AWMC Annual Report 2012 by Advanced Water Management Centre

ANNUAL REPORT 2012

CONTENTS Vice Chancellor’s Message

Executive Dean’s Message

Director’s Reflections

The AWMC Vision

Team Achievements

DISCOVERY

World Class Facilities

Research Programs

Water Quality

Environmental Biotechnology

Integrated Asset Management

The Value in Waste

LEARNING

Professional Development

Research Higher Degree (RHD) Program

Seminars

Teaching & Learning

ENGAGEMENT

UQ Alumnus of the Year

Partnerships

Commercialisation Activities

OPERATIONS

Advisory Board

AWMC Team

2012 Active Grants

2012 Publications

VICE CHANCELLOR It is my great pleasure to provide this introductory message for the Annual Report of the AWMC. I have taken on the position of Vice-Chancellor of The University of Queensland in October 2012 and have had the opportunity get to know the AWMC through discussions with the Director, Prof Jurg Keller.

“The achievements of 2012 as they are highlighted in this report are yet another proud milestone in the history of the AWMC.”

Immediately, it has become evident to me that this research centre is one of the excellent examples we have here at UQ where leading scientific research is closely coupled with valuable industry collaboration to create wide-ranging benefits to our society. I am convinced that this intensive interaction between researchers and industry partners is one of the key roles a modern, successful university has to strive for to remain relevant and successful in the long term. Ultimately, it is the application of the newly generated knowledge in the relevant fields in industry that will create a lasting and positive impact on our society. The AWMC has been following this objective since its inception in 1996 and has an impressive track record of

highly regarded research outcomes and successful translation into industry. As always, effective collaboration is only possible with two dedicated and committed groups or partners and it is testament to the Australian water industry that such a large, globally renowned research centre could be developed and sustained in Australia over so many years. I would like to thank all the participating industry partners and funding agencies for their support, and certainly also congratulate the AWMC team members for their efforts and successes over the years. The achievements of 2012 as they are highlighted in this report are yet another proud milestone in its history. I would like to encourage you all to further build on this strong foundation, as this will provide long-term benefits and returns far beyond any short-term investments. This is why robust economies and prosperous societies have typically very strong and successful universities.

Professor Peter Høj Vice Chancellor

EXECUTIVE DEAN As the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), it is my pleasure to introduce the 2012 annual report, which once again celebrates the success of a Centre with a commercially and industrially relevant research program, outstanding education opportunities and strong partnerships.

“The Centre continues to discover, engage and make a lasting and positive impact on our world.”

The AWMC has led the world in nutrient removal, innovative processes and process control of wastewater treatment plants. Global water authorities and local agro-industries are still applying the outcomes of this early research today. The AWMC continues to meet the ongoing challenges facing the water industry, leading the world in many aspects of the urban industrial water cycle. This year the AWMC has diversified its programs to include aspects of drinking water quality and industrial biotechnology, demonstrating the Centre’s ability to adapt to industry needs.

The team at the AWMC is a diverse group of engineers and scientists who are internationally recognised for excellence and innovation in water research. Through strong partnerships and visionary leadership, the Centre continues to discover, engage and make a lasting and positive impact on our world.

Professor Graham Schaffer Executive Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology

AWMC Annual Report 2012

DIRECTOR’S REFLECTIONS The past year has again been very active with many positive developments. Of particular importance is that we have now expanded our research programs to cover just about all of the urban/industrial water field with the recent significant increase of our work on drinking water treatment and distribution, largely in collaboration with Seqwater, the bulk water supply utility in Brisbane and the South East Queensland region.

“Of particular importance is that we have now expanded our research programs to cover just about all of the urban/ industrial water field with the recent significant increase of our work on drinking water treatment and distribution.”

This new area was a logical extension of our growing research capabilities and skills in the water recycling field as the industry focus has been shifting from the recycling systems to the overall water supply situation as well. This is a clear example of how we have been able to successfully translate the expertise and experience developed in one area into a different but related field. In doing so, the level of activity has even been expanded and we now have a strong research group of 15 staff and students focusing on the drinking and recycled water area. A further highlight has been the establishment of the new CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, which formally commenced in July 2012. The AWMC is the core of the activities in the “Brisbane Hub” of the CRC, with myself as Hub Coordinator and Zhiguo Yuan as the Program Leader of the “Future Technologies” program. We have also established close links with our industry partners in Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales (part of the ‘Brisbane Hub’ area), which is a key factor in achieving good interactions with practitioners in the utilities, state and local governments and private sector. The CRC with over 70 non-research members, creates a great opportunity to have some real impacts ‘on the ground’ through close collaborations with the industry partners.

With over 100 staff and students and an annual budget in the order of $9M we are providing a major contribution to the knowledge development and application in the Australian water industry. In doing so, we are also generating some valuable skills and capabilities in our staff and research students, with particularly the PhD student cohort growing considerably in recent years to 44 by the end of 2012. As is common in the university research field, we have a significant turnover among our researchers, with not just the PhD students but also our research fellows successfully creating attractive career opportunities in academia and industry, both in Australia and internationally. This has built a very strong AWMC alumni network, which we are increasingly engaging with in many different ways. As always, we are keen to build upon and further strengthen our connections and mutually beneficial collaborations with friends and colleagues in the industry and I would encourage you to keep in touch with the AWMC, you can even follow us on Twitter.

Professor Jurg Keller Director

Vision The adoption of leading edge knowledge and innovation to ensure an optimally integrated, resource efficient and quality focused Australian water industry.

Mission The AWMC provides core contributions to the industry to achieve this vision by building:

Capacity, through advanced training and career development

opportunities, a world-class research higher degree program, educational courses that meet industry needs and dissemination of research and innovation advances to the industry.

Capability, through a research program of the highest

scientific quality that is addressing industry needs, with a focus on advancing fundamental knowledge and the development and application of innovation-focused, sustainable solutions to challenging environmental problems.

Cooperation, by developing responsive, long-term relationships throughout the industry that are built on mutual respect and tangible benefits.

While reflecting on the ongoing activities and successes of the AWMC, we can clearly be very proud of our achievements and consistent performance for well over a decade as a distinct research centre within The University of Queensland.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

TEAM ACHIEVEMENTS held in June 2012, PhD students Mr Steven Kenway won ‘Best presentation” and Mr Fangzhou (Ark) Du “Best first year presentation”. The Cloevis team were featured in the USA Chemical Engineering magazine November 2012 edition for their novel technology preventing sewer corrosion and odour for water utilities and municipalities. The Cloevis team also won the Engineering, Architecture & Information Technology (EAIT) Faculty Research, Innovation and Supervision Commercialisation Award.

Prof Jurg Keller was awarded the ‘Water Professional of the Year’ and Dr Paul Jensen the ‘Young Water Professional of the Year’ at the annual Queensland branch of the Australian Water Association (AWA) awards.

Ms Julia Mueller, PhD student, won the Chemical Engineering round of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) UQ competition, with her presentation ‘Methane from CO2, the future of renewable energy is inside you’.

Dr Maria José Farré, Ms Julia Mueller and Ms Barbara Wronski and the Thermal Assistance Anaerobic Digestion Project, including our partners Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre, Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Queensland Urban Utilities and Gold Coast City Council were all finalists also at the 2012 Queensland AWA Awards.

Dr Ramon Ganigué Pagès was selected as a finalist in the 2012 UQ Trailblazer competition, an ideas competition for university staff and students, which seeks to identify and reward original and innovative ideas which have the potential to benefit the community, industry or business and generate a financial return.

Dr Guangming Jiang, Dr Huoqing Ge and Dr Thomas Seviour were all recipients of the prestigious Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence. This is only awarded to the top 10% of graduating Research Higher Degree students at UQ in any year. Dr Maria José Farré and PhD student Mr Maxime Rattier, were recognised at the 4th Urban Water Security Research Alliance Science Forum. Maria José won ‘Best paper award’ for her work titled “Case Study - Occurrence of Non-Regulated Disinfection By-Products from the Capalaba Region’s Distribution System”, and Maxime won ‘Best poster award’ for his work “Mechanism of micropollutants removal by BAC filtration”.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Dr Jelena Radjenovic was promoted to a Research Fellow in recognition of her achievement as an early career academic. Bilexys Pty Ltd, an AWMC spin off company, was announced as the 2012 winner of the Imagine H2O Water Innovation Prize. Imagine H2O inspires and empowers people to solve water challenges and turn them into opportunities. The prize fosters an accelerator program to help competing entrepreneurs turn their plans into gamechanging, real-world solutions. Dr Bogdan Donose was the winner of the international Atomic Force Microscopy NT-MDT ProIMAGE Contest 2012 for his atomic force microscopy butterfly wing image. At the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology Engineering Postgraduate Conference,

Dr Sandra Hall was elected to the Queensland branch of the Australian Water Association Queensland (AWA). Dr Korneel Rabaey and Prof Bruce Logan (The Pennsylvania State University, USA) published ‘Conversion of Wastes into Bioelectricity and Chemicals by Using Microbial Electrochemical Technologies’ in Science Vol. 337, no. 6095 pp.686-690). Ms Lauren Bragg, PhD student, and Dr Jelena Radjenovic were Queensland finalists in the 2012 Fresh Science competition. Lauren for “Smart software solving the case of the missing bacteria” and Jelena for “Clean water, chemical free with electrochemistry”. PhD student Robert Hoelzle was selected for a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship from the American Australian Association. This grant will support part of the costs of one year of research or study whilst in Australia.

Funding Achievements (Grants awarded in 2012) Australian Research Council • Micro-managed biofilm - next generation environmental biotechnologies – Discovery Project, Dr Bing-Jie Ni • Novel biotreatment for micropollutant removal from contaminated water – Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Dr Bing-Jie Ni

• Enhancement of light-driven electricity generation by cyanobacteria: en route to biosolar panels – Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Dr Stefano Freguia • A novel autotrophic biological nitrogen removal process driven by ammoniaoxidising archaea and anammox bacteria – Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Dr Jianhua Guo • In-situ electrochemical generation of caustic and oxygen from sewage for emission control in sewers – Linkage Project, Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Prof Jurg Keller and Prof Korneel Rabaey (Ghent University, Belgium)

Pork Cooperative Research Centre • Bioenergy Support Program for High Integrity Australian Pork – Dr Stephan Tait and A/Prof Damien Batstone • Assessing stimulation and inhibition of anaerobic lagoons - A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Paul Jensen and Dr Stephan Tait • Impact of pig gut microbiology on pig nutrition and health - A/Prof Damien Batstone, Prof Phil Hugenholtz (ACE, UQ) and Dr Alan Skerman (DEEDI, Queensland Government)

Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence • Affordable and sustainable water recycling through optimal technology integration – Prof Jurg Keller, A/Prof Damien Batstone, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Wolfgang Gernjak • Green chemicals for effective biofouling removal and preservation of RO membranes – Dr Marc Pidou, Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Dr Bogdan Donose and Dr Wolfgang Gernjak (Jointly funded with National Centre of Excellence in Seawater Desalination)

International Funding

Seqwater Strategic Research Partnership • Quantifying natural greenhouse gas sources and sinks 2012-2013 – Dr Alistair Grinham and Prof Zhiguo Yuan • Dissolved organic matter removal and control of disinfection byproduct formation during water treatment and disinfection – Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, Dr Maria José Farré, Prof Jurg Keller, Dr Julien Reungoat, Prof Beate Escher (EnTox, UQ), and Dr Peta Neale (EnTox, UQ) • Quantifying natural riverbank and engineered biofiltration – Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, Dr Julien Reungoat and Prof Jurg Keller

Australian Meat Processor Corporation and Meat & Livestock Australia Further funding has been awarded for a number of on-going research areas as well as some new areas which include: • Energy and nutrient analysis on individual waste streams (continuation) – A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Paul Jensen • High rate aerobic treatment combined with anaerobic digestion and annamox (continuation) – Prof Jurg Keller and A/Prof Damien Batstone • Integrated agro-industrial wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery (continuation) - A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Paul Jensen and Dr Marc Pidou • Nutrient recovery from paunch and DAF sludge digestate (struvite) (new) – A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Paul Jensen and Dr Chirag Mehta • Anaerobic digestion of paunch and DAF sludge (new) - A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Paul Jensen

UQ Internal Funding Schemes • A fundamental understanding of archaeal ammonia oxidation: Kinetics, physiology and application to biological nitrogen removal from wastewater – UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr Jianhua Guo • Turning emissions into fuels - Flue gas conversion to bioethanol by electrochemically boosted fermentation – UQ First Link Award, Dr Jens Krömer, Dr Victoria Flexer and Dr Bernardino Virdis • Cost-effective and sustainable wastewater management through novel treatment of wasted activated sludge using a renewable material from wastewater – UQ First Link Award, Dr Liu Ye and Prof Zhiguo Yuan

UQ/Technische Universität München Collaboration • Microbial electrosynthesis for bioproduction of chemicals - (two PhD scholarships), Dr Jens Krömer

Philanthropic Funding • Kingsford Environmental provided funding for a PhD student in SBR optimisation through hydraulic and biological modelling – PhD Scholarship Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Prof Jurg Keller

Industry Collaborative Research Projects • Quantifying fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from Bolivar WWTP – South Australian Water Corporation, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Liu Ye • Lowood to Fernvale sewer odour control study – Queensland Urban Utilities, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Keshab Sharma • Developing Anammoix biomass – Queensland Urban Utilities, Prof Jurg Keller and Dr Shihu Hu

• Conveyance asset prediction system (CAPS): Modeling and mitigation – Water Environment Research Foundation, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Keshab Sharma • Nutrient recovery in the global water industry – Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Chirag Mehta, Prof Jurg Keller, in collaboration with Hazen & Sawyer and CH2M Hill • Engineering solutions to minimize nitrogen containing DBPs – Water Research Foundation, Dr Maria José Farré, Prof Howard S Weinberg, (University of North Carolina, USA) and Dr Wolfgang Gernjak • The fate of micropollutants and disinfection by-products in integrated membrane systems followed by disinfection. The potential of indirect and direct potable reuse - Water Research Foundation, Dr Maria José Farré AWMC Annual Report 2012

DISCOVERY

recovery from wastewater including both water recycling and nutrient recovery. The Greenhouse Gas Emission and Mitigation Program established in the past few years has taken us further towards the two ends of urban water systems, namely the water storage systems and the receiving water environments – rivers, estuaries and bays.

