TUBITAK 1001 Project Partnership with Gebze Technical University
The 1001 project titled “Establishment of a Wheat-Specific Microbial Consortium and Design of a New Biofertilizer Formulation through Immobilization of the Consortium into PolyHipe Polymer”, which is carried out by Prof. Dr. Yelda Özden Çiftçi, a faculty member of Gebze Technical University, and in which Dr. Özge Dinç is a researcher at our center, has been decided to be supported by TÜBİTAK.
In the project, a highly efficient, long-lasting and low-cost electrode will be developed to eliminate the electrode cost and energy cost problems, which are the main problems of the electrooxidation process. The electrode to be developed is planned to be Ti/IrO2/RuO2 /SnO2 as a composition on the main titanium. In addition, it is aimed to improve the electrode properties by doping the electrodes with some metals and rare earth elements. Within the scope of the project, nickel (Ni), antimony (Sb), ytterbium (Yb), gadolinium (Gd), lanthanum (La) and cerium (Ce) are planned to be doped up to 1% of the optimized ruthenium, iridium and tin composition. In the selection of elements, the electron orbits, conductivity and non-toxicity of the metals were also taken into account. In addition, antimony increases the stability and oxygen increases the overpotential, while rare earth metals, thanks to the electrons in the f-electron band, cause the formation and excitation of an additional energy band when the electrodes are doped. This could help to develop suitable channels for electron transfer and improve the electro-catalytic properties of the anodes. The second aim of the project is to avoid electrode passivation, which is one of the major obstacles in electrochemical processes. Therefore, another unique feature of the project is the use of alternating current (AC) instead of a direct current source. With alternating current, electrode passivation will be prevented by changing the current direction hundreds of times per second. The effect of 3 different wave types (sine, square and triangular) and frequency variation (10-1000 hz) with alternating current will be investigated and the most efficient current conditions will be determined. From the studies conducted in different fields, it is predicted that when high frequency is applied, the life of the electrode will increase and the energy consumed will decrease, and the energy requirement of the square wave type will be lower. It is thought that several electrocoagulation studies with alternating current will provide a 30-70% reduction in energy cost. Finally, the performance of the developed electrode will be investigated with paracetamol as a model compound in pharmaceutical wastewater. The most suitable electrode will be determined under constant process conditions and process parameters such as current density (50- 1000 A/m2), pH (3-11), electrolyte effect (NaCl, Na2SO4), Paracetamol concentration (10-100 mg/l) will be optimized. Studies will be carried out on real paracetamol wastewater under the same process conditions and electrode and treatment costs will be calculated.
