Ya-Fen Wang

Chung Yuan Christian University · Department of Environmental Engineering

Ultrafine particles (UFPs; PM0.1) possess intensified health risks due to their smaller size and unique spatial variability. One of the major emission sources for UFPs is vehicle exhaust, which varies based on the traffic composition in each type of roadside sector. The current challenge of epidemiological UFPs study is limited characterization abi...

Methylene blue (MB) is a synthetic dye in wastewater that causes serious environmental problems due to its toxicity, carcinogenicity, and resistance to environmental degradation. To overcome this problem, activated carbon (AC) from corncob waste and natural Hydroxyapatite (HAp) from catfish bone were synthesized to generate a simple, cost-effective...

Photocatalysis has proven to be a green technology that possesses the synergy between addressing climate change and combating air pollution. Compared with traditional photocatalysts, Cerium oxide (CeO2) holds distinct advantages such as low-cost, and high affinity for Ce3+/Ce4+ redox pair. This study presents a systematic investigation into the mod...

Background: One direction to mitigate membrane fouling is to create anti-fouling photocatalytic membranes. The photocatalysts' hydrophilicity reduces the interaction of the membrane with hydrophobic foulants and the photocatalysis decomposes membrane fouling. Another noteworthy point is that PMS (peroxymonosul-fate) can be activated by photocatalys...

Ultrafine particles (UFPs; PM0.1) and black carbon (BC) were measured at different roadside microenvironments in the vicinity of the urban industrial park area. Simultaneous measurement campaigns were conducted at industrial roadside (IN), residential roadside (RS), and urban background (UB) throughout different seasons. Spatiotemporal variability...

This research aims to investigate the feasibility of utilizing Cassia fistula-derived activated carbon (GSAC) for isoniazid removal from water. The study encompasses a two-step activation process—chemical and physical—with varying parameters to optimize surface area and porosity. The carbonization process involves hydrothermal and pyrolysis techniq...

Recently, many efforts have been made to address the rapid spread of newly identified COVID-19 virus variants. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is considered a potential early warning tool for identifying the rapid spread of this virus. This study investigated the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in eight wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their se...

Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) are harmful chemicals produced from organic solvent use in industrial sectors. Wafer fabrication process from semiconductor fabs utilizes many organic solvents that could intensify NMHCs emissions. This study comprehensively assessed the Total NMHCs (TNMHCs) emissions from 141 exhaust pipes of 59 semiconductor fabs...

In this study, a novel approach is introduced involving grafting and dip coating on photocatalytic substrates to create a Z-Scheme structure of TiO₂@g-C₃N₄ (TC). The synthesized photocatalyst undergoes comprehensive characterization through techniques such as XRD, SEM, XPS, FTIR, Contact Angle Goniometer, and BET an...

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 few years ago, the increasing of the number of medical waste has become a huge issue because of their harmful impact to environment. A major concern associated to the limitation of technologies for dealing with medical waste, especially conventional technologies, are overcapacities since pandemic occurs. Moreover, the...

This research aimed to modify activated carbon into oxidated activated carbon because it can effectively remove diclofenac sodium (DCF) and increase the adsorption capability. In this study of the several variations of initial concentration and contact time, those variations affected the optimal result. To determine, the removal efficiency of diclo...

Because of certain limitations of traditional MD (membrane distillation) membranes and environmental and cost factors of perfluoroalkyl silanes, this study modified the surface of the PES membrane for application in...

Nowadays, photocatalysis has attracted much attention due to its ability to degrade NO at low concentrations, combined with a cheap, sustainable, and environmentally friendly process. Recent studies highlights zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) may be applied as potential photocatalysts due to their efficient charge transport, and high performance. In t...

This study performed the transformation of food waste and resin into the valuable photocatalyst which was applied in the NOx decomposition. Bone waste was used as the agricultural waste because of its high CaCO3 compositions. In this study, heterojunction composites were synthesized by calcination ZnO and TiO2 with chicken bone and pork bone (ZnO@P...

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...

Ultrafine particles (UFPs; PM 0.1) and black carbon (BC) were measured at different roadside microenvironments in the vicinity of an urban industrial park area of Taiwan. A total of six-weeks seasonal measurement campaigns was conducted at industrial roadside (IN), residential roadside (RS), and urban background (UB) during warm and cold periods. S...

Fly ash has been widely recognized as the hazardous waste due to its toxicity to environment. It should be treated properly for preventing the high contamination to the environment and generate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the pyrolysis treatment. The aim of this study is to investigate the most influenced parameters in elimination of ele...

The dye contamination of water is a global concern in the environment. In this study, the photocatalytic technology and membrane module were combined to improve the surface distribution of the active species of the catalyst for better degradation of the methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light. ZnSn(OH)6 was chosen due to carbon’s complex metal...

