News

2021

December 2021 

  • Qi Huang was awarded Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) for the second year in a row. Congratulations, Qi!

November 2021 

  • Seyed was awarded Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES). Congratulations, Seyed!
  • Basem Zakaria successfully defended his thesis and became the first Ph.D. graduate from our lab. Congratulations, Dr. Zakaria!

October 2021 

  • Undergraduate Environmental Engineering student Tristin joined the lab under the Dean’s Research Award program supported by the Faculty of Engineering. Welcome, Tristin!
  • On Oct 18, Dr. Dhar gave an invited seminar at the Department of Chemical Engineering of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia.
  • Qi was awarded the Rick George Graduate Leadership Scholarship in Engineering. Congratulations, Qi!

September 2021 

  • Basem was awarded the Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering for the third year in a row. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Calvin’s review article on food waste valorization with microbial electrochemical technologies has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Calvin!

  • We welcome three new members, Monisha Alam (Ph.D. Student), Parisa Niknejad (M.Sc. Student), and Kaitlin Hillier (M.Eng Student), this Fall.

August 2021 

  • Dr. Meshref’s paper has been accepted for publication in Data in Brief. This article reports detailed principal component analysis (PCA) of experimental data from a study on low-temperature thermal hydrolysis of sludge prior to anaerobic digestion. Congratulations, Dr. Meshref!
  • Raj’s article on the effects of different mixing conditions on anaerobic digesters amended with conductive additives has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Raj was a visiting Ph.D. student (2019-2020) from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Congratulations, Raj!

July 2021 

  • Calvin’s review article on paper-based microbial fuel cell biosensors has been accepted for publication in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Congratulations, Calvin!

June 2021 

  • Wafa successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on advancing the high-solids anaerobic digestion process for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Congratulations, Wafa!

May 2021 

  • Wafa’s article on optimizing the high-solids anaerobic digestion process for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Wafa!

  • Seyed’s paper on low-temperature thermal hydrolysis process for enhancing sludge anaerobic digestion in wastewater treatment plant with sludge anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, Seyed!

April 2021 

  • Calvin received Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral (CGS D), the most prestigious graduate scholarship from NSERC. As a successful candidate in the competition, he also received a top-up award, the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction, from the FGSR. Congratulations on these well-deserved scholarships, Calvin!
  • Calvin’s mini-review article on applications of 3D printing for microbial electrochemical technologies has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Energy Research. Congratulations, Calvin!

  • Wafa’s paper on the application of conductive additives on high-solids anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Process Safety and Environmental Protection. Congratulations, Wafa!

March 2021 

  • Dr. Dhar has been selected as one of the three recipients of UofA’s Petro-Canada Emerging Innovator Award-2021. This award is given annually (sponsored by Suncor Energy Inc.) through an internal competition among early-career researchers from four faculties (Business, ALES, Engineering, Science) across campus. Dr. Dhar sincerely acknowledges his current and former lab members, industry partners, funding agencies, academic collaborators, and thanks UofA’s civil and environmental engineering department leadership and internal award nomination committee for their tremendous support.
  • Basem’s article has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. This paper presents a comprehensive characterization and discusses the significance of extracellular polymeric substances, reactive oxygen species, and extracellular electron transfer in methanogenic biocathode in microbial electrolysis cell-assisted anaerobic digestion. Congratulations, Basem!

  • Raj’s article on high-rate blackwater anaerobic digestion under septic tank conditions with the amendment of biosolids-derived biochar has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Raj was a visiting student from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Congratulations, Raj!

  • Qi’s article on blackwater treatment with microbial electrolysis cells has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Qi!

  • Nesma’s manuscript on the lime treatment of oil sands tailing has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Nesma! 
  • Calvin’s review article on microbial electrochemical cell-based biosensors for recalcitrant environmental contaminants monitoring has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. Congratulations, Calvin!

  • Calvin has been selected to receive the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship. Congregations, Calvin!

February 2021 

  • Seyed’s review article on the impact of (nano)microplastics on anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Seyed!

  • Basem has been selected for a 2021 Graduate Student Teaching Award (GSTA) for his outstanding performance as a teaching assistant in Fall 2020. This year only seven students across campus have been selected for this award. Congratulations, Basem!

January 2021 

  • Mayank’s article on greywater treatment has been accepted for publication in Processes journal. Congratulations, Mayank!

