Tan Vo

My academic path as a scientist starts in a small hometown in Vietnam. Growing up in this area, my whole life revolved around the safe use of water, so I have devoted education to trying to mitigate the problems with insufficient sanitation and poor sustainability, eventually finding my interest in environmental engineering.

In 2017, I completed my bachelor's in Water Supply and Sewage Water Environment at Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After that, I move to Taiwan for my master's program in Green Energy Science and Technology at Fengchia University. For my thesis, I developed a two-compartment reactor to produce biohythane using food waste via an anaerobic digestion system.

Currently, I am working as a doctoral researcher in the Bio and Circular Economy research group at Tampere University. For my doctoral studies, I am working on Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) for nutrient recovery from sewage sludge. In this research, phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients contained in sewage sludge will be reclaimed by integrating the HTC and adsorption technique. The goal is to develop a coupled system in which the HTC will be comprehensively optimized based on catalyst design and parameter control to remove nutrients, then it will be recovered by designed adsorbents to produce slow-release fertilizer. In addition, the behaviors of microplastics and heavy metals in the thermochemical process will also be investigated to profoundly comprehend the integrations of immobilized microplastics to thermally nutrient transformations.

• Bio-waste to Energy
• Hydrothermal process
• Anaerobic Digestion
• Wastewater Treatment

• Best poster award in Bio4Fuels conference in Helsinki
• Second-placed of APEC YES Challenge 2018 in Smart Power Management for Self-Sustained Green Community in APEC Region in Thailand  
• Third-placed of APEC YES Challenge 2017 in Simple Human Resources to Symbiotic Green Makers in Taiwan  

Pollutant mitigation and nutrient recovery from sewage sludge by integrated hydrothermal carbonization processes

Energy and Environment

• Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., Effect of thermochemical treatment of sewage sludge on its phosphorus leaching efficiency: Insights into leaching behavior and mechanism. Waste Management, 2024. 190: p. 24-34
• Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., The role of ubiquitous metal ions in degradation of microplastics in hot-compressed water. Water Research, 2023. 245: p 120672.
• Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., Effects of hydraulic retention time on biohythane production via single-stage anaerobic fermentation in a two-compartment bioreactor. Bioresource Technol, 2019. 127: p 121869.
• Lay, Chyi-How., Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., Anaerobic hydrogen and methane production from low-strength beverage wastewater. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019. 44(28): p. 14351-14361.
• Chu, Chen-Yeon., Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., A Novel of Biohythane Gaseous Fuel Production from Pineapple Peel Waste Juice in Two-stage of Continuously Stirred Anaerobic Bioreactors. Fuel, 2020. 279: p. 118526. 
• Thi Nguyen, Mai-Linh Thi., Vo, Tan-Phat., et al., Effect of food to microorganisms (F/M) ratio on biohythane production via single-stage dark fermentation. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2020. 46(20): p. 11313-11324