Project is related to research in a radically new energy conversion and storage concept that combines water electrolysis and battery storage into one single hybrid technology using soluble redox mediators as storage vectors. The ultimate goal of the project is to solve some of the fundamental challenges of the technology, make lab-scale proof-of-concept demonstration and pave the way for future upscaling/realisation of the technology. If successful the project is a potential game-changer within cost-efficient electricity storage and hydrogen production.

My research focus is enhanced biogas production from lignocellulosic compounds in a methanogenic-aerobic-methanogenic (MAMB) switching system which poses a part of BioMan project titled Enhanced biogas production and antimicrobial removal from manure. It is claimed that the anaerobic-aerobic-anaerobic switch involving a shift from suspended methanogenic biomass to aerobic biofilm might be favorable for biogas production and will lead to increased biological hydrolysis of recalcitrant lignocellulosic material and make that available for biogas production.

During my project I will work to estimate an optimal operational parameters of biogas production e.g. reactor temperature, hydraulic residence time and aeration rate as well as lab digester type to create the most optimal conditions for enhanced biogas production. The appropriate combination of parameters will support aerobic transfer of cellulose and lignin as a recalcitrant material to short fatty acids (SCFA) for utilization for successive methane production in MAMB switching system. The best combination of the parameters will be selected and implicated into the project. Additionally, the gas composition in the aerobic steps will be investigated for nitrogen emission monitoring.

As a part of my project is an external stay and cooperation with Gent University in Belgium. During my stay, it is planned to work about advanced nitrogen management and ammonia stripping as well as to explore the processes in aerobic steps in terms of N₂O production and impact on greenhouse gasses.

All these efforts will support the green transition by enhance regenerative economy by green energy production from wastes and reducing greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere.

The project will be supervised by Senior Researcher Henrik Bjarne Møller and co-supervised by Professor Kai Bester.

The novel electrically heated steam methane reformer (eSMR) technology offers a route to a practical zero-emission chemical plant with complete carbon utilization. This could be a key enabling factor for realizing sustainable chemicals production from biogas. Specifically, the technology offers a prospective feasible route for bio-methanol production where the synergy of CO2 and CH4 of the biogas feedstock is utilized in full. Recently, an early stage demo of the process has been obtained in pilot scale in an ongoing collaboration between Haldor Topsoe A/S, Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering - Aarhus University and others. However, many questions remain as to how the process can be applied optimally.

The goal of this project is to investigate the optimum operating condition for converting the biogas to methanol at pilot scale and increase the technology readiness level toward commercialization of such process. In this regard, the proposed objectives are as follow:
1) To demonstrate the role of carbon dioxide content of biogas on the synthesis gas production
2) To demonstrate the optimum operating condition to produce synthesis gas and green methanol from biogas
3) To model the eSMR process integration and simulate the power-to-methanol process in a steady state condition
4) To expand the utilization regime of biogas to chemicals through synthesis gas production.

Biofilms are an untapped source of biological material value and could prove vital in the development of a more circular economy. Millions of tons of Wastewater treatment biofilms are produced and then destroyed every year in costly processes. This project aims to valorize these biofilms by isolating Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) from them and use these for the development of new biomaterials. The objective is to investigate the composition of EPS as it has not yet been clearly defined in literature to comprehend its structure and properties by using novel solvents such as ionic liquids in analytical techniques.

Using techniques such as electrospinning and chemical reactions such as transesterification the aim of this project is to use EPS and take advantage of their emergent properties to develop fibers and bioplastics.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has recently gained more attention as it has been recognized that citizens in developed countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. Thus the IAQ is an essential determinant of a healthy life and general well-being, especially due to increasing evidence linking adverse health effects, reduced learning, loss of productivity and general discomfort with exposure to indoor air pollutants.

This project therefore aims to provide a deeper understanding of the composition, sources and dynamics of indoor air pollution in indoor environments as well as to identify and develop the best strategies and technologies for detection and mitigation of hazardous indoor air pollution.

The project will have an increased focus on the indoor environments occupied by the youngest members of society (e.g. classrooms and day care facilities) as they have been proven to be especially susceptible towards low-quality air.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from wastewater are threatening human beings and receiving increasing attention all around the world. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and florfenicol are two typical POPs with strong resistance to conventional water treatment technologies. Superoxide radical (O2•‒) is a sort of nucleophile with immense chemical and environmental importance in POPs control.