  • Our article on the fate of disposable face masks in high-solids anaerobic digestion has been accepted for publication in Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering Journal. This interesting project was collaboratively done by Felipe, Mayank, Wafa, and Seyed. Congratulations Team!

2020

December 2020

  • Joey successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on temporal and spatial changes in microbial communities in high-solids anaerobic digestion. Congratulations, Joey!
  • Calvin successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on a microbial electrochemical biosensor for naphthenic acid detection. Congratulations, Calvin!

November 2020

  • Qi received the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship from the FGSR. Congratulations, Qi!
  • A journal article on Peijun’s thesis research has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Peijun!

  • Mayank successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis on greywater treatment using an integrated bioelectrochemical-biofilter process. Congratulations, Mayank!
  • Dr. Dhar gave a Distinguished Alumni Lecture hosted by the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) at Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). Dr. Dhar sincerely thanks his alma mater for this opportunity to share his research with faculty members, current and former students of ChE BUET.

October 2020

  • Basem successfully passed his doctoral candidacy exam and officially became a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations, Basem!

September 2020

  • Calvin received the Westmoreland Coal Company Graduate Scholarship in Environmental Engineering from the FGSR. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Basem has been nominated for the Donald R Stanley Graduate Scholarship in Environmental (Civil) Engineering for the second year in a row. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Bappi Chowdhury, our recent M.Sc. graduate, started a new position in EPCOR as FCF Operations Engineer. Congratulations, Bappi!
  • Basem’s paper on an intermittent power supply scheme to minimize electrical energy input in a microbial electrolysis cell assisted anaerobic digester has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Basem!

August 2020

  • Qi’s review article on high-strength wastewater treatment in microbial electrolysis cells coupled with anaerobic digester has been accepted for publication in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. Congratulations, Qi!

  • Seyed received Parya Foundation Scholarship. Congratulations, Seyed!

July 2020

  • Joey’s paper has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations, Joey!

  • Nervana Haffiez joined the lab as an M.Sc. student. Welcome, Nervana!

June 2020 

  • Basem presented his work “A cycling on-off power supply scheme for electrochemically enhanced anaerobic digestion” at the Virtual Bioenergy Symposium organized by Biomass Energy Network.

  • Basem received Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize from the FGSR. Congratulations, Basem!
  • Calvin’s paper on naphthenic acid biosensor has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Peijun Zhou successfully defended her thesis on the high-temperature thermal hydrolysis process for improving anaerobic digestion in a wastewater treatment plant with existing primary sludge fermentation. Congratulations, Peijun!
  • A review paper of Calvin and Mohmed has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Congratulations on their excellent teamwork!

  • Dr. Dhar awarded APEGA Summit Early Accomplishment Award 2020 for his research achievements in bioenergy and value-added resource recovery. The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) regulates the practices of engineering and geoscience in the Province of Alberta. Dr. Dhar sincerely acknowledges the contributions of all current and former lab members, academic collaborators, industry partners, funding agencies, and UofA’s civil and environmental engineering department in achieving this award.

May 2020 

  • Basem’s paper has been accepted for publication in the Science of the Total Environment. Congratulations, Basem!

  • Clavin received the Leonard E. Gads Teaching Assistant Award for his outstanding performance as a TA. Congratulations, Calvin!
  • A collaborative work done by Bappi, Sarmad, and Joey has been accepted for publication in the Processes journal. Congratulations, Chowdhury et al.!

April 2020 

  • Clavin has been selected for a 2020 Graduate Student Teaching Award (GSTA) for his outstanding efforts as a teaching assistant in ENV E 324 (Biological Processes) course in Fall 2019. Calvin is the first recipient of this award from our lab. Congratulations, Calvin!

March 2020 

  • Qi’s research article has been accepted for publication in Water Environment Research Journal. Congratulations, Qi!

  • Calvin received the Alberta Innovates Graduate Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship supported by the provincial government. Congratulations, Calvin!

February 2020 

  • Calvin has been selected as the recipient of the Yu-An Farms Scholarship from The Korean Canadian Scholarship Foundation (KCSF). Congratulations, Calvin!
  • Dhar Lab presented two oral presentations and three posters at the 55th Central Canadian Water Quality Conference in Toronto, ON. Dr. Dhar gave an invited talk on anaerobic digestion. Joey won second prize in the poster competition. Congratulations, Joey!

January 2020 

  • M.Sc. student Bappi Chowdhury successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations, Bappi!
  • Our recent research is featured in UofA folio.