Kuan Shiong Khoo

Yuan Ze University · Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science

The global demand for lithium, which is indispensable for electric cars and electrical devices, has increased. Lithium recovery from oilfield-produced water is necessary to meet the growing need for lithium-ion batteries, protect the environment, optimize resource utilization, and cut costs to ensure a successful energy transition. It is useful for...

Seaweeds are photosynthetic marine macroalgae known for their rapid biomass growth and their significant contributions to global food and feed production. Seaweeds play a crucial role in mitigating various environmental issues, including greenhouse gases, ocean acidification, hypoxia and eutrophication. Tropical seaweeds are typically found in trop...

The global plastic production of 400 million tons/year has caused major catastrophes in marine environments. The current study, therefore, aimed to mitigate this challenge through the dissolution–reprecipitation method of eradicating impurities and contaminants from marine plastic debris. The results revealed that the rate of the dissolution of pol...

To address the high production cost associated with bacterial cellulose (BC) production using the Hestrin-Schramm (HS) medium, alternative agricultural wastes have been investigated as potential low-cost resources. This study aims to utilize pineapple core from pineapple canning industry waste as a carbon source to enhance the bacterial growth of K...

Urbanization has driven the demand for fossil fuels, however, the overly exploited resource has caused severe damage on environmental pollution. Biorefining using abundant lignocellulosic biomass is an emerging strategy to replace traditional fossil fuels. Value-added lignin biomass reduces the waste pollution in the environment and provides a gree...

In this study, robust composite solid electrolytes were developed and employed to enhance the performance of Li-metal batteries significantly. The robust composite solid electrolytes are composed of a soft polymer, poly(ethylene oxide), a Li salt, bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI), and super ionic conductive ceramic fillers such as Li1.5A...

Pharmaceutical contaminants are becoming more prevalent in aquatic ecosystems. The removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from the environment has recently received much attention. In accordance with this viewpoint, the useful employment of various resources for the synthesis of biochar and the removing pharmaceutical has been significantly proven to...

In the effort of isolating novel microbial species, the strain PL0132T was isolated from a fallen leaf under fresh water at a stream, which glided when grown on a tap water medium (without nutrients). The strain was determined to be Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, and rod-shaped, which grew optimally at 25 °C, pH 6–7, and the strain tolerates 1% (...

Algae-based biofuel developed over the past decade has become a viable substitute for petroleum-based energy sources. Due to their high lipid accumulation rates and low carbon dioxide emissions, microalgal species are considered highly valuable feedstock for biofuel generation. This review article presented the importance of biofuel and the flaws t...

In this study, robust composite solid electrolytes were developed and employed them to enhance the performance of Li-metal batteries significantly. The robust composite solid electrolytes are composed of a soft polymer, poly(ethylene oxide), a Li salt, bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI), and super ionic conductive ceramic fillers such as L...

There is a significant concern about the accessibility of uncontaminated and safe drinking water, a fundamental necessity for human beings. This concern is attributed to the toxic micropollutants from several emission sources, including industrial toxins, agricultural runoff, wastewater discharges, sewer overflows, landfills, algal blooms and micro...

Fucoxanthin is a carotenoid that possesses various beneficial medicinal properties for human well-being. However, the current extraction technologies and quantification techniques are still lacking in terms of cost validation, high energy consumption, long extraction time, and low yield production. To date, artificial intelligence (AI) models can a...

In recent years, photocatalysis integrated with other water purification technique is emerging to decontaminate the polluted water effectively. Herein, a focus on adsorptive photocatalysis, photo-Fenton, photo–electrocatalysis, photocatalytic ozonation, sono-photocatalysis and photo–piezocatalytic techniques developed for degradation of organic wat...

Gestagens are common pollutants accumulated in the aquatic ecosystem. Gestagens are comprised of natural gestagens (i.e. progesterone) and synthetic gestagens (i.e. progestins). The major contributors of gestagens in the environment are paper plant mill effluent, wastewater treatment plants, discharge from pharmaceutical manufacturing, and livestoc...

Ethylenediamminetetraacetatonickel(II) (EDTA-Ni(II)) has emerged as a significant soil and groundwater contaminant due to the increasing agricultural and industrial activities, posing environmental challenges. This study focuses on addressing the reactivity of green rust (GR), which can be hindered by oxidation with oxygen, limiting its effectivene...

