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Dr Liu Ye

Senior Lecturer

School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
l.ye@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 54152

Overview

Dr Liu Ye is a senior lecturer at The University of Queensland in the School of Chemical Engineering. She was awarded her PhD in 2010 and her research focuses on sustainable and cost-effective water and wastewater treatment, including on-line process control, novel technology development, resource recovery and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (monitoring, modelling and mitigation of N2O) from biological wastewater treatment processes. She has more than 80 publications, including 53 fully refereed journal papers (with over 1400 citation and an h-index of 23 (Scopus, May 20, 2018)), and is a co-inventor of four patents. Liu has been awarded total research funding of more than $1.6M - including an ARC Discovery Project, an ARC Linkage project and an ARC DECRA Fellowship - along with several other industry-funded projects. She has received six scientific awards, and is an elected management committee member of the (IWA) Specialist Group on Instrumentation, Control,and Automation (ICA). She is also the member of Australia Association for Engineering Education (AAEE), Engineers Australia (EA) and as a reviewer for 18 international journals. Dr Liu Ye is also affiliated with the Advanced Water Management Centre at UQ.

Research:

Liu’s research includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation from biological wastewater treatment processes; sludge minimization and biogas production enhancement by using free nitrous acid (FNA) based technology; advanced biological nutrient removal (BNR) technology development; on-line process control and optimisation and resource recovery from wastes.

Teaching and Learning:

Liu is currently course-coordinator of CHEE4060: Process Control Systems, and principal advisor of four PhD students.

Projects:

  1. Understanding and mitigating nitrous oxide emission from wastewater treatment plants (ARC Linkage)
  2. Bioflim control in wastewater systems using free nitrous acid - a renewable material from wastewater (ARC Discovery)
  3. Quantifying fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from Bolivar WWTP (SA Water)
  4. A novel method for reducing sludge production in wastewater treatment plants (UQ ECR)

Research Impacts

Dr Liu Ye's research is having a substantive impact in gaining a deeper scientific understanding of biological nutrient removal and recovery during wastewater treatment and outputs from her research are used by industry to recovery nutrients from wastewater and reduce greenhouse gas emission and activate sludge production during wastewater treatment, which directly benefit the Australia water utilities and the living environment-:

  • Leader and one of the key drivers to the development of N2O research at UQ AWMC. As the project manager and co-leader of the N2O research group at AWMC, Liu works closely with Australia water utilities and have built strong collaborations with several industry partners (Western Australia Water Corporation, Melbourne Water Corporation, and South Australian Water Corporation).
  • Developed the first systematic approach to quantify the N2O emissions from wastewater system with surface aerators. It was successfully applied to estimate the N2O emission factor for a full-scale oxidation ditch wastewater treatment plant in Perth.
  • Her ground-breaking research has led to substantial development and commercialisation of the free nitrous acid (FNA) technology. Her research revealed, for the first time, FNA at a low concentration can completely suppress bacterial growth. This research, together with another research result, underpinned the application of FNA as a green chemical to control biofilm growth on sewers and to reduce the sludge production during urban wastewater treatment.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering, Zhengzhou University
  • PhD in Environmental Engineering, Beijing University of Technology

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Unlocking the energy recovery potential from wastewater via nitrous oxide

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Recovering nitrous oxide as an energy resource during nitrogen removal from wastewater

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Production of single-cell protein from Wastewater: the next generation resource recovery technology

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Scholarship for PhD project open for commencement in Semester 2, 2019

    Project Title Unravelling and mitigating nitrous oxide production in wastewater treatment systems

    Project Scope Australian water utilities are leading the world in greenhouse gas emission reductions, with some aiming to achieve net zero emissions operation in the next decade. One of the biggest challenge is to mitigate the nitrous oxide (N2O) production during wastewater treatment process. N2O is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and the most significant sink for stratospheric ozone. In Australia, N2O emissions contribute up to 50% of the total carbon footprint of wastewater treatment systems. N2O emission is highly dynamic, varying substantially with time (diurnally, weekly and seasonally) and space (locations in the bioreactor). It is also highly dependent on the treatment technology and the detailed design and operational conditions. Therefore, accurate determination, understanding and mitigation of N2O emissions is the key step towards to the zero emissions operation within the wastewater treatment systems.

    Student Qualifications Applications open to student with qualifications in chemical engineering, chemistry and/or environmental science; with an interest in wastewater treatment

    Step 1: Read all the details below, click on the links to full project proposal

    Step 2: Contact the supervisor to discuss your suitability

    Step 3: You must enrol at The University of Queenslandhttps://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships

    Step 4: Complete the WaterRA Student Application form and submit by 23 February 2019

    Eligibility Student must meet The University of Queensland enrolment criteria https://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships

    Open to Domestic and International students who have a current IELTS score

    University Enrolled at University of Queensland

    Located at University of Melbourne

    Supervisors - For technical, project or university enquiries please contact:

    Dr Liu Ye [University of Queensland] 07 3365 4152 l.ye@uq.edu.au

View all Available Projects

Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Unlocking the energy recovery potential from wastewater via nitrous oxide

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Recovering nitrous oxide as an energy resource during nitrogen removal from wastewater

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Production of single-cell protein from Wastewater: the next generation resource recovery technology

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Forward Osmosis (FO) Membrane-based Technology in Urbane Wastewater Treatment

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Sing cell protein production: the next generation resource recovery technology from wastewater

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • A Side-Stream Retrofitting Solution to Promote Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal at High Temperatures

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Controlling nitrite oxidizing bacteria using nitrogen released from sludge digestion

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Scholarship for PhD project open for commencement in Semester 2, 2019

    Project Title Unravelling and mitigating nitrous oxide production in wastewater treatment systems

    Project Scope Australian water utilities are leading the world in greenhouse gas emission reductions, with some aiming to achieve net zero emissions operation in the next decade. One of the biggest challenge is to mitigate the nitrous oxide (N2O) production during wastewater treatment process. N2O is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and the most significant sink for stratospheric ozone. In Australia, N2O emissions contribute up to 50% of the total carbon footprint of wastewater treatment systems. N2O emission is highly dynamic, varying substantially with time (diurnally, weekly and seasonally) and space (locations in the bioreactor). It is also highly dependent on the treatment technology and the detailed design and operational conditions. Therefore, accurate determination, understanding and mitigation of N2O emissions is the key step towards to the zero emissions operation within the wastewater treatment systems.

    Student Qualifications Applications open to student with qualifications in chemical engineering, chemistry and/or environmental science; with an interest in wastewater treatment

    Step 1: Read all the details below, click on the links to full project proposal

    Step 2: Contact the supervisor to discuss your suitability

    Step 3: You must enrol at The University of Queenslandhttps://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships

    Step 4: Complete the WaterRA Student Application form and submit by 23 February 2019

    Eligibility Student must meet The University of Queensland enrolment criteria https://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/Scholarships

    Open to Domestic and International students who have a current IELTS score

    University Enrolled at University of Queensland

    Located at University of Melbourne

    Supervisors - For technical, project or university enquiries please contact:

    Dr Liu Ye [University of Queensland] 07 3365 4152 l.ye@uq.edu.au

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

nitrous acid, Biological wastewater treatment, online process control, saline wastewater treatment, Greenhouse gas emissions, sludge reduction

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: A-8988-2011

ORCID: 0000-0001-5478-0864

Scopus ID: 11439119500

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