The utilization of coal generates tons of solid waste, including fly ash and coal gangue, which occupies a huge amount of land and causes serious environmental problems, such as water and air pollution. In addition, the resource materials that remain in the solid waste, including Al, Si and Li, cannot be well utilized, which wastes resources. Our research focuses on the utilization of coal-based solid waste and a series of technologies that have been developed to undertake that work.
We have explored the mechanisms of the phase transfer of aluminosilicate in coal-based solid waste and the pollutants’ transformation behaviours in coking waste materials. Understanding these mechanisms promotes the utilization of solid waste and the control of solid pollution, as well as the development of new technologies to enhance pollution control.
Biographical Sketch
Professor Zhiping Du works at the Institute of Resources and Environmental Engineering at Shanxi University in China.
Prof. Du obtained her PhD degree from Leeds University. Her research interests are physical and colloidal interface, especially focused on the development of functional materials for resource recycling and pollution control. She has more than 30 years of experience in research and industry production development.
Before joining Shanxi University, she was the director of the key surfactant laboratory at the Shanxi, China Research Institute of Daily Chemical Industry. In 2011, she joined Shanxi University as high talent. Her current research areas are colloidal and interfacial phenomena in resource recycling and environmental pollution control, and the synthesis of functional nanomaterials in environmental pollution treatment and control. She was awarded a Shanxi innovation prize in first class, and she enjoys the State Council Special Allowance from Ministry of China in recognition of her special contributions in surfactants.
She has conducted more than 20 projects. She has 6 patents and has published approximately 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Langmuir, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, Colloids and Surfaces, ACS Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, and Tenside Surfactants and Detergents.