Ph.D. student Manal Al-Qahtani wins best poster presentation award
Manal Al-Qahtani (right) won a best poster presentation award in the late summer of 2016. Photo courtesy of AP-ISMET.
Manal Al-Qahtani, an environmental science and biological engineering Ph.D. student in the University’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center, won the best poster presentation award at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (AP-ISMET). AP-ISMET took place in Busan, South Korea, from August 31 to September 2, 2016, for research discussion and for researchers to come up with a solution to improve the performance of current bioelectrochemical systems and microbial fuel cells.
Al-Qahtani is supervised by Pascal Saikaly, associate professor of environmental science and engineering. "Manal's work focused on an alternative approach for carbon capture and utilization using the concept of microbial electrosynthesis (MES), whereby microorganisms (biocatalysts) can directly or indirectly use electricity as energy source to convert CO2 to useful value-added products," Saikaly said.
"To achieve this, in collaboration with Professor Zhiping Lai's group at KAUST, we developed a novel cathode design for recycling CO2 to CH4 through electromethanogenesis. The cathode design is made of electrically conductive and porous hollow fiber. The 3-D porous hollow fiber cathode architecture played a dual role as the cathode and for facilitating direct delivery of CO2 to methanogens through the pores in the membrane. The 3-D porous hollow fiber cathodes can allow efficient mass transport and dense biofilm formation for the MES process. Most importantly, using 3-D porous hollow-fiber cathodes makes the MES process highly attractive for directly converting CO2 generated from industrial sources," he noted.
- By David Murphy, KAUST News
Al-Qahtani is supervised by Pascal Saikaly, associate professor of environmental science and engineering. "Manal's work focused on an alternative approach for carbon capture and utilization using the concept of microbial electrosynthesis (MES), whereby microorganisms (biocatalysts) can directly or indirectly use electricity as energy source to convert CO2 to useful value-added products," Saikaly said.
"To achieve this, in collaboration with Professor Zhiping Lai's group at KAUST, we developed a novel cathode design for recycling CO2 to CH4 through electromethanogenesis. The cathode design is made of electrically conductive and porous hollow fiber. The 3-D porous hollow fiber cathode architecture played a dual role as the cathode and for facilitating direct delivery of CO2 to methanogens through the pores in the membrane. The 3-D porous hollow fiber cathodes can allow efficient mass transport and dense biofilm formation for the MES process. Most importantly, using 3-D porous hollow-fiber cathodes makes the MES process highly attractive for directly converting CO2 generated from industrial sources," he noted.
- By David Murphy, KAUST News