This study will construct two kinds of O2•‒ generating systems, i.e., photocatalytic system and electrochemical system. For the photocatalytic system, Bi₂MoO₆/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposites will be synthesized for the oriented transfer of photogenerated electrons and holes to pursue high yield of O2•‒. The physical and chemical properties of these photocatalysts will be studied by various characterization methods. For the electrochemical system, we will carry out a systematic study on O2•‒ generated in electrochemical flow loop, where the key parameters will be optimized according to the formation of O2•‒. Further, we will use the two systems to mineralize three short-chain PFAS and florfenicol. The presence of O2•‒ will be investigated using electron spin resonance, and the quantities of O2•‒ will be determined by colorimetric method. The entire reaction pathways for POPs degradation by O2•‒ will be mapped.

It is expected that the study could shed new light on the elimination of POPs induced by O2•‒.

Renewable electricity sources are fully competitive to fossil-based ones and the major
challenge in completing the green transition is now energy storage. This includes batteries for stationary storage, where the estimated worldwide total installed capacity will increase from almost zero in 2019 to 100-450 GWh by 2030. Due to relatively high cost and environmental issues of state-of-the-art lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries there is a clear incentive to develop new environmental benign, low cost and long lifetime batteries.

This project will investigate the synthesis of quinone monomers having redox active properties. The synthesis will be carried out in a flow process and gradually strive towards automatic processing and later potentially autonomous synthesis. Subsequently, polymerisation of the quinone monomer will be performed, and a full characterisation will be conducted. Lastly, the quinone monomer and polymer will be applied in a battery test where the electrochemical and redox active properties will be characterised.

The overall goals of the UNIBAT project are to make significant advances within the research of novel aqueous batteries for stationary based on environmentally benign and low-cost materials and develop the foundation that enables upscaling of these post-project.

The majority of renewable energy comes in the form of (intermittent) electricity. One of the ways of storing the renewable energy is in the form of green NH₃. The PhD project aims to develop a technology for a decentralized synthesis of renewable ammonia, through a rational electrocatalyst synthesis and choice and design of local environment of the electrocatalyst.

In this project we will work on the development of an electrochemical process that could perhaps compete with conventional Haber-Bosch process at smaller scales.

The envisioned use can be storing electrical energy in ammonia and decentralized production of fertilizer feedstock.

The use of green NH3 fuel and zero carbon sources in synthesis processes is expected to play an important role in meeting national and international carbon reduction targets leading towards a zero-carbon future, including the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the European Commission's Energy Roadmap 2050.

Today’s ammonia production consumes approximately 1.2% of the world’s energy supply. The climate benefit of a green production path is therefore immense. Ammonia is simultaneously showing promising results as a Power-to-X product with an energy density 70% higher than hydrogen.

It is believed that electrochemical synthesis of ammonia can prove a green alternative to the Haber-Bosch process, especially in smaller production plants. The electrochemical synthesis is well studies in theory but struggles to transfer into experimental results. This project aims to aid that transformation by looking into materials and the synthesis of electrodes and electrolytes.

The project is focused on increasing the fundamental understanding of long term (> years) chemical stability of liquid vanadium solutions in flow batteries. Because of the usage of the same solution in both half cells, vanadium cross-over in the stack has no damaging effect and Vanadium Flow Batteries (VFBs) are considered to have infinite lifetime. However, in practice there are three reversible mechanisms that can degrade the chemical integrity of VFBs and lead to capacity loss over time: (1) external oxidation, (2) vanadium/volumetric crossover and (3) temperature stability.

Through lab-scale proof-of concept, the goal is to quantify these mechanisms and develop new methods that would reverse the degradation. Additionally, in co-operation with VisBlue, the aim is to implement these methods in real battery systems.

Plastics originating from fossil fuels have long been a problem for our environment, and with the doomsday clock never closer to midnight, we need to find a way to employ renewable resources for plastic production. One possible way to do this is to use enzymes to transform sugars into valuable chemicals which will later be combined into a completely biobased polymer to replace PET.

The goal of my project is to establish an enzymatic cascade reaction for production of 2,5-furan-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA). FDCA, along with ethylene glycol made from sugar, can then be used to create polyethylene furanoate (PEF), a 100% biobased polymer, which could become a green alternative for everyday plastics. The reaction will be performed with enzymes attached to solid supports and placed in a rotating bed reactor. Another focus of the project is to perform the reaction without water using different organic solvents, and to examine their effect on reaction productivity.

