Date: March 31, 2017
Time: 12:00 p.m. -
Location: Maeder Hall, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment
Hyung-Sool Lee, a professor at the University of Waterloo, will speak on the topic of “Sustainable Management of Used Water: Focusing on Extracellular Electron Transfer” at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Andlinger Center and the civil and environmental engineering department. Before the lecture, lunch will be served at noon in the lobby of Maeder Hall, the Andlinger Center. The lecture starts at 12:30 p.m.
ABSTRACT
Sustainable management of used water, called wastewater, is of interest as energy, water and climate change become an important issue to be addressed in present or the near future. Microbial extracellular electron transfer (EET), that plays a vital role in the cycles of carbon and metals in nature, can be engineered for microbial electrochemical cells capable of recovering value-added products from organic waste and wastewater. We do not understand EET well, although microbial electrochemical cells can drive the development of sustainable used water treatment: clean water production and resource recovery. Professor Lee will discuss EET mechanisms and kinetics, and its implication in electronically conductive biofilm anodes recently discovered in his lab. Finally, he will share several engineered systems of microbial electrochemical cells.
BIO
Dr. Hyung-Sool Lee, currently Associate Professor at Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering in the University of Waterloo, is an expert for extracellular electron transfer (EET) and related anaerobic biotechnologies. His research interest includes discovery of new microbial metabolisms, syntrophy interactions, characterization of thermodynamics and kinetics of those microbial biochemical reactions, and identification of related microorganisms and genes. Then, he likes to engineer new discoveries by integrating them with advanced materials and process engineering to help our society, like building a green circle of our life. In recent years, he has focused on EET and anaerobic oxidation of methane, and has developed several innovative biotechnologies based on the two microbial reactions, which can catalyze the growth of sustainable treatment processes.