Plenary Lecture
Metals Reclaim from Industrial Wastes in Power Generation and Storage
Professor Hong Hocheng
Co-authors: Professor U. U. Jadhav, Dr. M. V. Chakankar, C. H. Su
Department of Power Mechanical Engineering
National Tsing Hua University
Taiwan ROC
E-mail: hocheng@pme.nthu.edu.tw
Abstract: The rapid growth of energy demand is resulting in huge amount of industrial wastes in the processes power generation and storage. The coal-fired power plants generate enormous amounts of fly ash. The present work shows an attempt to highlight the management of coal fly ash using bioleaching process to save environment. Aspergillus niger culture supernatant is used for bioleaching process. During bioleaching process around 100% metal removal was achieved in 4 hours for all metals except chromium 93 %, nickel 83 %, arsenic 78 %, and lead 70%. Millions of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are often generated in a city. Large portion of waste goes to the waste-to-energy plants for incineration and energy recovery. However, the incineration process generates bottom ash as combustion residues. The citric acid was found to be the most effective leaching agent for metal recovery achieved in 48 hours. These results suggest that bottom ash can be used as a secondary source for various metals. For Ni-Cd batteries, novel leaching system using ferric sulfate hydrate was introduced to dissolve heavy metals. The results obtained demonstrate that more than 88% and 84% of nickel and cadmium were recovered respectively under an optimal experimental condition. Environmental friendliness and cost effectiveness are among the merits of these processes.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Professor Hong Hocheng earned his PhD from UC Berkeley in US and is now the Tsing Hua Chair Professor at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan. . He has published more than 150 journal papers and 40 patents in the area of manufacturing technology. His research interest lies in the new manufacturing processes. Recently he has made innovative research in achieving effective reclaim of hazardous and valuable metals from industrial wastes by microbes. He has been cited Outstanding Teaching by NTHU for teaching the undergraduate required courses of Manufacturing Processes and Technology. Prof. Hocheng served as the editorial board member of more than 15 international journals. He received National Academic Prize from Ministry of Education and Outstanding Research Awards from Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Prof. Hocheng is internationally recognized by Prof. Fryderyk Staub Golden Owl Award and William Johnson Award.