Wastewater cleanup, dewatering processes and biofuels
Research Leader: Andrew Hoadley
Laboratory Manager: Ying Qi
This multi-disciplinary team involving Chemical, Mechanical, Civil Engineers and Chemists is working on projects associated with the separation of solid materials from water either to purify the water or to recover the solids, or both. Techniques include flocculation, filtration, flotation and high pressure compression.
Our current projects include:
- The dewatering of lignite and/or biomass by Mechanical Thermal Expression
- The addition of lignite to sewage sludge to improve sludge dewatering rates
- The adsorption of chromophores in wastewater onto lignite/activated carbon
- Energy efficient separation of microalgae for the production of biodiesel
Key recent publications
- K.B. Thapa, Y. Qi, S.A. Clayton, A.F.A. Hoadley, “Lignite aided dewatering of digested sewage sludge”, Water Research 43, 2009, 623-634.
- K. B. Thapa, Y. Qi and A. F. Hoadley, “Using FBRM to investigate the sewage sludge flocculation efficiency of cationic polyelectrolytes”, Water Science & Technology 59(3), 2009, 583-593.
- R.A. Wheeler, A.F.A. Hoadley, S.A. Clayton, “Modelling the mechanical thermal expression behaviour of lignite”, Fuel 88, 2009, 1741-1751