A CENTRE WITH A FOCUS ON ADDRESSING INDUSTRY NEEDS

In fact, we have started applying some of the science and technologies initially developed for water management to other sectors, with examples including nutrient recovery from agro-industrial wastes and green-chemical production from renewable raw materials. The AWMC is one of the few research entities in Australia with its research programs covering the entire urban water cycle. Over the years, we have evolved from a centre focussing on biological wastewater treatment to covering drinking water production and distribution, sewer asset management, wastewater treatment, and resource

In this report, you will find outlines of our eight inter-linked research programs, which collectively describe the core research activities at the Centre.

innovative solutions to problems that industry is facing, and knowledge that will produce tomorrow’s solutions. In the past 16 years, we have collaborated with close to 200 industry partners in delivering research. The successful establishment of the $117m Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, with AWMC being one of the key research providers, will bring us over 70 partners, many of which are new to us. Research at the AWMC will continue to grow from strength to strength, despite the numerous challenges ahead of us. We look forward to working with all existing and new partners and continuing to deliver exciting and industry relevant research outcomes.

Professor Zhiguo Yuan Deputy Director

Research at the AWMC features close collaboration and partnership with industry. Indeed, ‘addressing the industry needs’ is a key criterion we use in designing our research. We deliver

WORLD CLASS FACILITIES

The multi-disciplinary research at the AWMC in the fields of environmental engineering, environmental biotechnology and microbiology is supported by world-class facilities established at the Centre and its closely collaborating units within the university. The Centre has several advanced, well-equipped process laboratories, which enable the rapid establishment of laboratory systems that simulate real systems ranging from sewer networks, wastewater treatment reactors, (bio) electrochemical systems to water recycling and drinking water production

AWMC Annual Report 2012

processes. These laboratories allow the researchers to develop and demonstrate novel technologies and to investigate the underpinning science, under controlled yet realistic conditions. The process laboratories are complemented by a number of pilotscale facilities and full-scale ‘testing stations’ established with collaborating industry partners. These facilities allow the in-situ demonstration and optimisation of novel processes and technologies, which greatly facilitates the dissemination of our research outcomes.

The molecular microbiology lab with PC2 level accreditation within the Centre provides strong support to the Centre’s fundamental research in environmental microbiology and microbial ecology. The AWMC collaborates very closely with the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at UQ. Through this link, the AWMC has access to several advanced sequencing, imaging and other equipment including a Roche-454 GS FLX Titanium sequencer, Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencer, BD FACSAria III cell sorter, 200-core highperformance computer cluster, and other state-of-the-art facilities for molecular biology and microbiology. This enables culture-independent investigation of microbial communities in environmental habitats. The Analytical Service Laboratory (ASL) within the Centre has a large range of advanced analytical equipment capable of accurately measuring a wide variety of important organic and inorganic water quality parameters and individual pollutants found in different water sources as well as fugitive greenhouse gases. The ASL provides professional services and indispensable support to all research programs at the Centre.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Anaerobic Technologies Program Anaerobic Technology research at the AWMC is based on anaerobic digestion, where complex organic matter is degraded by a consortium of microorganisms. Methane produced during anaerobic treatment is a source of green, renewable energy, while valuable nutrients stored in the organic matter are mobilised, allowing recovery of renewable fertilisers. With a focus on the recovery and recycling of valuable resources from waste streams, anaerobic technology embraces the modern engineering challenge of increased competitiveness through harnessing value while improving sustainability. The anaerobic technology group has developed over the last five years to over $7M in total funding. A team of over 25 academics, engineering professionals and research students are working on

projects across industries including municipal wastewater treatment, agriculture, intensive livestock, food processing, pulp and paper and brewing. Our advances in process development are enhanced by fundamental research on the microbes responsible and the interactions between them. Recent biosolids research on the microbial communities in anaerobic digesters have identified shifts in the metabolic pathways used to produce methane under thermophilic conditions. The implications are exciting and indicate that treatment times for municipal sludge could be reduced from 15-20 days to as little as 3-4 days. Other research is focusing on investigating the ways in which microbes interact when electrons must be balanced across all bioconversion processes.

Our links with industry are very strong. This is through direct industry-focused funding with key partners such as Australian Meat Processor Corporation (AMPC), Meat Livestock Australia (MLA), and the Pork CRC, as well as contract R&D projects, focusing directly on industry needs. One showcase is the AMPC/MLA funded pilot programme at Teys Australia (Beenleigh, Queesland). This is a multi-mode pilot site that includes advanced emerging technologies such as solids stabilisation, methane utilisation for heating, wastewater treatment through anaerobic membrane processes, and nutrient recovery (linking to related programmes). Our aim is to directly enable uptake of applicable technology in agro-industry, particularly to improve sustainability and economic viability of the red meat industry.

(Bio)Electrochemical Systems Program The (Bio)Electrochemical Systems (BES) program was established in 2004 with the goal of pioneering the study of microbial fuel cells for simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation. From the start the group made a remarkable impact in the field of microbe-electrode interactions, through the generation of knowledge that is being used today by ever increasing numbers of scientists. This is evidenced by over 60 peer reviewed journal publications in the field since 2006. The group has tremendously grown and diversified, now comprising 12 PhD students, seven research fellows and three academics. The areas of investigation have been shifting from energy recovery to product generation, resource recovery, and removal of recalcitrants. At the same time, a range of electrochemical approaches have been developed that do not require bio-catalysts for some novel oxidation and reduction processes.

Program Leaders A/Prof Damien Batstone is a leader of the anaerobic technology and the nutrient research programs with a team of five research fellows, 10 PhD students, and five professional staff, and $5M in ongoing funding. A/Prof Batstone is internationally recognised for his work in anaerobic systems development and modelling, and has published 70 peer reviewed articles, with a combined h-index of 20. He is current chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group for Anaerobic Digestion, and has strong industry engagement through industrial R&D and consulting as well as membership in Engineers Australia (CP Eng) and Australian Water Association (AWA). A/Prof Batstone currently holds an ARC Research Fellowship.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Dr Paul Jensen is co-leader of the anaerobic technology program in the AWMC. In a short time he has achieved national and international recognition as a leading young researcher in the globally important fields of anaerobic biotechnology and wastewater process engineering. As a chief investigator and project manager on 12 research projects at total value of over $4M, and over 40 commercial projects he has generated direct impact across the product development cycle. He has published 15 peer reviewed journal articles and has engaged directly with the international scientific community through 13 conference publications. He has developed strong industry linkages and was recently recognised by the Australian water industry as the Queensland Young Water Professional of the Year at the 2012 AWA Queensland water awards.

In terms of product generation, the latest developments are aiming to achieve CO2 reduction to produce fuels, such as methane and ethanol. Generation of valued-added products such as 1,3-propanediol from glycerol through electro-fermentation is also giving promising results. Resource recovery focuses on wastewater, biosolids and chemical sludges as potential sources of key nutrients, which may be reused to produce fertilisers for sustainable agricultural practices. Recovery approaches are mainly focused on electrochemical and physico-chemical processes.

An array of innovative approaches are also being established for the development of improved electrode materials, leading to a new generation of highly active, biocompatible, stable and low cost systems.

Removal of recalcitrants includes the treatment of reverse osmosis concentrates and the degradation of toxic compounds such as nitrobenzene. Some of these processes are approaching the next exciting stage of development into scale-up and prototyping, hence unique opportunities arise to turn waste into a resource.

Overall, the BES research group at the AWMC is one of the largest and most diverse groups in this field worldwide. The ongoing investigations continuously discover exciting new ways of utilising electrochemistry in biological and environmental applications.

To investigate key fundamental processes such as the electron conduction in biofilms, a novel toolbox is being developed, comprising of advanced techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and cyclic voltammetry, which can be applied in-situ to shed light on the behaviour, activity and composition of electroactive biofilms.

Program Leaders Prof Keller has an outstanding track record both as an academic leader and a highly successful research manager. He has published over 180 journal publications which has attracted more than 8000 citations to date (h-index 48), demonstrating the significant scientific impact he has had in his career. Within the field of bioelectrochemical systems Prof Keller has more than 25 journal publications, several book chapters and several patent applications to date. His strength has been to assemble a strong research team and guide them to become well established research leaders. This program is arguably one of the pioneering teams in world, at the cutting edge of the field.

Dr Stefano Freguia obtained a PhD from The University of Queensland in 2008. His work on microbial fuel cells pioneered this topic in the southern hemisphere and is now boasting more than 1,400 citations. His post-doctoral studies at Kyoto University (2008-2010) added electrochemistry to his set of scientific skills, which already comprised bioreactor design and methods to monitor microbial activity. His expertise is at the crossroads between process engineering, electrochemistry and microbial physiology. His current projects range from electrochemical approaches for phosphorus recovery from wastewater, to the use of electrochemical methods for the characterisation of electrode-microbe interactions.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Drinking & Recycled Water Program

Centre for Microbial Electrosynthesis (CEMES) CEMES is a significant strategic initiative of The University of Queensland, and builds on the strong expertise and track record that the AWMC has built up over the last few years in the areas of bioelectrochemical processes and environmental biotechnology. It aims to expand the focus and application of these technologies towards the production of value-added products through microbially catalysed electrochemical processes. A key feature of these novel and highly interesting processes is the ability for bacteria to transfer electrons directly to, or from, an electrode. Thus enabling or enhancing organic conversion processes that would otherwise be very slow or even infeasible. In this way, for example, common oxidation processes can be reversed through the provision of electric power to generate more reduced

products that have typically a higher value, such as alcohols or longer chain organic acids.

“The CEMES activities expand the expertise and application areas from environmental to industrial biotechnology.” CEMES researchers use a systems biotechnology approach in order to characterise, understand and manipulate pure cultures that are capable of

utilising external electrons and are also capable of producing useful products. A second research stream is focused on prospecting for new organisms that are particularly capable to interact with electrodes and potentially develop niche applications where they can perform potentially valuable reactions with the provision of electrons from an electrode. This work closely links with the existing bio-electrochemical research activities in the AWMC. The CEMES activities therefore expand the expertise and application areas from environmental to industrial biotechnology, both of which are unique research strengths of The University of Queensland, being classed as ‘well above world standard’ according to the latest ERA 2012 results.

Program Leader Dr Jens O Krömer received his PhD in systems biotechnology from the Saarland University, Germany in 2006. He was honoured with the DrEduard-Martin-Preis, an award for the best PhD thesis in the faculty. Since arriving at UQ in October 2006, he has focused on developing systems biological tools for targeted optimisation of microbial metabolism and design of novel organisms using metabolic

AWMC Annual Report 2012

modelling. He has published 26 journal articles (h-Index 11), three patents and a book chapter. Dr Krömer joined the AWMC in January 2012 as Director of the Centre for Microbial Electrosynthesis (CEMES).

As indicated by the title, the focus of our research program has expanded considerably to now cover both drinking and recycled water activities. Many of the skills and capabilities we have developed over recent years are applicable in both fields. Therefore, we have successfully applied our growing expertise in clean water production, micropollutant management and minimisation of disinfection by-product formation also in the drinking water supply and distribution areas. Specific projects areas we are investigating include membrane ageing and fouling, reverse osmosis concentrate management, process validation in water recycling, water quality and public health risks in stormwater harvesting/reuse and alternative treatment options for generation of high quality recycled water,

such as the combination of ozonation and biofiltration. Moreover, we are examining the occurrence and management of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products (DBPs), partitioning of micropollutants with effluent organic matter and micropollutant abatement by advanced oxidation processes. Since the start of this research area in 2008 we have generated a strong track record already with more than 40 publications in leading international journals. With 15 research staff and students and over $1M annual income, our group has now established itself as a major contributor to the AWMC activities and we continue to expand our strong industry collaborations particularly with the major water utilities in Australia.

“Quality and quantity of dissolved organic matter greatly influences the potential of a water to form DBPs, foul membranes or foster the growth of biofilms. Hence, water quality consitutes a central aspect in our research on process optimisation and innovation.”

Program Leaders Dr Wolfgang Gernjak is the program leader of the Drinking & Recycled Water program. His core skills lie in the area of chemical oxidative processes, membrane processes and other filtration processes, in particular with regards to contaminant removal and process optimization. Before his arrival in Australia, Wolfgang worked for 6 years in the ’Environmental Applications of Solar Energy’ group at the Spanish CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almería. Dr Gernjak has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and has an h-index of 21. He is currently advising seven PhD candidates at The University of Queensland, of which four will be finished in 2013.