Recently, many efforts have been made to address the rapid spread of newly identified COVID-19 virus variants . Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is considered as a potential early warning tool for identifying the rapid spread of this virus. This study investigated the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in eight wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and thei...

E-wastes are all the items associated with the electrical and electronic equipment that have been discarded and no-reuse by its users. VOCs exist in the PCB, and a specific treatment is required for degrading it during pyrolysis. In this study, novel flux agents with a high source of CaCO 3 from the bones powder (pork bone and beef bone) and shells...

Air pollution is one of the most concerning issues today because of its adverse effects on living organisms and the environment. Therein, nitric oxide (NO) is the leading cause of the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and respiratory diseases. Therefore, discovering a low-cost, environmentally friendly, highly efficient photocatalysis technique to remo...

Membrane technology for water purification has made tremendous progress during the last decade. Membrane Distillation (MD) is a non-isothermal membrane separation process, thermally driven vapor transport through a porous hydrophobic membrane with a vapor pressure difference between the two sides of the membrane pores as the driving force. MD has a...

Hydrogen fuel is considered as a sustainable energy source for green technology in the future. This chapter focuses on discussing the photocatalytic membrane reaction process for hydrogen production. The efficiency of photocatalytic membranes largely depends on the type of material which is coated or loaded on the membranes. Thus, the photocatalyti...

Presently, most of the population has been facing a string of severe air pollution problems that include the intensive emission of nitric oxide (NO), which requires a practical approach to sustain our living conditions. Herein, Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs)-decorated ZnSn(OH) 6 microcubes (Ag:cZHS) photocatalysts are synthesized and used for photocatal...

The problem of ultrafine particles (UFPs; PM0.1) has been prevalent since the past decades. In addition to become easily inhaled by human respiratory system due to their ultrafine diameter (<100 nm), ambient UFPs possess various physicochemical properties which make it more toxic. These properties vary based on the emission source profile. The curr...

The new catalyst (La/Bi2S3) applies for the photodegradation of Acid Yellow 42 (AY42) dye under visible light in this study. The La/Bi2S3 material is the motivating catalyst due to the excellent ability of Lanthanum (La) to increase the adsorption capacity and electron-hole separation of Bi2S3 for enhancing the degradation of AY42. The characteriza...

Biochars were successfully produced from rice straw and golden shower seed wastes and used to obtain agricultural waste-derived and low-cost adsorbents to remove methylene blue (MB) dye pollutants. The biochars were prepared using atmospheric pressure microwave plasma in a nitrogen environment at three individual flow rates of 7, 9, and 11 L/min fo...

Water hyacinth and water lettuce have been extensively used for phytoremediation of metals and metalloids. However, the reasonable disposal of phytoremediation plants is a difficult problem. This study aims to reduce metals and metalloids from water hyacinth and water lettuce, and produce hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4) via an atmospheric-pressure...

Because of the small size effect leading to the high bandgap of TiO2 P25, the photocatalytic membrane using this photocatalyst has low antifouling efficiency. This study prepared CuO@TiO2 composite photocatalyst with a lower bandgap than TiO2 P25 and used it as antifouling coatings on the PES membrane with PAA intermediate adhesive layer. PAA was g...

In this study, the highly stable ZrO2 was bandgap-tuned with copper nanoparticles and it was used as the coating on PAA/PES membranes. The photocatalyst was synthesized by chemical reduction of Cu2+ and precipitation of Cu nanoparticles on the surface of ZrO2. Photocatalyst characterizations were used such as FTIR, SEM-EDS, XRD, BET, UV-Vis DRS, XP...

Vitrification technology provides a solution for the issue of safe disposal of hazardous waste containing harmful chemical composition and organic pollutants. This review discusses application of vitrification technologies to treat hazardous waste including, asbestos, fly ash, electronic sludge, nuclear waste, medical waste and radioactive waste. V...

Resin, the e-waste from printed circuit board (PCB) scrap, has been used widely for the thermosetting of PCB. To obtain the optimum result of elements from e-waste in plasma technology, the understanding of parameters is urgently suggested. This study investigated the elimination of elements via an atmospheric-pressure microwave plasma reactor, con...

Magnetic Fe3O4 carbon-shell (MFC) functionalization with lanthanum (MFC@La(OH)3) was successfully synthesized with various weight ratios between Fe and La utilizing the facile procedure to obtain high adsorption capacity and an easily separable adsorbent from water. FTIR result showed La-OH vibration bond and the residual NO3− anion confirming the...

Converting CO2 into add-value products is an appealing strategy to alleviate the environmental deterioration due to the high emission of atmospheric CO2 and energy shortage. Photocatalysis is a solar fuel production technology due to its potential to minimize carbon dioxide emissions while producing valuable compounds. Recently, the Cerium oxide (C...

