Our Research

The Fermentation and Wastewater Laboratory brings together a team of researchers with a range of interdisciplinary backgrounds that are pertinent to fermentation, water and wastewater treatment.

In particular, we focus on the following areas of research:

• Process integration and process optimisation in effluent treatment plants
• Advanced tertiary treatment technologies
• Fermentation Optimisation and Kinetics

Grants for Our Research - Current Projects

• ARC Linkage - Yield Improvement in Large-scale Bubble Column Fermenters
  Prof Geoffrey W Barton, Dr John M Kavanagh and Adjunct Prof David Fletcher
• ARC Linkage - New Fermentation and Purification Production Technologies for Menaquinone-7 for Promoting Bone and Cardiovascular Health
  A/Prof Fariba Dehghani, Dr John M Kavanagh
• ARC Linkage - Measurement and Prevention of Membrane Fouling for Water Reuse in Biorefineries
  Prof Hans G Coster, Prof Geoffrey W Barton, Dr Daniel R Ryan, Dr Cormac O'Cleirigh, Dr John M Kavanagh

Recent Field Work

February 2008 - India
Dr Ryan visited NEERI and attended the Water Crisis – Challenges and Opportunities conference in Nagpur.

December 2007 - Vietnam
Assisted electrocoagulation pilot trials for organic wastewater treatment.

August 2007 - India
Visited prominent research groups at the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), UICT and IIT Mumbai

Future Projects

• Cellulosic Ethanol Wastewater

Past Projects

• ARC Linkage Grant - Electrocoagulation
  The purpose of this ARC Linkage Project was to develop a conceptual framework and a phenomenological model that describes the electrocoagulation of aqueous organic pollutants.