Prof Keller has an outstanding track record both as an academic leader and a highly successful research manager. He is the Director of the AWMC, and holds a UQ Vice Chancellor Senior Research Fellowship. He is also well regarded by his peers as demonstrated by his election as an inaugural IWA Fellow and a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Jurg has over 20 years experience in water industry research. He is also heavily involved in collaborative and consulting projects with industry partners across Australia and worldwide. Drinking and recycled water treatment has been a longterm passion for Prof Keller and it was his leadership in this field that brought in partners Veolia and WaterSecure (now merged with Seqwater) to invest into establishing this world leading program at the AWMC.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Microbial Ecology Program

Greenhouse Gases Program The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) program at the AWMC was established in the past few years, and has attracted over $2M research funding to date. Currently, the team is undertaking four on-going ARC Discovery and Linkage projects, as well as several industry-funded projects. The team has over 15 academics, research staff and PhD students consisting of environmental engineers, environmental scientists and microbiologists, with industry collaborators from both Australia and overseas. Our group focuses on two major fugitive greenhouse gases, namely nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), emitted from sewers, wastewater treatment plants, waterways and water storages. We not only quantify N2O and CH4

emissions from these water systems through monitoring and modelling, but also investigate the fundamental metabolism involved in the production and consumption of these gases. The team is at the forefront of mathematical modelling of these processes. Our results show that N2O and CH4 emissions vary substantially between wastewater treatment plants and with time, within the same plant. Monitoring and modelling are essential for the accurate quantification of these emissions. The team works closely with the Sewer Research Program on CH4 emissions from sewers. We are developing the world-first dissolved CH4 sensor suitable for sewer applications, which will be

used to monitor a large number sewer networks in Australia and in the USA. Our research on anaerobic methane oxidation, in collaboration with the Microbial Ecology Program, has led to the identification of an important organism that is able to directly couple methane oxidation to nitrate reduction. This discovery has not only contributed to the establishment of a missing link between the nitrogen and carbon cycles, but also led to the development of a technology capable of simultaneous removal of nitrate, nitrite and ammonium from wastewater, with methane as an externally provided electron donor.

Program Leaders Prof Zhiguo Yuan, an inaugral IWA Fellow, is an internationally leading expert in corrosion and odour management in sewers, fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from water and wastewater systems, and biological nutrient removal. In the past 10 years, he has won over $25M competitive research funding in these areas, including 16 Australian Research Council research grants totalling over $16M. He has to date published about 400 research papers, including approximately 200 peer-reviewed journal papers. His papers have attracted nearly 4000 citations, giving him an h-index of 36 (Dec 2012). He is the scientific advisor of SeweX and Cloevis, two spin-off companies at the AWMC.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Dr Liu Ye was awarded both her Bachelor (2004) and PhD (2010) degrees in Environmental Engineering and appointed as a lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at UQ in May 2012. She started her research at the AWMC in 2008 as a visiting PhD student, where she continued her research as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2010. Her research focuses on sustainable and cost effective wastewater treatment and management. As an early-career academic, she has over 40 publications, including 23 journal papers, many international conference papers and is a co-inventor of four patents.

The Microbial Ecology Program is focused on understanding microbiological processes important to water and wastewater management. Microorganisms are the most abundant form of life and are critical for the major transformations in global nutrient cycles. They are also essential components driving processes and reactions vital in engineered water systems. Conversely, in these environments they can form problem biofilms, inhibit desired reactions, and corrode infrastructure. In order to improve the efficiency and stability of beneficial processes, and minimise the consequences of undesirable microbial activity, it is critical to have a detailed understanding of the microbiology in these habitats.

Only a small fraction of microorganisms known to exist in the environment have been characterised in the laboratory and as a result they are treated as a

“It is critical to have a detailed understanding of the microbiology in these habitats.” biochemical “black box” in engineered systems. The microbial ecology group is committed to improve the understanding of these systems and provide practical outcomes. Researchers in the group are located at the AWMC and the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, where they are

utilising the most advanced molecular and microbiological approaches and facilities in well-equipped PC2 level laboratories. The microbial ecology group has world-leading expertise in molecular approaches including application of metagenomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, which provide unprecedented insight of the ecology and functional details of these ecosystems. Application of these approaches is an essential component of almost all projects carried out at the AWMC. In recent years, we have uncovered the genetic basis for anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to nitrate reduction, and begun to understand the forces that shape phage-host evolution in engineered environments.

Program Leaders Dr Philip Bond has been a senior research fellow at the AWMC since 2006 and was awarded a Smart State Fellowship in 2009. His expertise is in molecular microbial ecology and microbial physiology. He collaborates with a number of colleagues to perform multidisciplinary research to determine microbial ecosystem function. He leads and participates in a diverse range of research projects that include investigations of aerobic granules in activated sludge, sewer corrosion, anaerobic digestion of biosolids, biofilm control, impacts of mine water discharge and bioelectrochemistry.

Dr Gene Tyson is a microbial ecologist whose research applies cutting-edge molecular approaches to understand the structure and function of microbial communities in natural and engineered environments. He joined the AWMC as a senior research fellow in 2009 and soon after was awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship. In 2011, he became the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, established within the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at UQ. Over the last four years, he has been awarded over $7M in competitive funding from agencies including the Australian Research Council, United States Department of Energy and CSIRO Flagship program. To date, he has published 35 peerreviewed papers, and his work has been cited more than 3300 times.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Nutrient & Resource Recovery Program

Sewer Research Program

Nutrient recovery is one of the fastest emerging research areas in domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, with a very strong industry and agricultural producer focus and engagement. This is now a core strength at the AWMC, with developmental work over the last 3 years leading to major outcomes in terms of technology, process systems, and research focus.

The Sewer Research Program has attracted over AUD $10M dollar funding in the past ten years. The team is currently delivering four discovery and linkage projects funded by the Australian Research Council and water utilities in both Australia and the USA, and is also providing specialist consulting services to the water industry through its spin-off companies SeweX and Cloevis.

The program was initiated in late 2009 through a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) funded project “Nutrient from Wastes”, collaborating with FSA Consulting. This was unusual because rather than being funded and directed by waste producers, it was driven from the grains industry, with a primary motivation of developing a more sustainable and lower cost nutrient source for their producers.

This $600,000 initial funding from GRDC has now grown to a $6M research program and recognition as a leading nutrient recovery focused group. We are strongly engaged with a wide range of partners, including farmers (who field trial our product) and industry groups such as Water Environment Research Foundation, Australian Water Association, and Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Meat Livestock Australia and the Pork CRC. The program has four key research strands. These are application in domestic streams, application in agroindustry, technology development, and product development and testing. These are diverse and well developed research programmes, with a strong focus on complete product development cycle, and fit for purpose application.

This has led to direct and current adoption of specific technologies to suitable streams such as grain processing effluent and meat processing wastewater, as well as development of longer-term development platforms for more difficult, but potentially high impact streams such as domestic wastewater.

“Nutrient recovery is one of the fastest emerging research areas in domestic and industrial wastewater treatment.”

A/Prof Batstone is internationally recognised for his work in physicochemical processes, anaerobic systems development and new technologies, and has published over 70 peer reviewed articles, with a combined h-index of 20.

These achievements resulted from a close collaboration with the water industry and a multi-disciplinary

The team has developed several highly innovative technologies for the control of odour and corrosion in sewers, including the intermittent dosing of Free Nitric Acid (commercialised by Cloevis), and the in-situ electrochemical production of sodium hydroxide and oxygen, allowing savings on the purchase, transport and storage of these expensive and hazardous chemicals.

The team has also developed on-line control strategies to dynamically control dosing of all commonly used chemicals, leading to improved performance with reduced chemical consumption. The SeweX model developed by the team over the past 10 years is being taken up by the water industry for predicting corrosion or odour “hot spots”, and mitigation optimisation. The SCORe-CT protocol established at the AWMC consists of the use of wellestablished laboratory sewer systems and corrosion chambers, and a range of advanced monitoring techniques. This protocol is being accepted as a standard for testing the effectiveness of chemical additives and corrosion resistant materials. The water utilities are now recommending new products to be tested in these laboratory systems prior to field trials.

Program Leaders

Program Leader A/Prof Damien Batstone. He has developed and leads the Nutrient Recovery program at the AWMC, which is an emerging research area focusing on industrial and strategic needs.

The team has developed a worldleading understanding of the biological, chemical and physical processes that occur in sewers. This has resulted in new tools and technologies, underpinned by fundamental science, allowing the water industry to adopt a pro-active approach to corrosion and odour problems in sewers.

approach involving laboratory studies, mathematical modelling and field investigations. The AWMC laboratory sewer systems operating under controlled, yet realistic, environments have yielded detailed knowledge of in-sewer processes and the microbial communities responsible for sulfide production and sulfide-induced corrosion processes, with the results verified through extensive field investigations.

He is the current chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group for Anaerobic Digestion, and has strong industry engagement through industrial R&D and consulting as well as membership in Engineers Australia (CP Eng) and Australian Water Association (AWA). Dr Batstone currently holds an ARC Research Fellowship.

Prof Zhiguo Yuan, an inaugral IWA Fellow, is an internationally leading expert in corrosion and odour management in sewers, fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from water and wastewater systems, and biological nutrient removal. In the past 10 years, he has won over $25m competitive research funding in these areas including 16 Australian Research Council research grants totalling over $16m. He has to date published approximately 400 research papers, including about 200 peer-reviewed journal papers. His papers have attracted nearly 4000 citations, giving him an h-index of 36 (Dec 2012). He is the scientific advisor of SeweX and Cloevis, two spin-off companies at the AWMC.

Dr Keshab Sharma started his research at the AWMC in 2004 as a postdoctoral research fellow, and has been actively involved in a number of research projects since. His expertise is in process modeling and simulation, specifically in the context of wastewater collection and treatment systems. He has been participating in a number of research projects including modeling of sewer systems, development of a knowledge system for sewer management, and understanding of GHG emissions from wastewater collection systems. Dr Sharma’s contribution to sewer research at AWMC, especially towards the development of SeweX model, has been recognised through a number of national and international awards to the research group. He is also working as the scientific officer for SeweX, a spin off company at AWMC, and is providing consulting services to water industry. He has got over 55 scientific publications including 27 journal paper and several international conference papers, majority of the published work being in the area of sewer research.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

WATER QUALITY

wastewater. However, our research showed that the contribution of hospitals towards the total load of pharmaceuticals in the influent of secondary treatment plants is minor for most pharmaceuticals. We also developed a desktop-based approach to estimate contributions for individual compounds to avoid the need for extensive sampling, which is often very difficult at hospital sites. Micropollutant and DBP monitoring and management across advanced water treatment plants have been a central point of our research. We have helped to inform water utilities about the ability of alternative treatment processes (e.g. ozonation and biological activated carbon filters) to remove regulated and emerging contaminants. Within advanced water treatment plants employing reverse osmosis, we have linked process parameters such as mode of chloramine generation, contact times and temperature to the formation of DBPs such as NDMA and have developed strategies to limit their presence.

Water quality describes the condition of the water, including chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. It is now widely recognised that water should be “fit-for-purpose” and be treated to meet the specific requirements for a particular end-use. These applications, which each have their own water quality needs, include irrigation, industrial use, residential potable and non-potable or even the recharging of natural water bodies. The sources used to produce fitfor-purpose water vary from groundwater, dam water, wastewater and stormwater, each requiring specific treatments. As a result, improving water quality beyond the actual requirements often comes at the cost of implementing complex technology, which unfortunately is not always in agreement with the aims of minimising environmental impact and maximising cost effective operations. There are no universally recognised and accepted international standards for drinking water. However, in Australia, drinking water guidelines have been developed to limit pathogenic, aesthetic, organic, inorganic and radiological contamination. Water treatment plants ensure that the levels of these contaminants are below guidelines in the water that is supplied to the public. One of the main steps in ensuring the production and supply of safe drinking water is disinfection. However, most of the water in South East Queensland is supplied from

AWMC Annual Report 2012

dams where natural organic matter is present at relatively high concentrations, and disinfectants such as chlorine or chloramines react with this natural organic matter to generate disinfection by-products (DBPs). Control of DBPs is currently receiving a renewed focus with several new DBPs, such as N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), included in the recent Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. In that context, we are

“We are currently investigating the occurrence, fate and removal of regulated and non-regulated DBPs.” currently investigating the occurrence, fate and removal of regulated and nonregulated DBPs through projects funded by both industry and competitive grants, with the common aim of improving current treatment trains to reduce by-product formation. For example, it is well known that coagulation does not effectively remove precursors for nitrogen-containing DBPs that appear to be more toxic than carbon-based DBPs. Therefore, we are studying additional processes that could minimise nitrogen-

containing DBP formation (i.e. oxidation and biological activated carbon) in the laboratory and at full-scale. Recent developments targeting both drought and flood mitigation have seen Australia increasingly invest in water infrastructure to ensure water supply security by adding alternative water sources to the supply portfolio. Whereas water quantity was the initial focus of many of these investments, the interconnection of recycled water and potable water or the connection of different potable water sources such as those implemented in the South East Queensland Water Grid, has brought up many new challenges to water quality for safe distribution and mixing, in which the AWMC has been strongly involved. Research questions that we investigated in 2012 were how to avoid loss of residual disinfectant in the distribution network, the effects of blending different drinking water qualities and the impact of transforming disinfectants in a distribution grid. For the safe production of purified recycled water, the research undertaken at the AWMC since 2008 has contributed towards an improved understanding of the fate of chemical contaminants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, DBPs) through the urban water cycle and advanced water treatment. Hospitals were evaluated as potential sources of pharmaceuticals being discharged to municipal

We have identified low-molecular weight compounds that are related to irreversible membrane fouling and investigated the role of other organic compounds on reversible fouling of ultrafiltration membranes. To ensure reliable high quality recycled water for applications such as indirect potable reuse, we are actively developing new on-line methods to monitor the real-time performance of membranes.