The challenge for water recovery from dye manufacturing wastewaters that contain high salinity and high dye concentration is recovery efficiency and water quality. The permeate flux and water quality mainly reflect the membrane distillation performance in treatments of these wastewaters. This study investigated the effects of Air Gap Membrane Disti...

Because of certain limitations in the use of conventional hydrophobic membranes in membrane distillation (MD), many studies have attempted to find alternatives to these membranes. There are many criteria for replacement membranes but the main criteria such as stability, cost, and environmental friendliness are the most important properties. When th...

Nitric oxide (NO) pollution presents a pressing issue in preserving the air quality for sustainable development. It is highly desirable to employ robust photocatalytic materials for addressing NO pollution in an energy-efficient fashion. Here, Ag/g-C3N4 heterojunctions are successfully fabricated via a photo-reduction approach. Ag nanoparticles are...

Conventional biological treatment has been reported to be ineffective for pollutant removal in tannery wastewater due to high salinity. To overcome it, this work used salt-tolerant bacteria (STB) isolated from a membrane bioreactor to evaluate the organic and nutrient removal through a series of batch experiments. Compared with the control, the S...

Besides photocatalysts, novel catalytic wet-air oxidation (CWAO) catalysts capable of operating under mild conditions are a potential candidate to fabricate antifouling filtration membranes. This study optimized the CWAO catalyst consisting of three metal oxide components (ZnO, CuO, and Fe3O4) and used it to fabricate composite membranes with PES (...

Ocean life forms are fundamentally well adapted to natural environmental variations, and they can even tolerate extreme conditions for a short time. However, several anthropogenic stressors are causing such drastic changes in the ocean ecosystem. First, the review attempts to outline the impact of climatic and non-climatic stressors on ocean life,...

TiO2@g-C3N4 heterojunction composites were successfully synthesized via one-step pyrolysis using commercial TiO2 and urea. The photocatalytic performance of a composite was investigated by measuring the degradation of nitric oxide (NO) under visible light. The light absorption and bandgap of the selected materials were determined using diffuse refl...

The combination of conventional organic membranes and photocatalysts has led to an extensively studied field that is so-called photocatalyst modified membranes with antifouling, self-cleaning properties under UV or visible light irradiation. However, most of the research is limited to laboratory scale and artificial experimental conditions because...

The information of plasma technologies applications for environmental clean-up on treating and degrading metals, metalloids, dyes, biomass, antibiotics, pesticides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), bacteria, virus and fungi is compiled and organized in the review article. Different reactor configurations of plasma technology have been applied for...

Presently, most of the population has been facing a string of severe climate change problems that primarily come from the intensive emission of nitric oxide (NO), which requires a practical approach to sustain our living conditions. Herein, Ag nanoparticles-decorated ZnSn(OH) 6 microcubes (Ag:cZHS) photocatalysts were synthesized rapidly and used f...

Dust agglomeration in an electrostatic precipitator (EP) during the sintering process taking place in an ironmaking plant was investigated. The dust agglomeration in the high sulfur flue gas dust hopper of the EP was very serious and did affect the removal of the dust from the hopper. The size of the agglomerate ranged from approximately 30–50 cm a...

This review details the current information on e-waste treatment using plasma technology. The current status of e-waste treatment via plasma technology from the scientific literature is presented herein, namely, moist paste battery, galvanic sludge, resin, printed circuit board, and semiconductor industries. The concept of plasma technology, classi...

Photocatalytic materials present a robust approach in tackling pollutants in the air. However, the involving reactions and their associated toxicity, those are important for practical implications, have not been sufficiently reported. Here, we synthesize ZnSn(OH)6 and control its morphology by changing NaOH's dosage in a one-step hydrothermal growt...

Photocatalysis is an emerging tool used for the reduction of air pollutants. In the atmosphere, nitrogen oxide (NO) is one of the leading pollutants because of its detrimental effects on flora and fauna. This work introduces the photocatalytic NO degradation over Ag nanoparticles-decorated Bi2S3 nanorods. The XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, EDS, and TEM demon...

In this study, the PDVF membranes were fabricated with a La-doped TiO2 (La-TiO2) photocatalytic coating in which La element was recovered from the waste fluorescent powder. The process of La element recovery was investigated under different conditions with different acid concentrations. La-TiO2 photocatalysts were facilely synthesized by the solvot...

A magnesium oxide and titanium (II) oxide nanocomposite, MgO/TiO2 was synthesized to improve its surface area thus its adsorption capability may be risen. The synthesis was applying sol-gel method, combining MgO and TiO2 nanoparticles with NaOH becomes a nanocomposite with higher surface area. The pH effect on adsorption were analyzed. The expectat...