Life cycle assessments of microalgal cultivation systems are often conducted to evaluate the sustainability and feasibility factors of the entire production chain. Unlike widely reported conventional microalgal cultivation systems, the present work adopted a microalgal-bacterial cultivation approach which was upscaled into a pilot-scale continuous...

The primary barrier to nutrient absorption in fish is the intestinal epithelium, followed by a community of microorganisms known as the gut microbiota, which can be thought of as a hidden organ. The gastrointestinal microbiota of fish plays a key role in the upholding of overall health by maintaining the homeostasis and disease resistance of the ho...

Haryana is one of the leading states in India in the agricultural and industrial production. With the expansion of these sectors, a continuous increase in water demand is leading to water crises arising from overexploitation and quality deterioration of the available water. Contamination of aquifer resources is a significant concern, primarily beca...

The depletion of fossil fuel sources and increase in energy demands have increased the need for a sustainable alternative energy source. The ability to produce hydrogen from microalgae is generating a lot of attention in both academia and industry. Due to complex production procedures, the commercial production of microalgal biohydrogen is not yet...

Access to safe drinking water and a hygienic living environment are the basic necessities that encourage healthy living. However, the presence of various pollutants (especially toxic heavy metal ions) at high concentrations in water renders water unfit for drinking and domestic use. The presence of high concentrations of heavy-metal ions (e.g., Pb2...

Changing the growth environment for microalgae can overall lead to the fundamental alteration in cellular biochemicals whilst attaching onto palm kernel expeller (PKE) waste to form adhesion complex in easing harvesting at stationary growth phase. This study had initially optimized the PKE dosage, light intensity and photoperiod in maximizing the a...

Today, where water resources are polluted rapidly, the need for eco-friendly green methods is gradually increasing. Conversion of waste biomass into functional adsorbents that can be utilized in water treatment is a win-win practice for both recycling and water pollution treatment. In this study, the adsorbent material was obtained from the palm le...

The demand for astaxanthin has been increasing for many health applications ranging from pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and aquaculture due to its bioactive properties. Haematococcus pluvialis is widely recognized as the microalgae species with the highest natural accumulation of astaxanthin, which has made it a valuable source for industrial pr...

Surfactants have always been a prominent chemical that is useful in various sectors (e.g., cleaning agent production industry, textile industry and painting industry). This is due to the special ability of surfactants to reduce surface tension between two fluid surfaces (e.g., water and oil). However, the current society has long omitted the harmfu...

Carbon dots (CDs) or carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged as rising stars in the carbon family due to their diverse applications in various fields. CDs are spherical particles with a well-distributed size of less than 10 nm. Functional CDs are promising nanomaterials with low toxicity, low cost, and enormous applications in the field of bioimagi...

Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) are sub-class of perfluoroalkyl substances commonly detected in water matrices. They are persistent in the environment, hence highly toxic to living organisms. Their occurrence at trace amount, complex nature and prone to matrix interference make their extraction and detection a challenge. This study consolid...

The utilization of organic matter (OM) to produce biogas is an attractive alternative for promoting sustainable development, addressing energy shortages and waste disposal problems, creating jobs, and investing in sanitation systems. Thus, this alternative is becoming increasingly important in developing countries. This study investigated the perce...

With the aim of designing electrode surface with porous materials, facile synthesis method to generate mesoporous architectures that are activated with conductive metal oxide as dopants with high thermal stability is of huge demand. The present work demonstrates the robust synthesis of CdO nanocrystals incorporated on the mesoporous TiO2-based mate...

Bio-waste material-assisted nanomaterials synthesis is a newer aspect of modern nanotechnology. It is preferred over orthodox approaches for its merits, including affordability, safety, eco-benevolentness, and biocompatibility. In this report, the green fabrication of heterogeneous Cu/CuO/Cu2O NPs using groundnut shell extract and assessed for thei...

More energy is needed nowadays due to global population growth. Concurrently, sewage sludge generation has also increased steadily stemming from the inevitable urbanization. As such, black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) can be potentially deployed to solve both issues. This paper investigates the environmental sustainability of biodiesel production deri...