We are testing a selection of virus surrogates and their rejection mechanisms through compromised and intact membranes and studied alterations of membrane chemistry that may occur through the use of chemical oxidants. Stormwater is another emerging source for the production of fit-for-purpose water. Stormwater contains a wide range of pollutants that result from wildlife, soil composition, traffic and other human activities, as well as the characteristics of the contributing rainfall. The AWMC, together with a number of partners within the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, investigates the health risks associated to stormwater harvesting, providing

Breakthrough in electrochemical bubble production on nanoelectrodes A team of researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ) and the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany are entering unchartered territory in their study to improve knowledge of bubbles stability and their interactions with matter.

experimental evidence for the impacts of climate and catchment characteristics upon the quality of urban stormwater. The research undertaken within the Drinking & Recycled Water Research Program at the AWMC is creating knowledge and solutions related to water quality management, the impact of water quality on a broad variety of treatment processes and the production of fit-for-purpose water. This research is particularly important in a region where extreme weather events are common, requiring the integration of a variety of water sources into a complex system to meet water quality and quantity requirements for a plethora of end-uses.

and surface science. The German member of the team, Dr Falk Harnisch is a reputed bio-electrochemist, who recently has become a group leader in Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig. “Developing electroflotation strategies based on electrochemically generated microbubbles would help optimise wastewater treatment, will help getting rid of oil spills and will improve the recovery of useful minerals” Dr Donose said. To read the team’s research paper ‘Electrochemically produced hydrogen bubble probes for gas evolution kinetics and force spectroscopy’ please visit http:// www.awmc.uq.edu.au/breakthrough-in-electrochemicalbubble-production-on-nanoelectrodes

The team have unveiled a method to produce colloid-size bubbles at the tip of a needle probe usually employed in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) which are crucial to applications such as wastewater treatment and coal flotation, medical imaging and diagnostics. Dr Bogdan Donose from the AWMC along with Dr Elena Taran from the Australian National Fabrication Facility Queensland Node (ANFF-Q) and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) has spent the past decade working on AFM and applications of colloid

AWMC Annual Report 2012

ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

nitrification/denitrification concept (first published by the AWMC in 1997 and now incorporated in industry modelling software and plant designs, while still getting over 20 citations per year for these early publications) or the elucidation of the role of the polyphosphate accumulating organisms, allowing the targeted application and optimisation of these key processes in wastewater treatment technologies.

and facilitates the optimisation of its use for a range of applications that include: biofilm control in sewers, the reduction of biofouling on membranes, for reduced production of activated sludge and to improve the anaerobic degradation of biomass.

These environmental biotechnology capabilities are used widely within the AWMC, across different research groups. For example, the Anaerobic Technology group is currently applying these tools to develop a detailed understanding of the key drivers and characteristics of fermentation processes and electron coupling. This research is being applied to high-rate methanogenic digestion systems that will reduce reactor volumes by 60-80%. Similarly, we are using this expert knowledge for the control of biological growth and for the disruption of biofilms through the highly powerful biocidal effects of Free Nitrous Acid (FNA). Application of these tools provides understanding of the power and mechanism of the toxic effects of FNA

In a recent development, the bioelectrochemical efforts of the AWMC have been incorporated into a new strategic initiative, the Centre for Microbial Electrosynthesis (CEMES). This centre is dedicated to ‘Enable the development of technologies that allow electricity driven organic bio-conversions scalable for practical applications’ and combines the AWMC’s expertise in environmental biotechnology and bio-electrochemistry with systems biology and metabolic engineering approaches. CEMES researchers use a systems biotechnology approach in order to characterise, understand and manipulate pure cultures that are capable of utilising external electrons

Centre for Microbial Electrosynthesis (CEMES)

New technologies New technologies are emerging at a great pace and these have revolutionised the field of environmental biotechnology over the last decade. Some examples include the latest developments in ecogenomics or systems biology. The partnership between the AWMC and the recently established Australian Centre for Ecogenomics (ACE) at UQ, a world-leading research centre in this rapidly evolving field, is a strong example of leading interactions between engineering and science.

Environmental Biotechnology can be defined as the application of biotechnological knowledge and tools to the natural and built environment with the aim to understand and engineer biological processes. Making effective achievements in environmental biotechnology requires the interfacing of science and engineering in order to develop and use the necessary skills and toolboxes. The AWMC has been a pioneer in this area for many years and is still the leading group nationally in this field. This was reflected by the AWMC’s strong contribution in the research field of Environmental Biotechnology in UQ’s submission to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative of the Australian Research Council (ARC). This submission achieved the highest possible score of 5 (both in the initial round in 2010 and again in 2012)

AWMC Annual Report 2012

with UQ the only university to submit their research outcomes in this field of research.

“The AWMC has been a pioneer in this area for many years and is still the leading group nationally in this field.” New scientific technologies (see box) are highly relevant and beneficial in the environmental biotechnology area since all natural and most engineered processes are controlled by complex, mixed communities. Our collaborations with ACE are very active for developing the latest tools and knowledge in this rapidly growing field. The application

of these tools is therefore highly beneficial not only for the understanding of fundamental processes, such as extracellular electron transfer in a biofilm, but also to the development of superior microbial strains for the production of value added compounds in a biorefinery setting. Another key capability of AWMC is the use of traditional mass balancing in conjunction with electron and charge balancing in order to quantitatively characterise bioprocesses. These balances help to identify the most important contributors to the overall process phenotype. This has been very effectively used in recent projects such as the bioelectrochemical NO3 removal, sulfide oxidation or conversion of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol. The same approach has been used successfully by AWMC researchers in the past, such as the development of the simultaneous

Ecogenomic tools, such as high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics capabilities are revolutionising the understanding of microbial ecology in engineered systems. This enables thorough characterisation of biological samples for identification and quantification of microorganisms down to 0.3% of the population. These capabilities have been extremely useful in studies of novel processes, for example determining the key microorganisms of the Denitrification and Anaerobic Methane Oxidation (DAMO) process, a novel link between carbon and nitrogen cycles in both natural and engineered environments. These advanced sequence capabilities are now routine tools for characterising changes in populations due to

and are also capable of producing useful products. In a second research stream, CEMES is prospecting for new organisms that are optimised to interact with electrodes. Finally, the development of scalable reactor technology is an important aim, once efficient bio-catalysts have been developed. CEMES broadens the research scope of environmental biotechnology at the AWMC into the industrial biotechnology space, that is expected to play a key role in producing fuels and chemical feedstocks for the 21st century, with the biofeedstock market alone tipped to reach 17% of the global chemical business by 2025, a share equivalent to $US 425 billion (based on 2009 market size). As a first stepping-stone on the path to this new bio-economy, in 2012, CEMES became a project partner of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and the DOW chemical company exploring the production of propylene precursors in bacteria using electricity as a source of redox power.

environmental or operational changes, e.g. where novel biofilm communities are associated with corrosion of sewer systems. They also facilitate the study of advanced biological nutrient removal processes, e.g. for the optimisation of aerobic granular activated sludge, and help to develop novel anaerobic digestion processes. Systems Biology tools enable our modern approach to understanding cellular processes and modify metabolism for industrial applications via metabolic engineering. These so called ‘omics tools range from sequencing of an organisms’ genome (genomics) , the measurement of gene transcription (transcriptomics) and protein abundance (proteomics) to the product and substrate concentrations in the metabolism (metabolomics) and the in vivo reaction rates inside cells (fluxomics). This range of tools have so far been mainly applied in pure culture systems for production of target compounds (industrial biotechnology) but the latest developments such as metatranscriptomics and metafluxomics enable the application of these approaches to more complex, mixed populations. This leads to a better understanding of the functional aspects of organisms within the complex ecosystem.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

INTEGRATED ASSET MANAGEMENT An urban water system can be divided into several sub-systems, including drinking water production plants, water distribution networks, wastewater collection systems and wastewater treatment plants. Water collected from a source flows through these sub-systems before it is discharged into the environment or even returned to the source where water recycling is in place. While it is not difficult to understand that what we do in any of these sub-systems would affect others, such interactions are often ignored.

Boundaries have been placed between them due to technical or political reasons. Existing governmental policies and institutional arrangements require the sub-systems to be operated and managed separately as these fall under the jurisdiction of different departments and organisations. Consequently, each of the sub-systems is operated towards a local â&#x20AC;&#x153;optimumâ&#x20AC;? measured with its own performance indicators and economic considerations.

The AWMC research on asset management takes an integrated approach to optimal and cost-effective management of urban water systems. We identify and develop innovative solutions to manage and positively exploit the interactions between sub-systems. This is made possible by the existence, within the centre, of expertise related to all components in an urban water system. Some of the active research topics are outlined here as examples.

Wastewater treatment plant performance is affected by chemical dosing to sewers Problems in sewer networks and wastewater treatment plants are often managed separately without considering the impact of operation of one system on the other. Dosing of chemicals to sewer networks, which is done for managing sewer odour and corrosion, changes wastewater composition, and is therefore expected to have various impacts on WWTP performance. It is already known that the dosing of oxidants such as oxygen and nitrate, done to prevent accumulation of hydrogen sulfide in sewers, results in the biological oxidation of volatile fatty acids needed for nutrient removal in wastewater treatment plants. Recent studies at the AWMC have shown that the FeS particles generated in sewers as a result of ferrous or ferric salt addition are oxidized in aeration tanks in the downstream wastewater treatment plants, releasing a portion of the ferric ions. The regenerated ferric ions subsequently precipitate with phosphate in wastewater, thus achieving a second beneficiary use of the iron salts initially added to sewers. The studies have further demonstrated that iron in the ferric-phosphate containing sludge can be regenerated as ferrous ions in anaerobic sludge digesters, and thus reducing the hydrogen sulfide content in biogas. This represents a third beneficial use of iron salts initially added to sewers. These studies once again demonstrate the potential value of integrated urban water management.

Poorly managed sewer systems reduce the capacity of the wastewater infrastructures Our field measurements have shown that inflow and infiltration into poorly managed sewers increase the flow in a sanitary sewer by many folds during rain periods. This not only increases the risks of sewer overflow, but also increases hydraulic loading to wastewater treatment plants affecting their performance. Sewer systems are normally designed to cater for the increased flow during rain events. By minimising the inflow and infiltration into sewers, the surplus capacity of the existing sewer system can be utilised to buffer the flow thereby effectively managing the hydraulic loading to the treatment plants. Due to increased sewer and treatment plant capacity, upgrading or retrofitting of the infrastructure in some cases could be deferred for some time without affecting the service performance. This would provide an opportunity for significant cost savings to water utilities.

The AWMC sewer team

Water consumption and decentralised systems have significant implications to sewer networks Water strategies in all Australian cities include initiatives to reduce water demand, and to supplement water supplies with decentralised systems that produce water with fit-for-purpose quality from locally available sources such as roof water, stormwater as well as wastewater. This offers opportunities for substantial cost savings in water treatment and distribution as the expansion/upgrading of the assets can be deferred. However, the use of decentralised systems will have a major impact on the existing wastewater services, particularly on the sewer networks that collect and transport wastewater to centralised wastewater treatment facilities.

The components of an urban water system

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Reduced water consumption and decentralised reuse of selected wastewater streams (e.g. grey water) change both the flow and composition of wastewater discharged to sewer networks. Research at the AWMC has shown that reduced

wastewater flow (causing longer sewage retention time in sewer networks) and increased organic strength of wastewater both increase the production of hydrogen sulfide and methane in sewers, posing new challenges to the management of corrosion, odour and greenhouse gas emission problems in sewer networks. In some cases, sludge produced in decentralised treatment systems will need to be disposed to existing sewer networks due to the lack of cost-effective on-site sludge treatment and disposal opportunities. This could also increase sewer sediments. To optimise the use of decentralised systems and to enable their effective integration with existing centralised wastewater systems, it is essential that the effects outlined above be understood and managed.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

THE VALUE IN WASTE Domestic Animals

Intensive agriculture relies on the use of commercial fertilisers. The amounts are staggering! Current world fertiliser consumption is 139 million tonnes of Nitrogen (N), 18 million tonnes of Phosphorous (P), and 30 million tonnes of Potassium (K). These commodities are coming under substantial price and availability pressures. Nitrogen is manufactured from air in the HaberBosch process using natural gas, with 60% of the cost of nitrogen fertilisers due to gas costs. In fact, 1-2% of the world energy budget is spent on nitrogen fertiliser manufacturing, dwarfing energy requirements of wastewater treatment! Gas has doubled in price in the last 10 years, and expected to double again in the next decade, which has driven price increases of nitrogen fertilisers from $150/tonne N to $600/tonne over the last 10 years. Phosphorous cannot be manufactured, and is instead mined, with limited reserves remaining. Peak phosphorous i.e. demand outstripping

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Human Consumption

supply, is expected in the next 50 years, and as early as 2035. Pricing has fluctuated strongly, hitting a high of $4000/tonne P in 2009, which caused substantial financial disturbance to the agricultural sector. Potassium is not yet a strong focus, but has already seen similar fluctuations in price and availability. At the same time, we spend substantial resources dealing with these nutrients on the other end of the food chain, as wastewater. Current treatment methods require substantial amounts of energy, of which half is to run blowers for aeration. This is a limit imposed by our current nitrogen removal technologies, which require energy for the destruction of nitrogen. Valuable Nitrogen is effectively destroyed (converted to nitrogen gas) by nitrification and denitrification, and chemical energy is required in the denitrification process. Phosphorous is partly captured in the waste sludge stream, and is ideally reused

in agriculture, but is often not plant available, particularly where chemical phosphate precipitation is used to meet tight effluent limits. There have been substantial electrical price increases in Australia (up to 100%), which in particular have increased costs for large loads such as wastewater treatment. There is also a high degree of uncertainty in future pricing (to 2035) due to changes in energy generation methods. As an example, 20-30% increases in electricity pricing are expected in the next five years across Australia. It seems illogical that we invest such resources in acquiring or manufacturing fertilisers, and additional energy in removing them from waste streams. The amount of nutrients available in wastewater are substantial. Even from just domestic sewage, 20% of the world phosphorous use can be recovered. Once animal and food processing

wastes are included, the current phosphorous demand could be largely serviced. From these sources, where we export half of our food produced, and hence use more fertiliser than other countries, 25% of the national phosphorous needs can be serviced from the organic wastes in Australia. We also estimate that in Australia, 20% of the nitrogen demand can be met from N recovery processes (globally, approximately 50%). These drivers form the motivation for the nutrient recovery programme at the AWMC. We are working toward a future where wastewater treatment plants act

as resource recovery plants, producing a manufactured fertiliser product, at the same time generating energy and water for recycling. This requires a broadranging redesign of the wastewater technology basis, but is realisable in the medium term. We conduct research at every stage of the renewable fertiliser manufacturing chain, including recovery technology development, product manufacturing, and agronomic trialling of manufactured product on grain crops.

treatment plant operators (Queensland Urban Utilities), Agroindustry Meat and Livestock Australia, (MLA), Australian Meat Processors Corporation (AMPC), Pork CRC, and very importantly, the end-users of the fertiliser product Grains Research and Development Corporation, (GRDC) who are keen to access a renewable source for fertilisers.