This project is a collaboration between Aarhus University and the company SpinChem in Umeå, Sweden, and is part of the Horizon2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network INTERfaces.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemicals that have unique properties, such as amphiphilic nature, and thermodynamic, physical and biological stability. PFAS are detected in the environment globally and have adverse effects on human’s health. Since 2002, PFAS manufacturers started to replace long-chain PFAS with unregulated short-chain PFAS (typically with carbon number less than 7), which were consequently widely used but not fully investigated. Short-chain PFAS are already found in the environment (concentrations range from ng/L to µg/L). They are less adsorbable, are transported over longer distances in the environment and may persist longer in the environment and organisms. They may also have more serious adverse health effects, but this aspect has not been fully investigated yet. Our knowledge to efficiently remove short-chain PFAS contamination from wastewater to prevent adverse effects in humans and the environment still remains limited.

This project aims to investigate and enhance the potential of photo-catalysis to degrade short-chain PFAS by defluorination. Quantitate and qualitative analysis will be performed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography - high resolution mass spectrometry. In vitro bioassays will be used to investigate the removal of toxicity caused by PFAS and their transformation products.    

The worldwide release of persistent organic organic pollutants (POPs) has caused serious pollution to the water environment and thus endangered human and ecosystem health. To address this challenge, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have become a research hotspot in the field of water purification. Among them, Fenton catalytic oxidation can produce hydroxyl radicals (•OH) that will destroy the structure of organic pollutants without selectivity. However, most of the polyphase Fenton catalysts developed at present are doomed to have low activity, poor stability  and low utilization of oxidants under neutral conditions. Dual-reaction center is a new mechanism of Fenton-like process to avoid problems mentioned above by separating the oxidation and reduction sites.  In this project, we plan to prepare novel Fenton-like catalysts with dual-reaction center and combine with interfacial reaction to degrade POPs rapidly under ultra-low concentration of oxidants. Further, we hope to improve the degradation of pollutants under neural conditions by in-situ production of hydrogen peroxide on the surface of catalysts without adding oxidants.    

The instability and low solubility of ozone (O₃) molecule in liquid phase limit the effective contact between micropollutants and O₃/hydroxyl radicals (^•OH) in water. Thus, the uncompleted utilization of ozone molecule is largely prevalent in O₃-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). This project hopes to promote O₃ utilization by extending the O₃ retention time in the liquid phase and enhancing the contact between micropollutants and oxidants. In particular, we will synthesize a uniquely hydrophobic adsorbent with pine-needle-like hierarchical nanostructures that can simultaneously capture O₃ molecules and micropollutants. We will later load a catalyst on the surface of pre-prepared adsorbent to realize the efficient oxidative degradation of micropollutants on the surface of this composite. To investigate the performance of the prepared material, we will select herbicide glyphosate (Gly, N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine) as a model micropollutant and study the degradation pathway.    

This project focuses on understanding and interfering with the molecular events in allergic reactions. Allergy is a disease in which the immune system reacts to otherwise harmless triggers, allergens, from the environment. Central in the allergic reaction is the binding of IgE antibodies to these allergens. In allergic patients, the allergen-specific IgE antibodies are bound to high-affinity IgE receptors (FcεRI) and causes long-term sensitization of effector cells. Binding of allergens to these IgE/receptor complex leads to activation of the effector cells and triggers immediate allergic reactions and potentially anaphylaxis, which can have severe consequences for the patient.

In recent years, the concept of using single domain antibodies (nanobodies) as therapeutics has gained ground.

In this project, I will explore the potential of using nanobodies as inhibitors of allergic reactions. I will develop and characterize novel nanobodies and nanobody-based formats that inhibit the IgE/allergen interaction and thereby reduce the risk of anaphylaxis during allergen exposure.

  Using nanobody-based inhibitors for immunotherapy in allergic patients could potentially bypass existing long-term allergen immunotherapy concepts or establish new concepts for those allergies lacking immunotherapeutic options so far.    

This project is anchored within the research fields across the chemistry behind synthesis of fats, 3D printing manufacturing and food physics; particularly in design and synthesis of novel lipids/fats, programmable purification, modeling and application in 3D printing food. Fats or lipids are ubiquitously occurring in almost all organisms, not only as structural molecules for cell membranes, but also take on various biological functions. The project aims to develop and construct a library of structural different lipids with distinct characteristics, by establishing new efficient conditions and optimizing already established procedures for the synthesis of lipids. Incorporation of the designed lipids with other suitable ingredients will constitute the ink (“bioink”) in a new established 3D printing system. Computational modeling will have a central role to understand the chemistry and interactions between the actual constituents in the bio-ink and the direct dynamics with the materials of the 3D printer system. This is of major importance in order to design a robust system with efficient control and understanding of factors as reproducibility, mechanical strength, print speed and scalability etc. The ultimate goal of this project is to create product arrays of new lipid molecules with documented programmability and standardized protocols. It is to generate sufficient scientific knowledge and technology for building up a 3D printing platform for food applications.