Hydrogen is the most promising alternative energy recently that is renewable and clean due to its sustainability, great potential as energy source and efficiency during the conversion. In fact, microalgal biohydrogen has attracted significant attentions as a clean and sustainable fuel to achieve the carbon neutrality and sustainability in environme...

The supernatant from Bacillus subtilis possessed significant antifungal activity against Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, two harmful pathogenic fungi. In this study, antifungal compounds were purified from the extracellular extract of B. subtilis including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and membranes protein. The antifungal compound w...

Hydrogen production with the use of biological processes and renewable feedstock may be considered an economical and sustainable alternative fuel. The high calorific value and zero emission in the production of biohydrogen make it the best possible source for energy security and environmental sustainability. Solar energy, microorganisms, and feedst...

Heavy metals in industrial wastewater are hazardous, not easily biodegradable, and can be enriched in the food chain. This will lead to serious global environmental problems. Traditional physicochemical heavy metal remediation treatments have limitations, including high costs and secondary contamination. However, biosorption is an effective and aff...

This literature review addresses the presence of plastic in domestic wastewater, an increasingly important facet of the widespread use of plastic and its detrimental effects on the environment, with a focus on microplastics (MPs) in sewage sludge and their implications for a circular economy. Extensive research has been conducted on the occurrence...

The textile, paper and pulp, distillery, and pharmaceutical industries are only a few of the many sectors that contribute significantly to the contamination of water bodies and their unsuitability for human use. Pharmaceuticals, which are credited with saving millions of lives in recent decades, have emerged as a new category of environmental hazar...

The challenges of managing fossil fuels, the continued emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the global water crisis are increasingly drawing researchers’ attention toward alternative ways to increase the ef- ficiency of biogas production and wastewater treatment. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has yet summarized...

The number of restaurants is increasing day by day in almost all the developing countries, causing the increase in the generation of restaurant wastewaters. Various activities (i.e., cleaning, washing, and cooking) going on in the restaurant kitchen lead to restaurant wastewater (RWW). RWW has high concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), bi...

The present study reported the biological treatment in order to improve the removal of recalcitrant dyes including aniline blue, reactive black 5, orange II, and crystal violet in contaminated water. The results indicated the biodegradation efficiency by the Fusarium oxysporum was significantly enhanced by the addition of mediator and by adjusting...

Microplastics are a growing concern due to their potential negative environmental and human health impacts. This study investigated the physiochemical changes in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microplastics upon aging in air, seawater, and freshwater through exposure to Xenon light (artificial aging) and sun (natural aging). We used SEM to examin...

Despite of our growing understanding of microplastic's implications, research on the effects of fibrous microplastic (FMPs) on the environment is still in its infancy. Some scientists have hypothesized the possibility of natural textile fibres, which may act as one of the emerging environmental pollutants prevalent among microplastic pollutants in...

Hydrogen is a clean and green biofuel choice for the future because it is carbon-free, non-toxic, and has high energy conversion efficiency. In exploiting hydrogen as the main energy, guidelines for implementing the hydrogen economy and roadmaps for the developments of hydrogen technology have been released by several countries. Besides, this revie...

This study reports optimization and simulation of biodiesel synthesis from waste cooking oil through supercritical transesterification reaction without the use of any catalyst. Although the catalyst enhances the reaction rate but due to the presence of water contents in waste cooking oil, the use of catalyst could cause a negative impact on the bio...

Aviation industry has a vital role in the economic growth and social development of the world. But, it shows negative impacts on the environment and thus this industry is looking for sustainable and clean fuel. Hydrogen energy is trusted as a promising fuel in the aviation industry, owing to the remarkable advantages. Different techniques, driven b...

The use of fossil fuels, emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, and waste pose a problem to the environment and public health that urgently needs to be dealt with. Among numerous chemical activating agents that can be added to anaerobic digestion (AD) to enhance nutrient removal and increase the quality and quantity of biomethane,...

The capacity to maximize the proliferation of microalgal cells by means of topologically textured organic solid surfaces under various pH gave rise to the fundamental biophysical analysis of cell-surface attachment in this study. The substrate used in analysis was palm kernel expeller (PKE) in which the microalgal cells had adhered onto its surface...

