Research Group: Environmental Engineering (EnvE)

One of the most important global challenges that engineers face is in developing sustainable processes, whilst protecting the environment, in a world in which the consequences of the finiteness of resources, materials, energy and water, are increasingly evident. Research projects in the Environmental Engineering Focus Area use chemistry, physics, biology and engineering to solve or ameliorate these environmental challenges.

Areas that are key in our efforts:

Membrane Engineering 

Membrane separation is a rapidly expanding technique for waste treatment due to its relative simplicity and cost-effectiveness. The development of asymmetric PVDF membranes is being evaluated for their application performance in waste gas removal, and wastewater treatment. We have also developed the use of submerged anaerobic membrane reactors (SAMBR), where the anaerobic biomass is retained within the reactor and hydraulic retention times as low as 3 hours are possible for treating dilute wastewaters. This technique is also used in a two stage technique to convert the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) into methane while recycling water. Finally, we have developed a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR), which can degrade refractory organics, both in normal and high salinity wastewaters.

Liquid effluent treatment (Produced Water)

The oil industry produces five times as much waste water as oil from oil wells. We are using simple, cheap technology (ponds) to remove oil and heavy metals successfully from this wastewater, and growing algae which produce useful poly-unsaturated fatty acids. The treated water can then be used for irrigation or in industry.

Electrochemical processing of wastes and effluents

Electrically-driven electrochemical reactors enable 'reagentless' processing of wastes and effluents, and / or recycling of reagents, such as oxidants and reductants, in closed-loop chemical processes. Such processes are being developed to recover metals from waste electrical and electronic equipment, to remove toxic organics from wastewaters and for treatment of drinking water. Chemically-driven electrochemical reactors can convert chemical to electrical (+_thermal) energy directly; carbon-air fuel cells can combust carbonaceous wastes with atmospheric oxygen, producing electrical energy, but have suffered from problems, solutions to which are under development.

Prof David Stuckey
Programme Co-Ordinator