The main aim of this work was investigating the potential of sulfonated graphene oxide (sGO) for hydrolysis of cellulosic substrates and dark fermentative hydrogen production from obtained hydrolysates using E. aerogenes. Sulfonation of graphene oxide was performed using chlorosulfonic acid which showed a high acid density of 4.63 mmol/g. Influence of the reaction time (1-5 h), temperature (90-180 °C) and sGO dosage (62.5-500 mg in 25 mL reaction volume) on the hydrolysis of pretreated microcrystalline cellulose was experimented. It revealed that the yield of glucose and total reducing sugars and selectivity can reach 454.4 ± 22.20 mg/g, 682.6 ± 30.67 mg/g and 95.5%, respectively, at 150 °C for 3 h using 250 mg sGO. The maximum hydrogen efficiency of 150.0 ± 5.65 mL/g was achieved under optimized conditions, which was 2.2-fold higher than that from the pretreated MCC substrate as control in the absence of sGO (67.3 ± 8.84 mL/g). Corn stover biochar (CSB) and maple biochar (MB) were added into anaerobic digesters and evaluated for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) reductions. This was the first study to show Fe-impregnated biochar can eliminate H2S production. The novel study evaluated biochar addition on H2S reduction and nutrient concentrations using three experiments to test the effect of 1) biochar concentration, 2) biochar particle size, and 3) Fe-impregnated biochar using triplicate lab-scale reactors. At the highest biochar dose (1.82 g biochar/g manure TS), H2S production was 90.5% less than the control treatment (351 mL H2S/kg VS). Biochar particle size did not significantly affect H2S concentration. The Fe-impregnated biochar (0.5 g biochar/g manure TS) reactors had no H2S detected in the CSB-Fe system. Methane (CH4) in the biochar and control treatments were not significantly different in all three experiments. The results show that biochar added to digesters can significantly reduce H2S production without affecting CH4 production. Cationic and anionic heavy metal contaminants generally co-exist in practical industrial effluent, and simultaneously removal of these species is a bottleneck for most of the bio-adsorbents because of their contrary charge. In this work, pinewood sawdust derived engineered biochar (BC) was fabricated with MgAl layered double hydroxide (MgAl-LDH) nanosheets, which could efficiently and simultaneously capture heavy metal cations and oxyanions from wastewater. The synergetic effect between loaded MgAl-LDH and BC substantially improves its adsorption performance towards both cationic and anionic contaminants, i.e., Pb2+ and CrO42-. The adsorption capacity of MgAl-LDH/BC for Pb2+ reached 591.2 mg/g, which is 263% higher than that of BC, and in the case of CrO42-, the adsorption capacity is 330.8 mg/g, 416% higher than that of BC. The elimination of Pb2+ was mainly attributed to forming complexations with surface functional groups. While for oxyanions removal, CrO42- can be reduced to Cr3+ by functional groups, and then generated Cr3+ could replace Al3+ via morphic substitution, consequently formed an MgCr-LDH structure. Further, in the continuous fixed-bed column study, 225 bed volume of simulating electroplating wastewater co-existed with Pb2+ and CrO42- can be efficiently treated. Hence, this study sheds light on the engineered biochar design to efficiently and simultaneously capture heavy metal cations and oxyanions and its feasibility on real wastewater purification. Clostridium, Tetrathiobacter and Desulfovibrio species are identified as suitable biocatalysts for treating organic-rich and sulfate-laden wastewater. Results from this study show that the power generation was much higher under alkaline conditions, i.e., pH of 8 when compared to neutral and acidic conditions. Selleckchem GNE-987 The effect of salinity was studied by varying the sodium chloride concentration at (1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, and 7.5 g/L NaCl) in anolyte. The highest power density of 1188 mW/m3 was produced at a sodium chloride concentration of 6 g/L in the anolyte. Results from cyclic voltammetry and linear scan voltammetry analysis suggested the direct electron transfer mechanism favored by cytb and cytc, Redox peaks observed for the biogenic synthesis of sulfite and sulfide support the complete one-step mineralization of sulfate. Bioelectrochemical behavior of the selectively enriched microbial consortium confirms its use for the treatment of wastewaters high in salinity and sulfate concentrations. The roles of jasmonic acid (JA) in the regulation of cell growth and lipid biosynthesis under the combination of strigolactone (SL) treatment and nitrogen deficiency (ND) were investigated. In this work, the optimised ND condition (46.18%) and ND combined with SL treatment (53.71%) showed 1.11- and 1.29-fold increases in lipid content in Monoraphidium sp. QLY-1 compared with the control condition (41.57%). The levels of JA, glutathione (GSH), and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and lipogenic genes expression were upregulated by the combination of SL and ND, but the ROS level was decreased. Furthermore, exogenous JA supplementation induced the highest lipid content (57.12%) and productivity (312.35 mg L-1 d-1) under ND combined with SL treatment. This study provided a combined strategy for enhancing lipid production and supplied novel insights into the role of JA signalling in regulating lipid synthesis and oxidative stress in microalgae by combining SL treatment with ND. This study investigated the relationship between the temperature (35, 42, and 55 °C) used in temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD) and fate of methanogens between the two anaerobic digestion (AD) phases. Methanogens were profiled by using next generation sequencing (NGS) and droplet digital PCR approaches. The results showed that optimal combined temperatures for methane production were 55 °C during biological hydrolysis (BH) and 35 or 42 °C during AD. BH exhibited much lower archaeal population and was more susceptible to changes in temperature, compared to the AD phase. Additionally, we demonstrated, for the first time, that the BH step could affect the subsequent AD phase by altering AD methanogen composition and improve the stability of the process by enriching the rapidly growing Methanosarcina in the BH-AD process. These results are significant for understanding the mechanisms and stability of methane production in TPAD systems.