We receive funding from most key players in this chain, including domestic

Nutrient recovery pilot programme

Advanced technology for nitrogen and potassium recovery

A large part of our technology development programme within nutrient recovery is pilot scale demonstration across a variety of agro-industrial and urban opportunities in Australia. We have demonstrated that phosphorus recovery via struvite crystallization is an economical way to recover phosphorus from wastewater.

There is suitable technology for phosphorous recovery from concentrated streams, but until now, there has not been suitable methods for nitrogen, and particularly potassium recovery. Research funded by GRDC at the AWMC is investigating the use of electrodialysis for ammonia and potassium recovery.

Following comprehensive labscale testing, AWMC researchers have piloted struvite crystallization technology to produce renewable fertiliser from wastewater. The pilot studies demonstrated more than 95% recovery of phosphorus from the wastewater as a granulated renewable fertiliser (struvite) which is now being applied in field trials. Another demonstration unit (100 L) is under construction at a meat processing facility in Beenleigh, Queensland. The installation will harvest struvite from the effluent of anaerobic digestion treating paunch wastewater. The anaerobic digester at the facility is operated by

Phototrophic organisms To fully recover nitrogen from waste streams, a new treatment technology is required. Phototrophic bacteria enable use light to fix nitrogen as cellular material, and we believe can produce discharge quality effluent. This is nascent technology, and has only recently been awarded funding by the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

AWMC researchers, funded by MLA, AMPC and GRDC. We believe renewable fertiliser will apply competition pressure on mineral resources to enable stabilisation of phosphorous pricing at around $3-$8/kgP, as well as enhanced long-term sustainability of the agriculture sector in Australia. Enabling technology transfer by application in pilotscale is an important component in rapidly deploying suitable equipment, particularly in the agro-industrial sector, where clear opportunities exist.

This utilises electrical fields and ion selective membranes to separate ammonia and potassium from the water and other contaminants, and allow its addition to the basic fertiliser matrix. While it is a new technology, it has been applied in the mining and chemical industries. Developing this technology is utilising the AWMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multidisciplinary skills in electrochemical processes, physicochemistry, and material properties to deliver a novel technology for the wastewater industry.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

LEARNING

A focus on education, in its diverse forms, has always been one of the AWMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strengths, and with an updated organisation structure, it is my pleasure to integrate and showcase our strong activities in this field. These range from our core activities of research higher degree (RHD) supervision of PhD and Master students to mentoring and career development for emerging academic researchers. As such, we focus on life-long learning, communication at all levels, and professionalism as experts in our fields.

A CENTRE WITH A DIVERSITY OF EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

This vision translates directly into quantifiable positive outcomes. In teaching, our academics and PhD students interact directly with undergraduates in core chemical engineering and science courses, as ResTeach affiliate academics (pg 29) and teaching assistants respectively. The AWMC has enjoyed fantastic success through the ResTeach program, with many of our academics leading major courses with outstanding course rankings, as well as effective recruitment of undergraduates into our RHD program. As described further in this section, we have a strong multidisciplinary approach towards RHD education, including

PhD, with advisor focus on student professional development and academic and career goals. This translates to strong graduate outcomes and high impact student presentations and publications. We also supervise students in research undergraduate programs and non-RHD research projects, including engineering inquiry, and chemistry and biotechnology honours programs. Our commitment to education and communication is across a range of other platforms. A number of academics teach into professional development courses such as IWES, and we also offer internal courses in a wide range of subjects including mathematical modelling and molecular methods for microbiology. We expect consolidation across our range of activities to allow expansion of activities, and are particularly excited about the diversity of talent and enthusiasm of particularly early career staff in education engagement.

Associate Professor Damien Batstone Deputy Director - Education

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The AWMC has an established career development track for academic researchers from PhD entry (or in some cases, undergraduate projects) through to top level research program leader, either at the AWMC, internationally, or in industry. Every program leader has enjoyed this pathway to some extent, with mentoring either from senior academics at the AWMC, or other senior academics at UQ. This starts at the research higher degree (RHD) stage, with clear communication between the candidate and advisory team as to their goals, whether it be research, or industry (operations, regulation, design, or consultancy). Our PhD graduates have been successful in all types of positions, and we engage regularly with both alumni as well as other experts in industry. A PhD or research master degree is providing an increasing competitive advantage, especially through corporate career progression.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

We generally encourage PhD graduates to move to a different university or research group after graduation, as an important career move (though exceptions always exist) and we recruit our postdoctoral fellows widely internationally. A postdoctoral career normally focuses on maximising individual work and particularly publications initially, with increasing emphasis over time on training to manage projects, supervise RHD students and learn new techniques, particularly those your supervisor or the centre excels at. Once an employee enters the UQ academic programme, they also enter the formalised UQ career track, which involves minor increments on satisfactory performance as provided though annual feedback with the supervisor. Major increases in level (normally every three - seven years) must be achieved through the formal promotions process (an external committee). The supervisor and centre

director are responsible for advising and preliminary assessment through promotions. Interaction with the supervisor and core performance (through publications, supervision etc) are key to career development, but the centre offers a number of other key advantages, particularly for academics that may wish to explore alternative avenues in their career development. Many of our junior academics are mentored into consulting by senior academics, and UQâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s internal training schemes, in a range of areas from teaching (graduate certificate in higher education) to project management, a number of which have formal degree or diploma certificates. This means it is entirely possible to transfer from research to teaching or industry, and we have a number of academics who have made this transfer, and sometimes come back again after a number of years!

AWMC Annual Report 2012

RESEARCH HIGHER DEGREE PROGRAM “World class PhD and Masters graduates are resulting from a combination of outstanding candidates, experienced multidisciplinary advisory teams and both informal and formal career development, internally at the AWMC and through the new UQ Advantage Program,” Training world-class scientists and engineers The AWMC’s Research Higher Degree Program is world recognised as producing outstanding graduates, and we have a high level of graduate satisfaction and placement in international research institutions and industry. At any stage, we have between 45 and 50 Research Higher Degree (RHD) candidates, with over 90% being PhD students. As such, though administered through the School of Chemical Engineering postgraduate programme, we represent one of the larger RHD groups within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT). Our approach to delivery of the RHD program focuses on world class advisory expertise, multidisciplinary approaches, and a focus on excellence in scientific and engineering technical and communication skills, as well as absolute commitment to personal and professional ethics. Our advisors are recognised as some of the best in the University, with Prof Jurg Keller and Prof Zhiguo Yuan both receiving UQ Graduate School Research Higher Degree Supervision Awards (UQ’s highest award for graduate supervision). All of the other senior academics have strong, established track records in RHD supervision, and the AWMC has a training and mentoring program for emerging academic

AWMC Annual Report 2012

researchers. It is very common for a microbiologist to be supervised by an engineer (and vice-versa), with often mixed discipline advisory teams. This high level of advisory experience and scientific expertise is coupled with strong knowledge of UQ’s PhD progression process, including guiding students through the PhD milestone progress, which involves yearly review, training, advisory input, and resourcing. This provides effective management of technical risks, while maximising the possibility for exciting scientific and technical discoveries. This structured approach to the PhD program has led to very strong successes, including impressive graduate placement outcomes, and university and external recognition. As an example, AWMC graduates regularly receive the Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence, (top 10% of UQ’s graduates), and receive external awards such as Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors PhD Graduate Award, and Australian Water Association Graduate Awards. The RHD program at the AWMC goes beyond technical research, and also provides training through internal courses, career development opportunities through industrial Research & Development and undergraduate

tutoring, presentation and attendance at international conferences, and the new UQ Advantage Program. Examples of internal courses include microbial identification through in-situ hybridisation, mathematical modelling, statistics and experimental design and control system engineering. We ensure that all PhD students attend at least one major conference during their PhD candidature, and most attend 2-3, generally presenting their own work to large audiences of world-class researchers. The UQ Advantage Program is in particular interesting to technical and scientific PhD students, with practical and theoretical career development activities focused on enabling students to take full advantage of the benefits achieved through completing a scientifically-technically focused PhD program. The AWMC accepts both international and domestic PhD applicants, though due to funding pools, a higher academic threshold is normally applied to international students. The minimum entry requirement to the PhD program are published by the University, but are generally Bachelor Engineering or Science (Hons). We have positions for students from most technical backgrounds, including Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Science (Microbiology, Chemistry and Biotechnology).

YING YU LAW, PHD STUDENT

“In 2009, I completed my Honours Degree in Biotechnology at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, after which I continued working as a Research Assistant for six months. My Honours project focused on (bio)electrochemical systems for wastewater treatment. I was also involved in various other projects such as anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste and anaerobic microbial dechlorination of toxic chlorinated substance during my working experience. Having worked on predominantly organic waste treatment projects, I took strong interest in environmental technologies and was determined to work in the water sector for my PhD studies. I then began scouting for a suitable PhD project.

The AWMC was repeatedly recommended to me by academics in the field and was referred to as one of the leading centres in water treatment. I was utterly excited after reading up on the broad spectrum of projects available and the PhD scholarship options on offer on the AWMC website. I contacted Prof Jurg Keller, the director of the centre and he put me in touch with Prof Zhiguo Yuan whom later became my principle advisor. I was invited to visit the centre and the university, and talk to the researchers in different areas of expertise which include microbiologists, chemists and engineers. Zhiguo was very accommodating by allowing me to choose the project which fitted my interest most. I was drawn by the friendly and welcoming environment, the beautiful sandstone campus next to the Brisbane River and also impressed with the strong industrial linkage and the funding that was available for the projects. In early 2010, I moved to the AWMC and started my PhD with the project on greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants. I submitted and defended my thesis at the end of 2012. Looking back at the three and a half years in the AWMC, I have probably not achieved any earth

shattering discovery or contribution to humankind, but it has definitely been an extremely fulfilling period of my life, both professionally and personally. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with excellent researchers and to have an exceptional advisory team, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Prof Paul Lant. I have never been deprived of any learning opportunities and guidance, and was always given the freedom to steer the direction of my PhD. Having worked on an industrial linkage project, I was also able to have a wide spectrum of experience working not just in the lab but also in the field. I have met lovely people from all around the world at the AWMC and developed great friendships. Of course there were also many frustrated and down times. However, these were often compensated with fun beer and pizza sessions with other fellow PhD students in the university café or competitive netball tournaments with the AWMC netball team. The PhD went by very quickly but it came as a package filled with hard work and frustrations but also a lot of fun, and definitely loads of satisfaction”. Yingyu Law after completion has taken a research academic position at Singapore Centre on Life Sciences and Engineering (SCELSE).

JOACHIM DESLOOVER, VISITING PHD STUDENT Where did you come from before studying at The AWMC? I grew up in Ename, a small town in Belgium, well-known for its delicious abbey beer. I moved to Ghent for my university studies and still live there to finish my PhD. What is your background? I studied bio-engineering at Ghent University with a master in environmental technology. I started my PhD in October 2009 at the Laboratory for Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET). My research is mainly about quantification, understanding and mitigation of nitrous oxide emissions from wastewater treatment plants. Why did you chose the AWMC to work/study? I always wanted to spend some time abroad during my PhD. Working in another research group gives you the opportunity to have another view on the field and to learn how things

work elsewhere. Furthermore, it is also an opportunity to meet and get to know other researchers. I think it took about 10 minutes discussion with my supervisors before we concluded that the AWMC would be the best choice. The centre is widely known for its high quality research in the field of wastewater treatment. Furthermore, they have an excellent team working on nitrous oxide emissions, which fits exactly in my research topic. Also, the chance to work with Prof Zhiguo Yuan, actually a former student of one of my supervisors Willy Verstraete, convinced me to come over. Finally, at the end it was not so difficult to choose between another rainy winter in Belgium and spending a full summer close to the most beautiful places in the world. How you have found the experience? I am about half-way now of my six month research stay and I certainly don’t regret my choice for AWMC.

Starting to work elsewhere always requires some adaptation, however, the way the AWMC welcomed me and helped me to figure all things out made it quite easy for me. I am positive that this research stay will be of added value to my professional life. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to get to know a lot of great people.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

SEMINAR PROGRAM

TEACHING AND LEARNING The AWMC is primarily a research centre, but engagement with undergraduate and coursework graduate teaching is critical for a number of reasons. These include providing junior and mid-career academic staff professional development opportunities, improving staff communication skills, and disseminating our world class expertise to emerging engineers, technologists and scientists. In particular, exposing highly capable research academics to undergraduates leads directly to domestic higher degree research candidate recruitment. Our staff are not employed as core staff members of schools such as Chemical Engineering and The School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, and our multidisciplinary capability requires us to teach into multiple schools. We are therefore highly dependent on Universitywide programmes such as ResTeach.