Wastewater treatment sludges are an increasing threat to the environment and health due to high levels of organic micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and pathogens. Due to the high phosphorous content of sludges, they are commonly applied to land as a fertilizer, but this results in pollutants emerging into the food chain. However, these so-called solid wastes can be a source for hydrocarbon fuel production due to its high content of organic carbon.

The Ph.D. project will investigate the high temperature and pressure thermochemical processing technology, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to convert sewage sludge into high-value bio-crude. The process mimics natural fossil fuel creation and the bio-crude can be upgraded into a drop-in diesel and jet fuel as well as carbon-based chemicals and materials.

The high temperature can effectively immobilize pathogens and convert microplastics to bio-crude. However, the process water generated from HTL process is very high in COD, which needs to be addressed to facilitate HTL integration into WWTP, increasing the overall carbon yield. Novel wastewater treatment technologies such as wet air oxidation (WAO) and microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) will be investigated as options to reduce COD levels from HTL process water, to generate heat, and to produce the H₂ required for bio-crude upgrading.    

Microbial electrosynthesis is a novel biotechnological process for the conversion of electricity and CO₂ into biofuels or other organic compounds. Microbial electrosynthesis could in the future contribute to the desired lowering of CO₂ emissions, while at the same time storing excess renewable energy and producing sustainable biochemicals.

Microbial electrosynthesis is carried out by acetogenic bacteria (e.g. Sporomusa ovata), which are capable of reducing CO₂ to organic compounds, using an electrode as the electron donor. One of the major obstacles that limits the rate of microbial electrosynthesis, and hence its upscaling beyond lab-scale, is the low number of cells that attach to the electrode. Currently, very little is known about attachment and biofilm formation by S. ovata. The goal of this project is to increase the cell numbers of S. ovata on the electrode, using two different strategies. First, natural biofilm formation will be stimulated and investigated. Second, artificial biofilms will be created by immobilizing cells in polymeric matrices. The different types of biofilm will be characterized using state-of-the art techniques (microsensors, confocal microscopy, etc.) and the effect of increased cell numbers on the electrode on microbial electrosynthesis rates will be investigated. 

The aim of the project is to obtain a fundamental understanding on formulation of intumescent coatings for passive fire protection and express the understanding in the form of key material performance indicators, correlations, and predictive formulation models.  Intumescent coating research is due to its complexity, commonly done by trial-and-error and incremental formulation changes without in-depth scientific understanding. The absence of a correlation between material properties and chemical composition has led to this formulation approach. It is clear, that standard test methods and the complexity of the reactions, makes it extremely difficult to correlate material properties and fire-retardant performance. Therefore, a deeper understanding of these reactions and material properties and their contributions to fire-retardant performance is greatly needed to enhance fire retardant performance and cost reduction on developing and producing fire retardant paint.

Alongside the widely studied pathways of biochemical regulation by chemokines, cytokines and growth factors, one often-overlooked but significant influence over the behaviour of biological systems is electrical/electromagnetic signaling. Biological systems are rich in electrical activity. In particular, neural activities are precisely controlled by the membrane potential, which modulates either neuronal firing to trigger the signaling transporting over long distances. Inspired by the nanoscale features at cellular surface components (e.g., microvilli and filopodia) and extracellular matrix, the interactions between live cells and nanostructured materials in cellular environment have been studied. A unique technique that has gained tremendous attention in the last decade as the most robust, straightforward nanofiber processing method is electrospinning, which utilizes high voltage electric fields on extruded liquid containing virtually any polymers, composites or supra‐molecules to generate continuous submicron fibers.

This PhD project is aimed to apply the electrospinning technology and tissue engineering tools to build biocompatible fibrous hydrogel nanobiointerfaces that recapitulate the 3D in vivo environment for non-invasive stimulation of excitable cells. It will mainly involve the study of electrospinning of different synthetic or biopolymers with control over mechanical and topographical properties, surface chemistry and characterizations, bioconjugation, in vitro cell biology assay and in vivo animal studies.