The contamination of bacteria has become a severe issue for aquaculture products. TiO2 and PANI can potentially be used to kill bacteria as a biological disinfectant. In this study, the destruction of E. coli and S. aureus via novel TiO2/PANI composite was investigated on a laboratory scale with ratios 1:1, 1:2, and 2:1, respectively, and the flow...

Reductive adsorption of chromium (Cr) has been investigated, employing coal-based activated carbon with batchwise study. The adsorption was carried out by varying parameters such as pH of the aqueous solution and contact time. Cr(III) was hardly adsorbed on activated carbon, and it was precipitated at high pH region. High adsorption amounts of Cr(V...

Abstract NOx is becoming a hot issue due to its contribution to ozone, PM2.5 formation, and its negative impacts on the ecosystem. In this study, the synthesis of an MgO/Bi2S3-BiOCl composite was carried out via the co-precipitation method for the photodegradation of nitrogen oxide (NO) under solar light. The BiOCl heterojunction is a result of in...

In this study, a conjugated polyvinyl chloride is supported hydrothermally synthesized Bi2O3 semiconductor (cPVC/Bi2O3) by a simple, and straightforward method at low temperature. Results show that 2% cPVC/Bi2O3/PMS/Vis system being the best photocatalytic ability of RhB degradation (200 mg L⁻¹) with a complete degradation after 150 min under visib...

The recycling of the rare earth neodymium (Nd) is vital to providing greener technology for many industries. In this paper its recovery from waste permanent magnets (WPMs) is explored using a hydrometallurgical process involving separation using hollow fiber supported liquid membranes (HFSLMs). After demagnetization, the options for WPMs leaching w...

Cr(VI) has been confirmed as a toxic carcinogenic contaminant; consequently, it must be removed from wastewater pipes prior to discharge. In the present work, the reductive adsorption of Cr(VI) was investigated using coal-based activated carbon. Batchwise reductive adsorption and chromatography study of Cr(VI) were carried out, with varying paramet...

To reduce the landfill volume of waste CaF2 sludge, artificial fluorite bulk (AFB) is granulated by blending CaF2 sludge and emulsified asphalt (EA) for the use of flux in this study. Results showed that high stability of micron-sized EA can be successfully prepared and used to granulate CaF2 powders to form AFB. EA has high-dispersivity with the p...

Objectives Fiberglass-reinforced plastics (FRP) manufacturing has been related to cases of severe airway obstruction and elevated risk of respiratory mortality. But the specific job content risk is not clear. This study evaluated the respiratory health effects of the FRP lamination process. Methods A questionnaire was used to evaluate respiratory...

Flux agents play an important role in the pyrolysis treatment of vitrifying hazardous wastes. Among these is plasma jets, a cost-less flux agent derived from shell powder which can be used to create vitrification. It is a promising option to be applied in the vitrification of elements and to remove the VOCs of hazardous waste, namely, resin from PC...

The COVID-19 epidemic discovered and reported at the end of December 2019 and began spreading rapidly around the world. The impact of the COVID-19 event on the trip intensity, AQI (air quality index), and air pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, NO2, and O3 in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Foshan (the so-called ‘three cities’) from January 12 to...

The pursuit of robust photocatalysts that can completely degrade organic contaminants with high performance as well as high energy efficiency, simplicity in preparation, and low cost is an appealing topic that potentially promotes photocatalysts for being used widely. Herein, we introduce a new and efficient SnO2/Bi2S3/BiOCl–Bi24O31Cl10 (SnO2/Bi2S3...

This study investigated the AQI (air quality index) and atmospheric pollutants including PM2.5, PM10, CO, SO2, NO2 and O3 in Chongqing, Luzhou and Chengdu from 2017 to 2019. In addition, the impacts of the COVID-19 event on the air quality in the three cities in 2020 were compared and discussed. For the combined AQIs for the three cities, in spring...

Resin has been widely used for thermosetting printed circuit boards (PCBs) and is a key part of e-waste from scrap PCBs. It requires appropriate treatment because of its harmful elements (metals and metalloids) and organic compounds that are toxic to human health and the environment. The purpose of this study is to eliminate volatile organic compou...

Traffic air pollution control is an important aspect of air quality management in urban areas. In this study, we investigated whether short-duration vehicular traffic control could be applied as a temporary tool to improve the roadside air quality based on concentrations of roadside volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Experiments were conducted targ...

Recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) i.e. neodymium (Nd), dysprosium (Dy), and praseodymium (Pr) from waste permanent magnet (WPMs) leach liquor has been investigated using solvent extraction followed by hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM). In the solvent extraction studies, optimum parameters have been obtained for 1 mol/L D2EHPA at p...