The purpose of the AWMC seminar program is primarily to provide an opportunity for all members of the centre to communicate with their colleagues, and the broader public. It also offers students and junior academics the opportunity to improve their presentation skills and receive valuable feedback. Each member of the centre is required to present once per year. It is an opportunity for PhD students to do their milestone presentations and gives researchers the chance to present and discuss their findings, or practise a conference presentation. Once per year, each senior staff member also presents an up-to-date overview of their research area, giving others a chance to learn what’s new and important from experienced professionals. Guest speakers from fields related to AWMC’s research and engineering fields are invited by the seminar committee or members to present their work. Seminars are organised on Friday at nine in the morning to minimise interference with lab work. Every seminar, one or two people present for up to a total of one hour. During the busier months, extra seminars are organised to give every person in the centre the opportunity to present at least once every year.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

In 2012, a total of 64 presentations were organised. This included 11 confirmation presentations and nine guest speakers. At least five of the presentations included overseas video conferencing. The seminar committee generally consists of AWMC PhD students, as well as a member of the communication team. Anyone is welcome to contact the responsible organiser or communication team to suggest a possible speaker, to present themselves, or just attend the seminar series as an external member. The regular mailing list for seminars includes approximately 15 people external to the AWMC. This list has been growing steadily and now includes the Sustainable Mining Institute at UQ, several faculty members in chemical engineering, and multiple industry professionals in Brisbane. Future outreach campaigns are being considered to increase attendance by external members of the professional community. This year, the seminars have been improved by making seminar recording and live video conferences available. Other improvements made include a new scheduling spreadsheet, making it easier for presenters to pick a date and confirm this with the organisers

while minimising miscommunication. Also, a standard operating procedure was written for the roles of the seminar committee. This procedure will smooth the transition process of future seminar organisers, who turn over responsibilities to a new PhD student after participating in the committee for around one year.

ResTeach provides funding to encourage and facilitate schools to utilise, in a limited fashion, some of the large numbers of research staff who are at UQ. A large majority of these staff have otherwise little formal contact with undergraduate or graduate coursework students. AWMC staff have been heavily involved with ResTeach since it was initiated in 2005. Their involvement has moved significantly beyond initial engagement as affiliate academics to now become course coordinators for core courses in

Chemical, Environmental and partly Civil Engineering, as well as Microbiology and Biotechnology. Key examples include the experiences of A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Stefano Freguia. A/Prof Damien Batstone has been a ResTeach affiliate in Chemical Engineering since 2007, in core courses within the School of Chemical Engineering programs, and is now recognised as one of the most innovative and successful educators in the School. Experiences including coordinating and teaching Process Modelling and Dynamics (CHEE3007), taught for five years. Damien substantially improved an already excellent subject, progressively innovating and consistently achieving high evaluations. Performance in CHEE3007 led to a faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2010 (one of two). Damien mentored a faculty lecturer to coordinate in 2011 (while co-teaching it), and now has the course 2nd year Statistics. Teaching statistics to engineers is always a challenge, and previous equivalent courses have had extremely low satisfaction. Ratings teaching in 2012 was exceptionally successful, and the subject has moved from one of the lowest ranked Chemical Engineering courses to the highest in 2012 in the category of more than 50 students. The experiences of Damien demonstrate the ability to develop an outstanding teacher track record while acting as a senior research academic.

Dr Stefano Freguia is an emerging researcher who has found his ResTeach appointment has provided him with both necessary career development opportunities, as well as the ability to communicate to non-academics and the public. Teaching ENGG1100 (first year project based engineering) has offered the opportunity to teach to large classes, teach very young adults the basics of professional skills, and communicate with an intelligent but as-yet non-technical group. At the same time, Stefano progressively took over coordination of a high-level 4th year course “Industrial Wastewater & Solid Waste Management”. Through this process he was mentored by Prof Jurg Keller, another ResTeach Alumni, and previous coordinator. Stefano’s progression in skills has been apparent personally to him, with a very high satisfaction in the programme, but is also evident in student assessments. This demonstrates the very clear benefits of ResTeach appointments to both core academic teaching skills, as well as career development in general.

As part of a sustained effort to continually increase publication quality and rates, the seminars held this year included two presentations developed to guide the academic writing process and scientific composition. This planned writing workshop is an extension to the seminars and is being trialed for possible regular use based on feedback and publication outcomes. For next year, further improvements are scheduled for the seminar series. Most importantly, the seminar planning will be made available in a separate University wide online calendar, allowing people to quickly look up the planning for the next weeks. This should also allow closer cooperation with other centres and groups in The University of Queensland and the wider scientific community. Ms Julia Mueller and Mr Tomas Storck, seminar coordinators

AWMC Annual Report 2012

ENGAGEMENT

advocacy for the strategic objectives in learning and discovery. The program aims to be inclusive of all students, staff, alumni and external partners to bring diversity and strength, and to create impact by enriching knowledge and understanding, providing relevant solutions and effecting social change.

A CENTRE WITH STRONG PARTNERSHIPS

Over the past 16 years the AWMC has developed a strong position as the global leader in innovative water treatment technologies and management. We have done this by building a diverse team of experts with strong linkages to our partners, alumni and the broader community. It is due to this engagement of our many stakeholders that we have been able to celebrate our many successes. The AWMC engagement program focuses on enhancing the Centre’s contribution to the global community and communicating effectively with our stakeholders to build support and

To support the AWMC discovery objectives the engagement program provides a number of opportunities for industry and community consultation on the strategic directions of the research programs. Through networking events, international conference management and our leadership within professional associations we are able to stay connected to the industry to keep abreast of the challenges facing our partners. Our annual research showcase continues to be the highlight of the year for our researchers and has led to the formation of a number of new partnerships and funding opportunities. The AWMC has a focus on life-long learning, communication at all levels and professionalism as experts in our fields. To support these AWMC learning objectives the engagement program aims to build a strong connection between our research higher degree program and our partners, through increased industry involvement in the program and scholarships.

In 2012, Prof Kin-Man Ho, through his company Kingsford Environmental, provided funding for a PhD student to advance the field of sequencing batch reactor technology. In support of life-long learning the AWMC has made continuing professional development courses and targeted technical workshops a priority and now have the capability to offer tailormade courses to our partners. In 2012 one of our priorities was to strengthen our commitment to the Australian industry. Through our engagement, in particular with our Sewer Research Program, we are now partnering with almost all major water utilities in Australia. This is due to the highly relevant solutions and effective management tools we are now able to offer utilities in managing their sewer assets. The AWMC will continue to be distinguished by our relationships, which are responsive, long-term and built on mutual respect. Through intentional engagement we aim to expand and recognise our reciprocal linkages and partnerships.

Dr Sandra Hall Engagement and Business Development Manager

UQ ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR: KIN-MAN HO Prof Kin-Man Ho was awarded a PhD (Chemical Engineering) from UQ in 1995 and in 2012 was named the International Alumnus of the Year in recognition of his outstanding career in water and environmental management in South-East Asia, and his generous philanthropic support of UQ. Prof Kin-Man Ho has more than 20 years of experience in the wastewater treatment industry. He is regarded as a pioneer of the environmental engineering and wastewater management sector and has been involved in the engineering, design and implementation of more than 200 wastewater treatment plants across South-East Asia. As Founder and Technical Director of the Kingsford Environmental Group of Companies, Prof Ho provides design and operation consultancy and engineering services on the management of municipal and difficult industrial wastewaters. He also holds a number of patents for the second generation sequencing batch reactor process technology and biofilmactivated sludge systems.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Prof Ho’s research at UQ during his PhD laid the foundations of the work that would become the AWMC. Since this time Prof Ho has always worked closely with the team at the AWMC, visited on many occasions and hosted AWMC staff and students in Hong Kong. In recognition of this relationship he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor with the Centre. In 2011, Prof Ho made a significant gift to the Vice-Chancellor’s Emergency Student Welfare Fund to assist the hundreds of Australian and international students who needed financial assistance because of the Brisbane floods and in 2012, he continued his philanthropic support funding a PhD scholarship within the AWMC. Prof Ho’s company, Kingsford Environmental, will help fund a scholarship for three and a half years, and will support research breakthrough in the field of wastewater management, particularly focusing on the sequencing batch reactor technology. Thanks to his contribution in creating leading-edge water and waste management technologies, Prof Ho has had a huge impact on contributing

Professor Kin-Man Ho recieving UQ International Alumnus of the year award with Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj towards a healthier and safer water environment for millions of people living in the Asia-Pacific region. He continues to be a strong advocate for the promotion and understanding of sustainable water environmental management and has given back through outstanding philanthropic support to UQ to further contribute to its goals of solving major global issues. AWMC Annual Report 2012

PARTNERSHIPS The AWMC is recognised as having a relevant and world class research program. However the value of our research is not fully delivered until someone adopts and successfully implements the outcomes. At the AWMC we have made it a priority to connect organisational and community needs with our researchers and research programs. By building dedicated collaborative partnerships we have secured a strong future of addressing the “wicked” problems and industry adoption. The current list of partners is at 120 organisations but over the years this number is closer to 200. We thank and acknowledge each of the academy, association, government, industry and research organisations, who we are very proud to call our partners. The AWMC places great value on our partnerships as it builds capacity and capability for both the Centre and the industry within Australia and globally. Our partners benefit in a number of ways, including; • Access to a diverse team of experts with the opportunity to meet any challenge

• A successful and reputable consultancy and analytical service • Commercialisation and publication opportunities from research partnerships • Tailored professional development workshops • Access to the future leaders of the water industry, with many of our alumni taking positions with our partner organisations • Leveraged funding through schemes such as the Australian Research Council Linkage grants • A global network of professionals In 2012 the AWMC continued to celebrate great successes in our research programs and personally for our team members, which would not have been possible without our partners. In recognition of the extra support that our partners offer our research programs we introduced the AWMC Industry Recognition Awards in 2011. The 2012 award recipients were; • Alan Steward – Queensland Urban Utilities Alan has helped with sewer collection sites for the Sewer research program. Alan helped the team move sampling sites from the Indooroopilly to the

Toowong pumping station, is helping to investigate high ethanol in the wastewater and identifying possible alternative sites.

The team at the AWMC have partnered with the Australian Meat Processors Corporation (AMPC), Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Pork CRC and Australian Pork Ltd (APL) to ensure they meet their environmental research, development and extension (RD&E) goals. Through these partnership the AWMC has a number of projects including; • A temperature phase anaerobic digestion (TPAD) demonstration plant at a meat processing site. This plant is now in its second phase and is providing a low cost, low impact solution to the treatment of organic solid waste. • Realising the potential in waste and by-products of the industry through the development of nutrient and resource recovery technologies. This will reduce the environmental pollutant load and effectively recover nutrients and other by-products for beneficial and value-added applications.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

to address the challenges of providing alternative water supply in Australia, in particular, the future implementation of indirect potable reuse in South East Queensland.

• Robert Dowie and The Elanora Operators – Gold Coast City Council As plant manager of the Elanora wastewater treatment plant, Bob has provided AWMC personnel with access to the Elanora site and infrastructure as well as very generous access for sample collection, often for projects where Gold Coast is not even a direct partner. Bob ensures AWMC personnel have access to support when on site and assists with locating sample points, sampling and setting up equipment. • Debra Gale – Seqwater Deb Gale is a research scientist with the Research, Science & Technology team at Seqwater. Deb’s role in supporting the ARC Linkage project on Fugitive Greenhouse Gas emissions has gone well above and beyond the call of duty. In addition to safely taking us out on the boat come rain or shine, Deb has facilitated access to the different water storages, provided sampling and monitoring equipment, chauffeured us to and from the site and did all of this with patient cheerfulness.

Highlight: Australian Meat Industry Partnerships The Australian meat industry is among the largest rural industries and a significant contributor to the Australian economy, contributing $16.2 Billion in gross domestic product (roughly 1.3%). The industry will continue to be successful with many opportunities for growth, however, with this also come challenges. Amongst the challenges facing the industry is climate change and carbon emission mitigation technologies. The ever-increasing environmental pressures of improve water and wastewater quality, emission reduction and increased community expectations.

PARTNER PROFILE: YVAN POUSSADE VEOLIA WATER AUSTRALIA

• The development of an alternative technology to the troubled anaerobic lagoons, which are currently the default treatment process in the industry. The high rate anaerobic membrane reactor technologies offer reduced greenhouse gas emissions, lower whole-of-life cost and a reduced footprint. Alternatively, a high-rate aerobic process combined with anaerobic sludge digestion and nutrient recovery / removal technology will achieve maximal treatment with effective resource recovery. • Identifying and addressing knowledge gaps around wastewater streams at red meat processing plants. This surveying project has identified the high variability and load levels within certain components of the waste stream. The goal and impact of this program is the integrated waste collection and treatment options that assist in the development of new technologies and opportunities. In addition to specific research needs identified in the partnerships, the AWMC also has the team assembled to be able to respond immediately to R&D needs identified by our partners. This ensures that the AWMC is able to maintain an incredibly relevant and high quality solution to the challenges facing the industry. Such a strong partnership has only come about due to the mutual trust and respect of the industry partner and our team. We are very confident that the partnership will grow and continue to build capability and capacity for both the AWMC and the Australian Meat Industry.

This initiative has since delivered value across many levels - for the AWMC and its stakeholders, and for Veolia Water. Some significant examples of such value delivered directly to Veolia Water include: the improved management of emerging disinfection by-products on water recycling plants; the improved operation of brine nitrification reactors; expertise acquired on the preservation and ageing of reverse osmosis membranes; and innovative ways of recovering valuable material from inorganic sludge.

