Events for 08-2018

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Yuanyuan TANG Assistant Professor School of Environmental Science and Engineering Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen China Abstract Metal-laden wastes comprise a wide range of solid wastes including the sludge generated from industrial wastewater treatment processes, the dredged river sediment due to heavy metal contamination, the waste adsorbent after metal adsorption, as well as the tailings after mining activities. The wastes above always contain high levels of hazardous metals, such as nickel, copper, zinc, which may lead to metal bioaccumulation and cause adverse effects for ecosystem. Besides the existence of heavy metals, ceramic raw materials such as aluminium, iron and silicon have also been reported as major constituents in the above waste matrices. Therefore, converting the metal-laden ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Marcelo SANCHEZ Professor Department of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University, Texas U.S. Abstract The involvement of geotechnical/geomechanical engineers in problems comprising unprecedented Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical and Chemical (THMC) conditions is every time more frequent, particularly in geo-environmental and geo-energy applications. The prediction of geo-engineering system behavior under coupled THMC conditions represents huge challenges for our profession, but also extraordinary opportunities to gain a better understanding of soils and rocks behavior under such complex extremes. The realization of this requires both, advanced experimental and numerical investigations. In this lecture, recent improvements in our understanding of geomaterials behavior subjected to simultaneous THMC perturbations will be discussed, as well as, the incorporation of the main features associated with the THMC behavior of soils ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Chengyu HONG Associate Professor Department of Civil Engineering Shanghai University Shanghai China Abstract New technologies can be used for the fabrication of new sensors for health monitoring of different civil engineering infrastructures. In this study, fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology was used for the fabrication of various new sensors for geotechnical monitoring based on flex sensing technology and FBG sensors. These new sensors include Bluetooth based wireless sensing system for laboratory wireless monitoring, and GPRS based wireless sensing system for in-situ remote sensing, FBG based tilt sensor and displacement sensor fabricated using FDM process. All these new sensors are characterized by the advantages of low cost, quick fabrication, large measurement range, capabilities for wireless and remote sensing, small ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Bingcai PAN Deputy Dean and Professor School of Environment Nanjing University Nanjing China Abstract Nanomaterials exhibit promising performance in water decontamination via adsorption, catalytic degradation, and other processes. However, the ultrafine particle size also brings issues including excessive pressure drop in flow-through systems and environmental risk arising from nanoparticle release. To overcome the bottleneck of most nanomaterials in full-scale manipulation, a series of millimetre-sized nanocomposites have been developed via in situ formation of nanoparticles (e.g. metal oxides/hydroxides/phosphates) confined in the pore channels of ion exchanger hosts. Such nanocomposites are suitable for application in fixed-bed reactors owing to their tunable size (0.6-1.0 mm) and excellent hydrodynamic properties. The confinement effect induced by the network pore structure of the cross-linked ...

Instructors/Speakers Dr. Yanyang ZHANG Assistant Researcher School of the Environment Nanjing University Nanjing China Abstract In recent years, polymer supported nano-sized metal oxides (Fe or Zr based) has attracted great attention for their sound performance in advanced phosphorus removal and recovery. In our study, a new nanocomposite adsorbent La-201 of extremely high capacity and specific affinity towards phosphate was developed, where hydrated La(III) oxides (HLO) nanoclusters were immobilized inside the networking pores of the polystyrene anion exchanger D-201. Column adsorption runs by using La-201 could effectively treat ~6500 bed volumes (BV) of a synthetic feeding solution before breakthrough occurred (from 2.5 mg P/L in influent to <0.5 mg P/L in effluent), approximately 11 times magnitude higher than HFO-201. The exhausted ...