Some acetogenic bacteria have the capacity to use cathodes as electron donor for the reduction of CO2 into more complex compounds like acetate. This capacity can be applied for the development of highly interesting technologies, such as microbial electrosynthesis. This biotechnology combines the upgrading of CO2 to biofuels with the storage of excess renewable electrical energy. So far, however, the mechanisms by which acetogenic bacteria obtain electrons from cathodes are not well understood.

The objective of this PhD is to investigate the role of H2 as a mediator in the cathodic electron uptake mechanism of acetogens. This work will determine the H2 threshold of several acetogenic strains and measure the H2 partial pressures at the cathode surface. In addition, the role of H2 in the electron uptake from metallic iron (Fe(0)) by acetogenic bacteria will be examined. The latter process is highly analogue to the electron uptake from cathodes and plays an important role in microbial induced corrosion. The elucidation of the cathodic electron uptake mechanism of acetogens will allow to optimize microbial electrosynthesis and will contribute to its further development.   

The aim of this project is to implement and validate methods for measuring emission of harmful gases from open sources in agriculture with focus on greenhouse gases (GHG, methane and nitrous oxide), ammonia (NH₃) and odour emission from stored livestock manure.

A key part of the study is to:

• Understand the chemical and microbial processes that influence GHG and NH₃ emission      from the stored manure.
• Combine novel micrometeorological flux measuring techniques with state of art gas measuring instruments (Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy and Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry equipment - PTRMS).
• Validate the novel measuring method.

During the study, the methods shall be used to provide valid measurement of the annual emission of GHG and NH₃ from full-scale manure store on Danish farms. The data is needed for calculating the annual national gas emission inventory, which must be send to the EU in accordance with the Gothenburg protocols.

This project is part of an interdisciplinary cross-sectoral European Training Network “REFLOW” entitled “Phosphorous Recovery for Fertilisers from Dairy Processing Waste”. The REFLOW research will (1) mitigate the environmental impact of dairy processing waste on soil and water, (2) provide safe environmentally-sustainable, cost-effective closed-loop solutions for crop nutrient management (3) meet the demand for skilled professionals to support the technical, regulatory and commercial development of the market for recycled phosphorous fertiliser products.

This project is aimed at developing an understanding of the chemical and microbial processes that influence greenhouse gas (GHG) emission (methane and nitrous oxide) and transformation of nitrogen and carbon in the organic waste and fertilizer products following application to soil. The project will include the following activities:

• Chemical and physical characterization of organic wastes and fertilizers.
• Laboratory incubation studies on N and C transformation and emission of CO₂, N₂O and CH_4.
• Field experiments with organic wastes and fertilizer products to measure crop N uptake and N₂O, CO₂and CH₄ emission.
• Apply or develop a model of GHG fluxes from soils amended with organic waste and fertilizer products.

Green biorefineries are integrated multi-product systems for efficient and sustainable production of food, feed, bio-based chemicals and materials from green biomasses. This multiple product approach requires the valorization of any side streams in order to ensure the economic sustainability and success of the overall process.

Brown juice is a nutrient-rich liquid side stream generated in large volumes during leaf protein concentrate production from grasses, lucerne and clover within a green biorefinery. Brown juice contains sugars, peptides and amino acids, organic acids and minerals. 

This project aims to investigate the possibilities of processing brown juice into high-added value products. Technologies such as membrane filtration and fermentation will be evaluated and compared using a techno-economic approach. As brown juice is a complex and varying mixture, further research is necessary on mapping its composition and characteristics over time, and on the viability of its processing into valuable products such as chemicals and materials.

In nature, microorganisms use enzymes to modify peptides to complex natural products with new and improved properties. Our main hypothesis is that we can exploit the enzymes from known natural products’ biosynthesis to introduce peptide modifications that are currently inaccessible or only accessible through synthetic means.

Our main focus is on Ribosomally synthesized and Post-translationally modified Peptides (RiPPs) expressed as a precursor peptide with a leader and core region. The leader peptide is recognised by co-expressed enzymes, encoded in the biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), next to the precursor peptide. This means that the recognition sequence is decoupled from where the modification-/s takes place.

In the beginning, we will focus on two different modifications, unnatural amino acids and disulphide mimics contributing to resistance towards proteases, general stability and structural rigidity leading to increased biding affinity. When this is settled, we aim to expand the technology to cover different kinds of modifications and a combination of these.