Keynote Speaker
Prof. Irene Man Chi Lo
Chair Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering,Institute For Advanced Study (IAS) Senior Fellow,
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Speech Title: A Breakthrough Achievement of Water and Wastewater Treatment toward Environmental Sustainability and Carbon Neutrality: Multifunctional Photoelectrochemical Technology
Abstract: Conventional water and wastewater treatment processes are inefficient in degrading pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and cause high carbon emissions. Herein, a multifunctional photoelectrochemical (PEC) system for coupled the removal of contaminants with H2 evolution was developed to address the above limitations. As for water treatment, we developed a sulfite-adding PEC system using an optimized BiVO4 photoanode, which can simultaneously promote PPCPs degradation, E. coli inactivation, and H2 evolution (as green and renewable energy) via activating sulfite under visible light illumination. Sulfite ions could be activated by holes to produce sulfate radicals for contaminant removal and work as hole scavengers to promote electron separation for H2 production. Regarding wastewater treatment, we developed a low carbon emission PEC system to treat saline sewage for coupled the removal of organic compounds, ammonia, and bacteria with H2 generation. A reduced BiVO4 (r-BiVO4) photoanode possessing excellent PEC reactivity achieved by introducing oxygen vacancies and V4+ species was synthesized for the PEC system, treating saline sewage to meet the discharge standard in 40 minutes (with a complete removal of PPCP) coupled with significant H2 production as green energy. The PEC system reduced 93% of carbon emissions compared with conventional wastewater treatment due to the reduced generation of N2O and CH4. Chloride ions in saline sewage were activated to produce reactive chlorine species, facilitating contaminant removal and retraining N2O generation. Overall, the multifunctional PEC systems are promising for water and wastewater treatment toward carbon neutrality because of their high efficiency in contaminant removal and significant H2 evolution to offset carbon emissions.
Biography: Ir Prof Irene M.C. LO, JP is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She is an elected Academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), the first Hong Kong scholar inducted into the EASA. She is an elected Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (FHKIE), and elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE). She was appointed by HKSAR Government as Justices of the Peace (JP) in 2017. She was also Adjunct Professor of Tongji University, Tianjin University, Jilin University and Harbin Institute of Technology in China. She had been Visiting Professor of Technical University of Denmark and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
She was the recipient of the 2004 ASCE James Croes Medal, the 2007 ASCE Samuel Arnold Greeley Award, the 2008 EWRI Best Practice-Oriented Paper Award, the 2009 ASCE Wesley W Horner Award, and the 2012 ASCE EWRI Best Practice-Oriented Paper Award. In addition, she received the Ministry of Education’s 2019 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards in the Natural Science/Technology Advancement. She has been invited to give plenary/keynote/invited speeches over 40 times at many international conferences around the globe.
Her research interests include advanced oxidation processes, nanoparticles and nanotechnology for environmental applications, water and wastewater treatment, soil and groundwater remediation, and solid waste treatment and disposal. She was recognized as "Top 2% Scientists in the World” in the environmental science/engineering as reported by the study conducted by Stanford university in 2020.