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been identified as the most toxic specie of the family of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs). It has been widely distributed and frequently detected in environmental wastewater. The compound's unique features such as inherent stability, rigidity, and resistance to harsh chemical and thermal conditions, due to...

Through developing a highly efficient solid-phase microwave-assisted (SPMA) synthesis technique, we were able to synthesize graphene quantum dots (GQDs) that were doped with nitrogen and boron atoms. The as-synthesized GQDs were employed as sensing probes for detecting pesticides and iron ions within aqueous solutions. The SPMA approach is very ver...

Aquaponics combines the advantages of aquaculture and hydroponics as it suits the urban environment where a lack of agricultural land and water resources is observed. It is an ecologically sound system that completely reuses its system waste as plant fertilizer. It offers sustainable water savings, making it a supreme technology for food production...

With rapid growing world population and increasing demand for natural resources, the production of sufficient food, feed for protein and fat sources and sustainable energy presents a food insecurity challenge globally. Insect biorefinery is a concept of using insect as a tool to convert biomass waste into energy and other beneficial products with c...

Identification of microalgae species is of great importance due to the uprising of Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs), affecting both the aquatic habitat and human health. On the contrary, microalgae have been identified as future green biomass and alternatives due to their promising bioactive compounds activities that play a significant role in many indu...

This paper examines the potential of suitable second-generation feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel production, theoretically based on fatty acid-based fuel properties. The fatty acid composition of 38 s-generation feedstocks was collected from the literature. The fuel properties of these feedstocks were then calculated using empirical formula...

Microalgae farming is still in its infancy phase to implement internet-of-things (IoT) technologies. Spirulina microalgae was selected to be investigated in this study because it is the most commercially viable microalgae for large-scale production. There are various methods to measure the biomass concentration of microalgae. However, the conventio...

In recent years, research studies on enzyme immobilized materials toward water pollution monitoring and remediation have increased considerably. This review focuses on the application of enzymes (e.g., laccase, acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, etc.,) immobilized nanomaterials in electrochemical sensing and biocatalytic degradation of some water po...

The incredible growth of the duckweed (DW) in the water ecosystem causes severe environmental problems and reduces biodiversity. Harvesting and valorization of such plants represents a challenge due to its richness with organics. Hydrogen productivity (HP) from dark fermentation of delignified duckweed (DDW) is the main objective of current researc...

Macroalgae, with short growth cycles, and high CO2 fixation capacity, are third-generation biomass mainstays that play an essential role as a global carbon sink. Macroalgal biochar plays a crucial role in soil improvement, pollutant adsorption, electrodes, and capacitors, and it has already contributed to both ecological and economic fields. Howeve...

Microplastics (size <5 mm) debris are environmentally persistent pollutants that severely affect terrestrial ecosystems by promoting the loss of soil fertility, and microbiome. The adverse effect of microplastics on the terrestrial ecosystem led to changes in physic-chemical and biological characteristics of soil resulting changes in nutrient cycli...

The identification of microalgae species is an important tool in scientific research and commercial application to prevent harmful algae blooms (HABs) and recognizing potential microalgae strains for the bioaccumulation of valuable bioactive ingredients. The aim of this study is to incorporate rapid, high-accuracy, reliable, low-cost, simple, and s...

Food loss or waste is a far-reaching problem and has indeed become a worrying issue that is growing at an alarming rate. Fruits and vegetables are lost or wasted at the highest rate among the composition of food waste. Furthermore, the world is progressing toward sustainable development; hence, an efficient approach to valorising fruit and vegetabl...

Textile and printing industries play a vital role in the economy of any country. But the effluents of these industries, which contain toxic Methylene Blue (MB) dye when mixed with fresh water, make it unfit for human health and aquatic life. For the removal of MB, different adsorbents were used, but they were expensive, non-biodegradable or less ef...

The inherent toxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of dyes that are discharged into aquatic ecosystems, harming the health of humans and animals. ZIF-8 based composites are regarded as good adsorbents for the breakdown of dyes in order to remove or degrade them. In the course of this research, metal-organic framework materials known as ZIF-8 a...