Mutual benefits delivered through Veolia Water’s partnership with the AWMC In early 2008, Veolia Water and the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) initiated a research partnership

The Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRC WSC) brings together the inter-disciplinary research expertise and thought-leadership to undertake research that will revolutionise water management in Australia and overseas. This new partnership with UQ and the AWMC was officially launched in September 2012. The goal of the CRC WSC is to deliver the socio-technical urban water management solutions, education and training programs, and industry engagement required to make Australian towns and cities water sensitive. Water sensitive cities are resilient, liveable, productive and sustainable. They efficiently use the diversity of water resources available within towns and cities; enhance and protect the health of urban waterways and wetlands; and mitigate against flood risk and damage. They also create public spaces that harvest, clean and recycle water, increase

The direct interactions of the University’s researchers with Veolia’s technical and operational experts have played an important role in the success of this partnership to date. Clearly established shared objectives and common responsibilities have facilitated the

biodiversity and reduce urban heat island effects. In collaboration with 74 research, industry and government partners, the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities commenced operation in July 2012 with research hubs located at Monash University, The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia and in Singapore. The output of the CRC WSC will guide capital investments of more than $100 billion by the Australian water sector and more than $550 billion of private sector investment in urban development over the next 15 years. This partnership with the AWMC includes the management of the CRC WSCs Brisbane Hub. AWMC Director, Prof Jurg Keller, is the Hub Coordinator, with Dr Sandra Hall his Deputy and Hub coordination managed by Ms Jessica Nott. Prof Zhiguo Yuan and his management team of Dr Barry Cayford and Dr Phil Bond manage the Technology program of the

transfer of knowledge from the University’s laboratories to our industrial plants. Over the years, our partnership with the AWMC has broadened from its original scope to cover a range of additional water related issues. Our mutual commitments to the Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence or the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Water Sensitive Cities are just two examples of the opportunities brought to both parties by bringing Veolia’s operational and industrial know-how together with the AWMC’s expertise. We are certainly looking forward to continuing our win-win partnership with the AWMC in the future, and to providing solutions to tackle existing and emerging municipal and industrial water challenges.

Yvan Poussade Research & Innovation Manager Veolia Water Australia & New Zealand

CRC WSC. Through this partnership the AWMC aims to strengthen our leadership in integrated water management.

L-R: Prof Jurg Keller, Mr Barry Ball (CRC WSC Board Member), Prof Alan Lawson (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and International, UQ), Prof Tony Wong (CEO, CRC WSC) and Mr Jon Black (Director General, Department of Energy and Water Supply, Queensland Government) at the Brisbane launch of CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

AWMC Annual Report 2012

PARTNERS We wish to acknowledge and thank the following Academy, Association, Industry and Research Partners for their continued support in 2012. Aarhus University, Denmark AECOM ACTEW AnoxKaldnes Biopolymer (Sweden) Australia Pacific LNG Australian Academy of Science Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Australian Government: – Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering – Australian Institute of Marine Sciences – Australian Research Council – Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – National Water Commission Australia and New Zealand Biosolids Partnership Programme Australian National University Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Australian Meat Processor Corporation Australian Pork Limited Australian Water Association Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence Barwon Water Brisbane City Council Brown and Caldwell Carlton United Brewers Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain CH2M Hill Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities Curtin University DCM Process Control DC Water, USA Department of Agriculture and Food WA Department of Energy, USA District of Columbia Water and Sewage Authority, USA Dow Chemical Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Council FSA Consulting Gelita Pty Ltd GHD Ghent University, Belgium Gold Coast City Council Grains Research and Development Corporation Griffith University Hazen & Sawyer Healthy Waterways Pty Ltd

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Hunter Water Corporation INRA - French National Institute for Agricultural Research International WaterCentre International Water Association IRSA, Italy JBS Australia Pty Ltd J. Craig Venter Institute, USA Joint Genome Institute, USA Kellogg Brown & Root Kingsford Environmental Linkwater Magneto Special Anodes Meat and Livestock Australia Melbourne Water Corporation Monash University National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia Nippon Meat Packers Australia Pty Ltd. Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd. Origin Energy Resources Limited Paques, The Netherlands Pork Cooperative Research Centre PSD Ltd QGC Pty Ltd Queensland Government: – Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation – Department of Energy and Water Supply – Department of Environment and Resource Management – Queensland Environmental Protection Agency – Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services Queensland Institute of Medical Research Quantum Power Limited Queensland Urban Utilities SA Water Santos Pty Ltd Seqwater SEQ Water Grid Manager Sinclair Knight Merz South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, USA South East Water Limited Smart Water Fund Sydney Water Corporation T and R Pastoral Technical University Braunschweig, Germany Technical University Delft, The Netherlands Technical University Dortmund, Germany Technical University Munich, Germany Teys Bros. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Trisco Foods

Tyr Consulting United Water International Unitywater Université Laval, Canada University of Aalborg, Denmark University of Arizona, USA University of Auckland, New Zealand University of Barcelona, Spain University of East Anglia, UK University of California, Berkeley, USA University of California in Los Angeles, USA University of Melbourne University of New South Wales University of Newcastle University of North Carolina, USA University of Science and Technology of China, China University of Sydney University of Technology Sydney University of Twente, The Netherlands Urban Water Security Research Alliance USPeroxide U.S. Department of Energy United Group / Trility Utilitas Veolia Environment Research and Innovation Veolia Environmental Services Veolia Water Australia Visy Pulp and Paper Wageningen University, The Netherlands Water Corporation Water Environment Research Foundation, USA Water Quality Research Australia Water Research Foundation, USA WateReuse Research Foundation Water Services Association of Australia Wide Bay Water WSN Environmental Solutions Australia

COMMERCIALISATION ACTIVITIES Bilexys has developed a revolutionary wastewater treatment technology, which converts organics in wastewater to sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide for re-use on site. The Bilexys technology is applicable to a wide range of wastewater types, concentrations and flowrates. The chemicals produced by Bilexys reduce or replace the need to purchase and transport chemicals, providing significant environmental and economic benefit to customers, with payback times between two and three years. Target industries include pulp and paper, petrochemical, breweries and wineries, with a total market opportunity of several billion dollars. The Bilexys technology has recently been trialled at a pulp and paper plant. For more information please contact info@bilexys.com

Cloevis promises low cost and effective prevention of sewer corrosion and odour for water utilities and municipalities worldwide. The Cloevis technology is founded on a proprietary mix of chemicals, developed at the AWMC that has been shown to prevent sewer corrosion and odour at the source. By attacking the problem at the source, this novel technology is able to significantly reduce the amount of chemicals required, yielding substantial financial and environmental benefits. Cloevis has also formed a partnership with a major USA full-service provider, providing an industrial engineering capability allowing Cloevis to deliver a complete chemical dosing solution. This partner also gives an ideal platform for Cloevis’ technology to enter the large USA market. For more information please contact info@cloevis.com

SeweX provides consulting services on the management of sulfide related odour problems in sewer systems to the water industry in Australia and abroad. The SeweX model, which has been developed by the Centre’s strong and internationally leading research team on sewer systems, is highly effective in identifying sulfiderelated problems and investigating cost effective strategies for their mitigation. The services provided by SeweX covers a wide spectrum of issues related to sewer management such as identification of shortfalls in existing mitigation strategies, investigation of various options for odour control, and assessment of the impacts of network expansion on the current sewer operation. For more information please contact the SeweX Business Manager, Mr Shaun Corrie shaun@sewex.com.au or visit our website at www.sewex.com.au

AWMC Annual Report 2012

OPERATIONS AN INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

The management structure of the Centre has been broadened in 2012 with the appointment of Dr Damien Batstone as Deputy Director Education and myself as Deputy Director Operations. This is an appointment which I am very pleased to accept, as I am proud to be part of such a highly distinguished research group. The Centre’s international recognition is exemplified by the high calibre of academics and students that it attracts from all around the world. The Centre’s growth has stabilised over recent year in terms of revenue and staff numbers but our student contingent continues to grow with an impressive 30% growth last year as seen by the key performance indicators shown in the table above.

2010

2011

2012

Centre Revenue ($mil)

$9.744

$8.982

$9.133

Centre Expenditure ($mil)

$9.050

$8.601

$9.152

Academics (FTE)

7.1

6.6

7.1

Research Staff (FTE)

28.7

28.5

30.4

Research Support (FTE)

3.0

6.7

5.9

Admin Support (FTE)

6.3

6.8

8.2

Total Staff (FTE)

45.2

48.5

51.7

RHD Students (FTE)

Visiting Academics

Occupational Trainees

A key appointment in 2012 was Dr Jens Krömer as the leader of the CEMES Research Group at AWMC. Jens joins us from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology at UQ. This follows the departure of the foundation leader, Professor Korneel Rabaey, who has taken up a professorial position at Gent University in Belgium but he continues to play a supporting role at AWMC. We are supported by a strong Advisory Board made up of leading water industry representatives from industry, government and academia. The Board meets regularly to provide guidance in the management and strategic direction of the Centre. We have welcomed four new members to our Advisory Board in 2012; Adjunct

ADVISORY BOARD Adjunct Professor Jon Black Director General, Department of Energy and Water Supply, Queensland Government Professor Chris Moran Director of Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Prof Jon Black, Director General, Department of Energy and Water Supply, Queensland Government Ms Michelle Edge, CEO of the Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Prof Chris Moran, Director of the Sustainable Minerals Institute and Mr Warren Traves, Manager South Queensland of GHD. We thank the departing members: Dr David Garman, Prof Peter Gray and Dr Hung Nguyen whose support is greatly appreciated. A number of operational initiatives have been developed over the past year including a Strategic Plan and a Business Continuity Plan.

Mr Ray Rootsey Deputy Director - Operations

Professor Graham Schaffer, Chair Executive Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, The University of Queensland

Adjunct Professor Shaun Cox Managing Director, Melbourne Water

Adjunct Professor Mark Pascoe CEO, International WaterCentre

Ms Michelle Edge Chief Executive Officer, Australian Meat Processor Corporation

Mr Warren Traves Manager - South Queensland, GHD

AWMC Annual Report 2012

AWMC TEAM Adjunct, Honorary and Affiliated Staff Adjunct Professor Jon Black Director General, Department of Water and Energy Supply, Queensland Government Adjunct Professor G. Bill Capati Manager Service Sustainability, Gold Coast City Council Adjunct Professor Shaun Cox Managing Director, Melbourne Water

Honorary Professor Mark van Loosdrecht Group leader Environmental Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Honorary Professor Willy Verstraete Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Belgium Adjunct Associate Professor Howard Weinberg, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, The University of North Carolina, USA

Adjunct Professor Charles Foxall HSE Manager - CUB Yatala Brewery

Adjunct Professor Richard Went Manager Operational Strategy, Gold Coast City Council

Adjunct Professor Kin-Man Ho Technical Director, Kingsford Environmental, Hong Kong

Honorary Professor Peter Wilderer Institute for Advanced Studies on Sustainability, Technical University Munich, Germany

Professor Paul Lant Head of School, School of Chemical Engineering, UQ Adjunct Professor Ian Law Owner and Director, IBL Solutions Adjunct Fellow Michael Lawrence Principal Scientist, Office of the Water Supply Regulator, Department of Energy and Water Supply, Queensland Government Adjunct Fellow Christoph Ort Researcher, Urban Water Management, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aqautic Science and Technology, Switzerland Adjunct Professor Mark Pascoe CEO, International WaterCentre Adjunct Research Fellow Maite Pijuan Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain Dr Steven Pratt Senior Research Fellow, School of Chemical Engineering, UQ Professor Korneel Rabaey Head of the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Belgium Honorary Professor David Richardson Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of East Anglia, UK

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Executive Team Prof Jurg Keller Director Prof Zhiguo Yuan Deputy Director A/Prof Damien Batstone Deputy Director - Education Mr Ray Rootsey Deputy Director - Operations Dr Phil Bond Senior Research Fellow Dr Wolfgang Gernjak Senior Research Fellow Dr Sandra Hall Engagement and Business Development Manager Dr Jens Krömer Director of Centre for Microbial Electrosynthesis (CEMES) Dr Gene Tyson Senior Research Fellow (AWMC & Australian Centre for Ecogenomics)

Operations Mr Guy Clayton Mrs Vivienne Clayton Ms Susan Cooke Ms Ana Esposo Dr Veronica Futo (Until July) Mrs Christine Hassard Ms Jessica Nott Mrs Hong Lee Ms Esmeli Quevedo Baquero (Until March)

Research Fellows Dr Rupak Aryal (Until September) Dr Bogdan Donose Dr Maria José Farré Dr Victoria Flexer Dr Stefano Freguia Dr Paul Jensen Dr Marc Pidou Dr Jelena Radjenovic Dr Julien Reungoat Dr Keshab Sharma Dr Stephan Tait

Postdoctoral Research Fellows Dr Paul Dennis Dr Emmanuelle Filloux Dr Ramon Ganigué Pagès Dr Huoqing Ge Dr Shihu Hu Dr Michael Imelfort Dr Guangming Jiang Dr Anthony Joseph (Until January) Dr Kristell Le Corre Dr Lu (Chris) Fan Dr Alistair Grinham Dr Bonnie Lyon Dr Chirag Mehta Dr Yang Mu (Until May) Dr Bing-Jie Ni Dr Ilje Pikaar Dr Bernardino Virdis Dr Ursula Werner Dr Gal Winter Dr Liu Ye (Until September)

Research and Scientific Officers Mr Stephen Andersen (Until May) Mr Jeff Black Mr Chris Carney Mr Richard Gilbert Ms Hollie King (Until January) Mr Joe Lane Mr Nicolas Lekieffre Mr Tim Sullivan Mr Shane Watts (Until June) Mr Shao Dong Yap

Analytical Services Dr Beatrice Keller-Lehmann Mr Nathan Clayton Ms Jianguang Li

Technical Services Mr Ampon Chumpia Mr Markus Fluggen Mrs Alyshia Lyons

Postgraduate Students Ms Monica Arcos Hernandez (Submitted) Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates Advisors: Prof Paul Lant and Dr Steven Pratt Mr Nils Averesch Engineering microbial metabolism – for the production of valuable chemicals derived from shikimate pathway intermediates – by combining systems biology with microbial electrosynthesis Advisors: Dr Jens Krömer and Dr Gal Winter Ms Chrystelle Ayache (Submitted) Assessment of the impact of biological pre-treatment on UF and RO fouling and micropollutants rejection Advisors: Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, Prof Jurg Keller and Prof Jean-Philippe Croué (WDRC King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and Université de Poitiers)

