposure and online monitoring by spectral surrogate parameters" "Emma Deniere, Herman Van Langenhove, Stijn Van Hulle, Kristof Demeestere" "Secondary effluent from wastewater treatment plants contains (bio)recalcitrant trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) that are discharged into the environment. Ozonation can offer a solution for TrOCs removal from effluent and has been extensively investigated with respect to reaction mechanisms, performance and control strategies in view of full-scale application. The ozone-activated peroxymonosulfate process (O3/PMS) is a relatively new and promising upgrade of ozonation for which research under real conditions is, however, still lacking. Therefore, this work focuses on the removal of 11 TrOCs with different ozone reactivity at environmentally relevant concentrations in effluent by using O3/PMS. At short reaction times, the hydroxyl radical exposure is approximately 2 times higher in O3/PMS than during ozonation at O3 concentrations exceeding the instantaneous ozone demand (IOD). The radical production during O3/PMS is even noticeable at ozone concentrations lower than the IOD, which indicates that radical reaction pathways are more important during the IOD phase in O3/PMS than during ozonation. At longer reaction times, also direct PMS oxidation enhances the removal of some TrOCs at low ozone concentrations (< IOD). However, the extra TrOCs removal during O3/PMS is overall limited compared to ozonation, i.e. up to 24 % extra removal at 0.5 min reaction time and the highest ozone concentration (12.3 mg/L). In a second part of this research, spectral surrogate models based on UV absorbance at 254 nm (UVA254) and fluorescence were developed for the prediction of TrOCs removal. The intensity of both surrogates decreased in a similar way as a function of the applied ozone concentration in both the ozonation and O3/PMS process. However, the regression parameters of the surrogate models and particularly the location of the inflection point show differences between both advanced oxidation processes." "Chemical and structural induced ductile-to-brittle transition in electrospun silica nanofiber membranes" "Bianca Swanckaert, Olivier Verschatse, Eva Loccufier, Klaartje De Buysser, Lode Daelemans, Karen De Clerck" "Electrospun silica nanofiber membranes show a high potential in many advanced environmental applications. However, little is known about their mechanical performance which could be a limiting factor for further innovation. It is shown in this work that silica nanofiber membranes have a completely different deformation behavior compared to conventional polymeric/thermoplastic nanofiber membranes, resulting from their significant differences in chemical and physical properties such as fiber interactions and porosity. Furthermore, storage at room temperature initiates remarkable changes in failure mechanisms, depending on the storage humidity, which can be accelerated via a thermal treatment. These changes are linked to the structural changes of the membrane resulting from its chemical reactivity towards moisture in the air. Additional interactions and crosslinks are observed, leading to fiber shrinkage and rearrangement. As a result, more contact points are created between nanofibers, creating additional friction forces and, as such, a complete shift in mechanical properties towards a stronger, stiffer, and more brittle material (tensile strength of 14.0 ± 3.8 MPa vs. 3.1 ± 0.4 MPa and failure strain of 0.9 ± 0.2% vs. 24.2 ± 1.0%). The silica nanofiber membranes thus allow mechanical tunability via altering the storage or treatment conditions." "Microscale and macroscale deformation behavior of electrospun polymeric nanofiber membranes using in situ SEM during mechanical testing" "Olivier Verschatse, Eva Loccufier, Bianca Swanckaert, Karen De Clerck, Lode Daelemans" "Point-of-care applicable metabotyping using biofluid-specific electrospun MetaSAMPs directly amenable to ambient LA-REIMS" "Jozefien Geltmeyer, Ella Schoolaert, Varoon Singh, Kathleen Wijnant, Kimberly De Windt, Volter Paukku, Alexander De Loof, Inge Gies, Nathalie Michels, Stefaan De Henauw, Karen De Clerck"