Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

About: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is a education organization based out in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Membrane & Adsorption. The organization has 21644 authors who have published 39500 publications receiving 520635 citations.

Wave energy device and breakwater integration: A review

Abstract: One of the most abundant energy sources exists in this world is the ocean wave energy. By far, it has shown to be the most clean, renewable, predicted energy and has raised the potential to compete with the current use of non-renewable energy sources. Recent research conducted on wave energy invention has opened a new dimension to slowly reduce the dependency on fossil fuel by introducing new technology on the renewable world but relatively lacking in economical aspect. This review brings the latest status on integration of wave energy device with other marine facilities, which is the breakwater structure that may possibly aid to cost sharing. Most researches done on this field highlighted countries experiencing rough sea condition and focused less on countries with medium wave condition as faced by the Asian continent. The potential for energy extraction and wave dissipation for medium wave condition will be discussed in this review by considering several aspects including reliability, effectiveness and performance. Finally, this review shows that the integration opens up a new dimension to acknowledge the technology harnessing ocean wave, especially for the Asian countries experiencing medium wave condition.

Recent advances and emerging challenges in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for microbial production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals

Abstract: Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a potentially attractive green technology to tackle the global warming and energy crisis, which employs electrochemically active bacteria to convert organic matter into hydrogen or a wide range of chemicals, such as methane, acetate, hydrogen peroxide, ethanol, and formic acid, without causing environmental pollution. Until now, probably the cleanest and the most efficient method of producing hydrogen has been MEC. However, this technology is still in its infancy period and poses various challenges towards up-scaling and widespread applications, such as such as lower hydrogen production rate (HPR), high internal resistance, complicated architecture, and expensive materials. New advances are needed in biofilm engineering, materials for electrodes and reactor configuration for successful real-world application of this technology. Thus, the present review deals with development of practical MEC technology and includes the following sections: firstly a general introduction to MECs; their operating principles, thermodynamics of MEC, and energy or voltage losses in the MEC system were provided. Followed by a section on the critical factors affecting MEC performance; microorganisms, anode, cathode, membrane or separator, fuel sources, the state-of-art MECs designs, other key operational factors, and its potential application in microbial production of value added products are discussed in detail. Afterwards, current challenges involved in developing practical MEC systems are highlighted, and outlooks for future development are also suggested. The review aims to assist researcher and engineers to gain fundamental understandings of MEC, and it also provides several future research directions and a road map on how to overcome the barriers, so the MEC technology can be further advanced and applied in larger scale.