Hong Liu

Associate Professor, Biological & Ecological Engineering

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office: Gilmore Hall 116
Email: liuh@engr.orst.edu
Phone: (541) 737-6309
Links:
Liu Lab
Departmental Web Page
Pub Med

EDUCATION:
Ph.D. 2003, The University of Hong Kong

KEYWORDS: Environmental Microbiology; Microbial Fuel Cell; Bio-Based Energy Technology

RESEARCH:
Areas of Specialization
- Sustainable bioenergy production
- Environmental biotechnology
- Waste and wastewater treatment
- Microbial fuel cell technology
- Biohydrogen production
 
Current Research
Electricity generation using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC): Using MFC to directly convert organic matter to electricity represents a completely new method of renewable energy recovery. Our studies focus on optimizing MFC to improve the power generation from various waste biomass
 
Hydrogen production using BioElectrochemically Assisted Microbial Reactors (BEAMR): Excluding oxidants from MFC system, hydrogen can be produced at cathode by adding an electrochemical potential to the system. This overcomes the fermentation barrier since any biodegradable organic matter can theoretically be used and completely degraded in this process. We are currently conducting research on the system characterization and optimization to increase the hydrogen production rate and total energy recovery.