Mr Arseto Bagastyo (Submitted) Electro-oxidative treatment of reverse osmosis concentrates Advisors: Dr Korneel Rabaey, Dr Jelena Radjenovic and A/Prof Damien Batstone Ms Apra Boyle-Gotla CFD modelling of anaerobic membrane bioreactors for the treatment of high strength meat processing wastewater. Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Paul Jensen and Dr Marc Pidou Ms Lauren Bragg (Submitted) Development of computational and statistical methods for the analysis of microbial community sequence data. Advisors: Dr Gene Tyson, Dr Mark Morrison (CSIRO) and Dr Glenn Stone (CSIRO) Mr Barry Cayford (Submitted) Investigation of the microbial community and processes responsible for the corrosion of concrete in sewer systems. Advisors: Dr Phil Bond, Prof Jurg Keller and Dr Gene Tyson Mr Libertus Darus Microalgal solar cells for the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity Advisors: Dr Stefano Freguia and Dr Bernardino Virdis Ms Katrin Doederer Formation and fate of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products during high quality recycled water production Advisors: Dr Wolfgang Gernjak and Dr Maria José Farré Mr Fangzhou (Ark) Du Metal removal and recovery from anaerobic sludge using (bio) electrochemical system Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller and Dr Stefano Freguia Mr Keelan Fischer Modelling electron transfer modes in bioelectrochemical systems Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Bernardino Virdis and Dr Cristian Picioreanu (TU Delft, The Netherlands)

Ms Preethi Gopalan Least cost applications of anaerobic digestion to livestock wastes Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Paul Jensen Ms Christy Grobbler The mechanisms of electron transfer towards microorganisms Advisors: Dr Phil Bond, Dr Bernardino Virdis, Dr Falk Harnisch (Technische Universität Braunschweig) and Prof Korneel Rabaey (AWMC & Ghent University, Belgium) Ms Shuhong Gao Determining the mechanisms of free nitrous acid induced effects on inhibition and cell death of microorganisms and on biofilm dispersal Advisors: Dr Phil Bond and Prof Zhiguo Yuan Mr Kun Guo The effects of surface chemistry and topography on biofilm formation and electron transfer in bioelectrochemical systems Advisors: Dr Stefano Freguia, Dr Korneel Rabaey and Prof Jurg Keller Mr Robert Hoelzle Intracellular mechanics and regulation of fermentation Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Bernardino Virdis Ms Dang Ho High-rate methanogenesis Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Paul Jensen Mr Tim Huelsen Simultaneous COD, N and P removal from domestic wastewater by purple-non sulphur bacteria Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller and A/Prof Damien Batstone Mr Ludovic Jourdin Novel concepts for bioelectrochemical generation of renewable fuels and chemicals from wastewater Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller and Dr Stefano Freguia

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Ms Natacha Juste-Poinapen Microbiology and genetics of interspecies electron transfer Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Korneel Rabaey, Dr Mark Turner (School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, UQ) and Dr Bernardino Virdis Mr Steven Kenway (Conferred) Urban metabolism and the water energy nexus Advisors: Prof Paul Lant and Prof Tony Priestley (CSIRO) Mr Philip Keymer Understanding and controlling dissolved oxygen accumulation in algal growth systems by electrochemical oxygen reduction Advisors: Prof Paul Lant and Dr Steven Pratt Ms Frauke Kracke Understanding extracellular electron transfer of industrial microorganisms and optimisation for production applications Advisors: Dr Jens Krรถmer and Dr Bernardino Virdis Mr Muhammad Asif Latif Anaerobic digestion to enhance nutrient recovery Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Chirag Metha Ms Ying Yu Law (Conferred) Understanding fugitive greenhouse gas emission from wastewater systems for reliable accounting and effective mitigation Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Paul Lant Ms Elena Mejia Likosova Iron and phosphorus recovery from iron precipitation sludge Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller, and Dr Stefano Freguia Mr Peng Liu Water quality improvement for drinking water plant with riverbank filtration Advisors: Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, Prof Jurg Keller, and Dr Julien Reungoat

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Mr Yiwen Liu Understanding greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater collection systems Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Keshab Sharma Mr Yang (Kenn) Lu Characterisation and modification of fermentation microbial in anaerobic granules Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Prof Philip Hugenholtz (ACE, UQ) and Dr Paul Jensen Mr Christian Kazadi Mbamba Experiments in physico-chemical wastewater treatment modeling Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Stephan Tait Ms Zuhaida Mohd Zaki Regulation of mixed culture fermentation Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone and Dr Steven Pratt Ms Julia Mueller Microbial fuel cell conversion of carbon dioxide to methane and higher value fuels Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller and A/Prof Damien Batstone Mr Ronald Musenze Understanding and mitigation of nitrous oxide and methane emissions from waterways Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Dr Ursula Werner and Dr James Udy (Healthy Waterways) Ms Yuting Pan Understanding and mitigating nitrous oxide emission from wastewater treatment plants Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Liu Ye Mr Lai Peng Understanding N2O production by ammonia oxidising bacteria Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Dr Liu Ye and Dr Bing-Jie Ni Ms Hasina Pervin (Submitted) Microbial community and function analysis during optimisation of small to medium scale organic solid stabilisation. Advisors: Dr Phil Bond and A/Prof Damien Batstone

Ms Marie-Laure Pype Development of surrogates to monitor reverse osmosis membrane integrity and performance during the filtration of pretreated secondary effluent Advisors: Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, Dr Nathalie Wery (INRA-LBE, France) and Dr Dominique Patureau (INRA-LBE, France) Mr Maxime Rattier Biological activated carbon filtration for tertiary treatment of wastewater Advisors: Dr Julien Reungoat, Dr Wolfgang Gernjak, and Prof Jurg Keller Ms Ying Shi Characterisation and application of anaerobic methane and ammonium oxidation Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Shihu Hu Mr Connor Skennerton Ecology and evolution of phage-host interactions in a model ecosystem Advisors: Dr Gene Tyson and Dr Philip Hugenholtz (ACE, UQ) Mr Tomas Storck Lagrangian modelling of microbial interspecies electron transfer Advisors: A/Prof Damien Batstone, Dr Bernardino Virdis and Dr Cristian Picioreanu (TU Delft, The Netherlands) Ms Katrin Sturm Nitrous oxide and methane emissions from South East Queensland waterways Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Alistair Grinham Ms Jing Sun Understanding and modeling the impact of different flow conditions and wastewater compositions on in-sewer processes Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Dr Shihu Hu and Dr Keshab Sharma Ms Xiaoyan Sun Determining details of gaseous H2S uptake and corrosion layer transformations important to sewer concrete corrosion Advisors: Prof Jurg Keller,Dr Phil Bond and Dr Guangming Jiang

Ms Inka Vanwonterghem Community dynamics and functionality in anaerobic digesters Advisors: Dr Gene Tyson and Dr Paul Jensen Ms Marieska Verawaty A novel aerobic granular sludge for domestic wastewater treatment system Advisors: Dr Phil Bond, Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Maite Pijuan (ICRA, Spain) Mr Qilin Wang An innovative FNA-based technology for sludge minimisation Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan, Dr Liu Ye and Dr Guangming Jiang Mr John Willis Understanding and mitigating hydrogen sulfide and methane emissions from sewers Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Keshab Sharma Ms Ting-ting Zhang Biofilm control in wastewater systems using free nitrous acid based technology Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Liu Ye Mr Xu Zhou Sludge treatment with zero valent iron for enhanced sludge dewaterability and reduced sludge production Advisors: Prof Zhiguo Yuan and Dr Guangming Jiang

Undergraduate & Coursework Students Miss Sophie Day Bachelor of Environmental Science Miss Barbara Wronski Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) Miss Di Wu Master of Biotechnology Mr Alif Hassan Bachelor of Biotechnology Honours Student

International Visiting Students

Miss Elisa Sander Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2012 - January 2013

Mr Rafael Asshauer Technical University of Berlin, Germany, October 2011 - April 2012

Mr Wellington William Waltrick State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, November 2012 - May 2013

Mr Sergi Astals Garcia University of Barcelona, Spain, May 2012 - December 2012

Mr Aurelien Zancanaro Universite Joseph Fourier, France, January 2012 - September 2012

Miss Ana Barroso Vieira Universidade Federal de Viรงosa, Brazil, November 2012 - May 2013 Miss Magda Cardozo Mino Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, September 2012 - February 2013

Ms Mi Zhou Dalian University of Technology, China, September 2010 - October 2012

Mr Haoyi Chen Harbin Institute of Technology, China, March 2011 - March 2012 Mr Jindong Chen Jiangnan University, China, October 2010 - March 2012 Mr Joachim Desloover Ghent University, Belgium, October 2012 - March 2013 Miss Victoria Fernandez Cegri Instituto de la Grasa, Spain, August 2012 - November 2012 Mr Hannes Loewe Technical University of Munich, Germany, March 2012 - December 2012 Ms Xiaoxin Liu College of Information Science and Engineering, North Eastern University, China, October 2011 - July 2013 Mr Yiqi Liu South China University of Technology, China, October 2011 - April 2013 Miss Marina Marque INSA de LYON, France, April 2012 - August 2012 Ms Ludwika Nieradzik University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, December 2011 - July 2013

AWMC Annual Report 2012

2012 ACTIVE GRANTS Scheme

Project Title

AWMC Investigators

Partner Organisations

Creating a bakers yeast chassis cell via shikimate pathway engineering for production of sustainable, carbon-neutral plastic precursors for the future

KrĂśmer

Discovery Projects

Interspecies electron transfer in biotechnology

Batstone, Rabaey

Discovery Projects

Biotransformation and biodegradation of organic nitrogen compounds from wastewater in bioelectrochemical systems

Keller, Mu

Discovery Projects

Bio-electrochemical sulfate reduction and sulfur recovery without external carbon source

Keller, Freguia, Mu

Discovery Projects

Establishing a missing link between the global nitrogen and carbon cycles - anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to denitrification

Yuan

Discovery Projects

Biofilm control in wastewater systems using free nitrous acid - a renewable material from wastewater

Yuan, Ye, Bond

The only constant is change: Ecology and evolution of phage-host interactions in a model ecosystem

Tyson

Novel concepts for bioelectrochemical generation of renewable fuels and chemicals from wastewater

Keller

Fate of micropollutants in water recycling: Influence of dissolved organic matter

Gernjak

Discovery Projects

Linkage Projects

AWMC Investigators

Partner Organisations

Duration

Linkage Projects

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from sewers - Understanding, modelling and mitigation

Yuan, Tyson, Sharma, Ni

DC Water, USA; Gold Coast City Council; Melbourne Water Corporation, South East Water; Western Australia Water Corporation

2012-2015

Linkage Projects

Optimal management of corrosion and odour problems in sewer systems (SCORe)

Yuan, Keller, Bond, Rabaey

UNSW; Sydney Uni; Newcastle Uni; Curtin Uni; Gold Coast City Council; Sydney Water; Melbourne Water; Water Corp WA; Hunter Water; CH2M Hill; Veolia Water; Barwon Water; Southeast Water; South Australian Water; WQRA

2008-2013

Linkage Projects

In-situ electrochemical generation of caustic and oxygen from sewage for emission control in sewers

Yuan, Keller, Rabaey

DC Water, USA; Gold Coast City Council; Actew; Yarra Valley Water; Queensland Urban Utilities

2012-2015

TU Delft, The Netherlands; Wageningen University, The Netherlands

2009-2013

2009 - 2012

International Funding 2012-2014

Danish Research Council

HYdrogen CONtrol for optimisation of methane production from livestock waste (HYCON)

Batstone

Aarhus University, Denmark

2011-2014

Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, UQ

2012-2014

ISL French-Australian Science and Technology Program

Keller, Gernjak

Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

2010-2012

University East Anglia, UK

2012-2014

Optimisation of biological pre-treatment to limit microfiltration/ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis fouling and maximise retention of organic contaminants

WaterReuse Research Foundation, Seqwater and Veolia Water Australia -Tailored collaboration

Regulated and emerging disinfection byproducts during the production of high quality recycled water

FarrĂŠ

The University of North Carolina, USA

2011-2013

Kingsford Environmental

SBR optimization through hydraulic and biological modelling

Yuan, Keller

Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, UQ

2010-2014

Monash University; Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Technical University, Germany; University of Twente, The Netherlands; Paques

2011-2013

National Centre for Environmental Toxicology, UQ; Seqwater; Veolia Water Australia; Water Quality Research Australia

2010-2013

Keller, Rabaey, Batstone, Gernjak, Mu

National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology, UQ; Veolia Water Australia; Magneto Special Anodes; Queensland Health; Paques

2009-2012

Understanding and mitigating nitrous oxide emission from wastewater treatment plants

Yuan

Melbourne Water Corporation; Western Australia Water Corporation; Sinclair Knight Merz; School of Chemical Engineering, UQ

2009-2012

Veolia Water Australia; Seqwater

2010-2012

University of Science and Technology China, China; Seqwater; Healthy Waterways

2010-2013

Iron and phosphorus recovery from ferric precipitation sludge

Keller, Rabaey

Nitrous oxide and methane emissions from South East Queensland waterways and influence of wastewater discharges

Yuan, Keller

2012-2014

Contract Research and Industry Partnership

Electrochemical treatment of problematic water recycle waste streams

AWMC Annual Report 2012

Project Title

Duration

Australian Research Council Income Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)

Scheme

Australian Meat Processor Corporation

Integrated agroindustrial wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery

Batstone, Jensen, Pidou