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.

As there is lack of understanding the roles of sampling methods on measuring for volatile gas sampling from biosolids, it might cause various concern about what are we really measuring. This project aims to understand the influence of sampling methods on emission produced in Wastewater Treatment Plant, especially from biosolids. This research will inform a best practice for sampling devices, regarding the research purpose, sample types, analytes will be proposed. By addressing the potential limitations and influences of different sampling methods on emission measurement, better practice for pollutant management and resource recovery of biosolids can be achieved.

Thesis underway. 

The Australian water industry is currently focused on two VOCs, namely geosmin and MIB, which release an earthy-musty smell. Microorganisms that live in source water or within water distribution pipes are known to produce other unpleasant VOCs. This project intends to detect and quantify taste and odour (T&O) chemicals beyond geosmin and MIB in source water through chemical and sensory analysis. Project aims to identify and/or semi-quantify these unknown VOCs in source water and develop T&O wheel specific to NSW source water. The project also anticipates developing a risk indicator database for different T&O chemicals.

Thesis underway.

This project established unifying framework for the calculation of robustness metrics, which assists with understanding how robustness metrics work, when they should be used, and why they sometimes disagree. The framework categorizes the suitability of metrics to a decision-maker based on the decision-context, the decision-makers’s preferred level of risk aversion, and the decision-maker’s preference towards maximising performance or minimising variance. This conceptual framework describes when different robustness metrics are likely to agree and disagree.

PhD Thesis completed by Cameron McPhail in August 2020.

This project investigated Metabolomics-based applications (LC-MS and GC-MS) to advance cyanobacterial toxin detection and analysis in water to:
• Understand the biochemical triggers for cyanobacterial blooms.
• Identification of any new potential toxins produced from blooms.
• Assess the application of metabolomics  for the rapid detection of cyanobacterial toxins and identification of unknown toxins.
• Asses the cost effectiveness and time efficient technique.
• Characterise the biomolecules present in bloom as toxins are produced.

Thesis underway.

This project developed analytical methods to study the speciation of inorganic and organic chloramines.

PhD Thesis completed by Zuo Tong How in June 2016.

This study successfully developed a variety of specific qPCR assays for the characterisation of host faecal contamination.
The results supported the coupled use of mitochondrial markers with Bacteroides markers for microbial risk assessment for improved efficiency and accuracy.

Honours Thesis completed by Sarah Aucote in November 2017.