J. J. González-Cortés

Ghent University | UGhent

Acid bioleaching of Al by Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans has been explored as an environmentally friendly pretreatment to facilitate the extraction of platinum group metals from spent three-way catalysts (TWC). Biogenic sulfur obtained from desulfurization bioreactors improved the production of acid by A. thiooxidans compared to commercially availab...

Landfill biogas contains certain amounts of H2S that must be removed in order to prevent both equipment corrosion and SO2 emissions to the atmosphere when burnt. Anoxic desulfurization has been proven to be an eco-friendly and cost-efficient method to remove H2S from biogas. Nevertheless, and despite all the reported benefits, the potential consump...

This study evaluated the feasibility of applying a microalgal peptide-enriched extract, obtained through a sequential alkaline and enzymatic method, as a fundamental media component in Escherichia coli culture. The results demonstrated that the extract is viable as the primary nutrient source for E. coli cultures (wild type), even as a complete sub...

Recovery of the energy contained in biogas will be essential in coming years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our current dependence on fossil fuels. The elimination of H2S is a priority to avoid equipment corrosion, poisoning of catalytic systems and SO2 emissions in combustion engines. This review describes the advances made in this technol...

A pilot-scale biotrickling filter (BTF) was operated in counter-current flow mode under anoxic conditions, using diluted agricultural digestate as inoculum and as the recirculation medium for the nutrient source. The process was tested on-site at an agricultural fermentation plant, where real biogas was used. The pilot plant was therefore exposed t...

Nitrification–denitrification is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to treat landfill leachates. Special attention has been given to the nitrification step, usually the limiting one due to its special sensitivity to environmental factors. Here, the effect of the acclimatization of the nitrifying biomass to two different intermediate...

Elemental sulfur is an interesting byproduct obtained in the anoxic biodesulfurization of biogas. However, the colloidal properties of this biogenic elemental sulfur (S⁰) make its efficient recovery difficult. The present study investigated the flocculation of S⁰ produced in an anoxic bioreactor for biogas desulfurization using cationic (Sedifloc 4...

Suspended biomass bioreactors can be operated to remove H2S from biogas under anoxic conditions and produce elemental sulfur, the commercial value of which has been demonstrated. In the present paper, a novel methodology comprising the optimization of a determination method performed in a gas chromatograph equipped with a pulsed flame photometric d...

A widely employed approach to minimize the detrimental effect of landfill leachates (LL) on nitrifying biomass is to adapt it to these contaminated effluents prior to use. In the study reported here the impact of different intermediate landfill leachates (intermediate 1 (ILL1) and intermediate 2 (ILL2)) and synthetic medium (SM) on the nitritation...

Biological desulfurization of biogas has been extensively studied using biotrickling filters (BTFs). However, the accumulation of elemental sulfur (S°) on the packing material limits the use of this technology. To overcome this issue, the use of a continuous stirred tank bioreactor (CSTBR) under anoxic conditions for biogas desulfurization and S° p...

Anoxic biodesulfurization has been achieved in several bioreactor systems that have shown robustness and high elimination capacities (ECs). However, the high operating costs of this technology, which are mainly caused by the high requirements of nitrite or nitrate, make its full-scale application difficult. In the present study, the use of biologic...

Biogas biodesulfurization has been successfully performed in biotrickling filters (BTFs). Nevertheless, elemental sulfur (S⁰) generation and accumulation in the packed bed causes an increase in operating costs restricting its application. This drawback could be avoided using a gas-lift bioreactor as proposed in the present work, which allows recove...

Biofiltration is a typical air pollution control process for the treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Mass transfer of hydrophobic VOCs to the biofilm is limited which leads to low removal efficiency (RE). Aiming to enhance the transport of hydrophobic VOCs, the effect of hydrophobic fumed silica (HFS) addition to a biofilter (BF) for pe...

In the present poster, a preliminary study about the effect of a novel additive (hydrophobic fumed silica) on pentane biofiltration was reported. The additive successfully enhanced the pollutant mass transfer to the biofilm. More information can be found in the related research paper : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126738

High sugar consumption elicits numerous deleterious effects on health by inducing insulin resistance, which is closely associated with the development of metabolic disorders such as obesity or type-2 diabetes. Furthermore, there is also growing evidence that caffeine may play an important role in the regulation of insulin release and the appearance...