JUNE NEWS 2009

Professor Nigel Graham and his PhD student, Ms Lizzie Huang, attended an International Postgraduate Conference on Infrastructure and Environment, in Hong Kong

Professor Nigel Graham and his PhD student, Ms Lizzie Huang, attended an International Postgraduate Conference on Infrastructure and Environment, in Hong Kong during the 5th and 6th June, organised by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. During the conference Lizzie was awarded a Best Presenter prize for her paper entitled, ‘Impact of Seasonal Variations and Bromide on Characteristics of Haloacetic Acid Precursors', which is based on her PhD studies and co-authored by Nigel Graham, Mike Templeton, Yanping Zhang, Chris Collins (University of Reading) and Mark Nieuwenhuijsen (Imperial College School of Medicine). While in Hong Kong, Nigel Graham had discussions with academic staff at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University concerning future research collaboration and the current undergraduate exchange programme with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College. Nigel Graham and Lizzie Huang were also fortunate to meet a former EWRE post-doctoral researcher, Dr Daniel Tsang, who holds a lecturing appointment in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand (see photo - inset). 

  Dr Chris Cheeseman, Abdelhamid Beshara, Christos Lampris and Babagana Mohammed recently attended WASCON 2009'Sustainable Management of Waste and Recycled Materials in Construction' in Lyon, France, 3-5 June 2009. Five papers were presented at the conference:

 Long-Term Leaching of Chloride Salts from Cement Kiln Dust Bricks
Beshara A., Cheeseman C.R.

Beneficial Reuse of Dc Plasma Treated Air Pollution Control Residues from an Energy from Waste Facility D. Amutha RANi, A.R. Boccaccini, D. Deegan, C.R. Cheeseman

Solidification/Stabilisation Of Treated Oil Drill Cuttings as Sandcrete Construction Products
Mohammed, B. Cheeseman, C.R.

Metal Leaching from APC Residues Solidified using Portland Cement and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
Lampris C., Stegemann J.A., Cheeseman C.R.

Geopolymers from Air Pollution Control (APC) Residues Plasma Derived Glass
Kourti, I. D.Amutha Rani, Deegan., D. Boccaccini., A.R. Cheeseman., C.R.  

Dr Michael Templeton co-chaired the 3rd Biennial Conference of the UK Network on Potable Water Treatment and Supply in Buxton, Derbyshire on 1-2 June 2009.

Dr Templeton presented a paper at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Annual Conference and Exposition in San Diego, California on 17 June 2009 entitled "Nitrosamines in drinking water in England and Scotland". 

Dr Stephen Smith has returned from a two week visit to Australia this month. He gave a presentation on international issues and developments in biosolids management at the Curtin University of Technology Biosolids Research Progress Meeting on 2 June at the Water Corporation, Leedervile, Perth, Western Australia, hosted by Nancy Penney, Biosolids Strategist at the Water Corp, and Dr Deb Pritchard of Curtin University of Technology. There were 20 attendees from the Water Corporation, Department of Health, Chemistry Centre, and the composting industry.

He moved on to a three day visit at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) from 3 - 5 June, where he is collaborating on a Smart Water Fund project that has recently commenced with Associate Professor Margaret Deighton and Dr Duncan Rouch in the Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Biology to verify microbial safety in biosolids treatment. RMIT have invested significantly in a new environmental microbiology facility to support the research, which will test pathogen inactivation during large laboratory-scale simulations of biosolids treatment processes. The picture shows Dr Smith inspecting the new laboratory with Professor Deighton and Dr Rouch. A major project Steering Group meeting was arranged to coincide with his visit attended by Melbourne Water, South East Water Ltd, EPA Victoria and the Department of Human Services. Dr Smith also met Professor Peter Coloe, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at RMIT to discuss the new laboratory facility and the opportunities it would create as well as furthering the collaborative relationship with Imperial College. Other meetings took place with Dr Nicky Porter in the Department of Environmental Science at RMIT, in connection with another project awarded to RMIT by the Smart Water Fund on nutrient management in biosolids-amended soil.

Dr Smith moved on to Sydney, and he spent a day (9 June) discussing operational and international biosolids management issues with Sunietha Katupitiya, Manager of Residuals Management for Sydney Water, and her team. He was invited to talk to Compost NSW at the Waste Management Association of Australia the following day, where he gave a presentation on chemical contaminant issues in biosolids and composts. Finally he attended the Biosolids Regulatory Review Workshop on 11 June organised by Paul Darvodelsky of Pollution Solutions and Design pty ltd, as the international collaborator and peer reviewer for a project funded by the Australasian Biosolids Partnership (ABP) to review national, state and territory biosolids regulations for Australia and New Zealand and identify gaps, overlaps and inappropriate or inefficient regulatory approaches. The workshop was a key activity within the programme and was attended by Andrew Speer (Project Manager of the ABP) and Phillip Broad for the ABP, other consortium members contributing to the workshop were Brendon Clarke of Arkwood Organic Recycling, Lisa Rawlinson and Dominic Flanagan of Transpacific Industries and Jim Bradley of MWH New Zealand.

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