This project will develop a Novel Phycoremediation technology “phycosol” for winery process effluent with simultaneously generation of biomass for biofuels and other beneficial products enhancing the circular economy.

PhD Thesis underway by Praveen Kuppan.

Biosolids generated during the wastewater treatment processes has become a major burden of wastewater treatment plants and an unresolved problem for major cities around the world. It is thus imperative to identify a sustainable way for the proper management of biosolids. The overarching aim of this research is to establish a robust assessment framework to estimate the environmental sustainability implications of different pathways for biosolids processing and resource recovery in an Australian context and provide information to decision makers and practitioners of the water industry on the performance of different treatment scenarios.

PhD Thesis underway by Jingwen Luo.

The project aims to investigate the impacts of biosolids biochar immobilized bacteria on soil microbial activity and diversity during arsenic phytoremediation.

Thesis underway.

Petroleum hydrocarbon is one of the most common soil contaminants in many countries. Considering the magnitude and impact of this problem, remediating contaminated soils are inevitable. Several methods have been used to remediate hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, however, some of the methods are not cost effective or environment friendly. Biochar, a low cost carbonaceous product, has gained relevance for remediation of contaminated soil.

In my research, I am using biosolids as a source of biochar production. The use of biosolids in production of biochar and its subsequent application in remediation provides an opportunity to re-purpose waste from the water industry for valuable use.

Thesis underway.

The sustainable application of biosolids to agricultural land is being limited by many contaminants such as microbial pathogens, PFAS, microplastics, and heavy metals. The thermal treatment of biosolids via pyrolysis can destroy the microbial and organic contaminants; however, heavy metals remain a persistent problem with biosolids and its thermally derived products. Therefore, pyrolysis alone may not satisfactorily deal with the limiting problem of heavy metals in biosolids and biochar. This work is developing an integrated acid extraction and pyrolysis process to reduce the heavy metals load in biosolids and convert the pre-treated biosolids to useful carbon and nutrient rich biochar and valuable chemicals.

PhD Thesis underway by Ibrahim Hakeem.

Energy sector focusses to be able to meet all the requirements of sustainable national development of energy resources and efficient utilization of its diverse sources. Waste-to-energy technologies consist of various methods for extracting energy from waste materials. These methods include thermo-chemical processes such as combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis. These thermo chemical processes are highly endothermic in nature and have high energy consumption.  Fluidised bed exchangers play an important role in the “clean wastes technology” because of its high thermal efficiency, better scalability, better temperature control and high heat transfer surface area. The current project work focusses on understanding the impact of different tube configurations (size and numbers) on the fluidisation behaviour, along with heat transfer mechanisms. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling-based approach will be used to evaluate the hydrodynamics of the above system.  The results from this study, will be used to develop and establish correlations between tube size, shape, gas flow rates, and particle heat transfer mechanisms.

PhD Thesis underway by Shivani Agnihotri.

Management of sewage sludge is an issue for Industry. Hydrothermal processing can be used to hydrothermally treat different kinds of sewage sludge such as primary, activated, and digested sludge and convert them into value added products such as hydrochar, biooil, aqueous phase and gas. This process will also be trialled on alum sludge and food and organic garden waste (FOGO). PFAS (Per and polyfluoro alkyl substances), another major concern of the water industry will be trialled to see if co-hydrothermal treatment can potentially degrade this emerging compound. This research will also investigate the techno commercial viability assessment of co-hydrothermal process.

PhD Thesis underway by Kamrun Nahar.

This project has four specific objectives: (1) To identify ways to prevent or reduce the incidence of foaming during anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge; (2) to identify the core microbiome associated with efficient digestor performance during stabilisation of sewage sludge; (3) to assess how changes in the reactor environment affect contaminant transformations; (4) to assess the impacts of biosolid post-treatments on the metabolic capacity of the microbial community, pathogen-survival, contaminant-transformations and ecotoxicology of final products.

PhD Thesis underway by Timothy Micallef.

Chicken Manure represents one of the largest organic waste streams in Australia. Anaerobic Digestion is an alternative waste treatment method that carries the advantage of biomethane production. The use of chicken manure as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion can generate not only biogas, but a digestate rich in nutrients that can be used as a biofertilizer, creating a circular economy. However, the use of chicken manure as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion can be challenging due to its high nitrogen content. In this project, the addition of biochar, a cost-effective carbonaceous material made from the pyrylosis of biomass, to mitigate the ammonia stress that accompanies the anaerobic digestion of chicken manure. Ultimately, the use of biochar can improve biomethane production.

PhD Thesis underway by Tien Ngo.