Study

• Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Chemical and Biomolecular)
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Environmental)
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Laws
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Project Management
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Science (Health)
• Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Science (Medical Science)

Our Major Industrial Project Placement Scheme (MIPPS) program places some of our highest achieving students studying either an undergraduate engineering degree or Master of Professional Engineering in industry placements with leading industry companies during their final year of studies.

2025 Project Summaries

Trialling new coal types to optimise cost and quality

Student: Matthew Butler
Academic Supervisor: Graham Madsen

As part of making 3Mt per annum of steel, we use about 2.2Mt of coking coal. We are regularly trialling new coal types to optimise cost and quality. One method of comparing coal types is to change our coal blends for a week in a fairly complicated manner, timed to coincide with a blast furnace scheduled shutdown. During the furnace shutdown, we retrieve several 200kg coke samples from the base of the furnace (“bosh coke”). We then do a large amount of lab analysis of these bosh coke samples, from which we can determine if a trial coal blend is better or worse than the base case blend. We also have several dozen 200kg bosh coke samples from years past, which we would like to analyse to compare to our contemporary samples and check for similarities and differences.

Valuing water conservation to better support water resilience in Regional New South Wales towns

Student: Austin Caie
Academic Supervisor: Professor Tim Langrish

The aim of this project is to ground truth the Water Conservation Cost-Benefit Guidelines CBA model in 3 councils – Orange, Bathurst, and Parkes – to better value water conservation and determine a robust estimate of the value of water in each of these councils. This will better allow water conservation to be appropriately valued and considered in long-term planning.

Water Filtration Technology Development

Student: Rebecca Partridge
Academic Supervisor: Dr Marcello Solomon

To contribute to the development of new and more efficient MBR membrane filtration products. DuPont supplies MBRs under the MemPulse™ MBR brand. Designed to deliver higher effluent quality with low operating costs, these products and systems are designed, developed, and manufactured from DuPont's Australian site in Windsor, NSW, where this project will be carried out. Work will include preparing, testing, and analyzing prototypes of new MBR components, sub-assemblies, and fully functional prototype filtration modules. Students will be involved in project planning and risk management, design and development, rapid prototyping (e.g., 3D printing), manufacture, physical and mechanical testing, along with water filtration evaluation. Designs and product prototypes will be measured against functional design specifications and program goals.

District Metering Areas

Student: Rohit Menon
Academic Supervisor: Professor Fariba Dehghani

This project involves reviewing Goldenfields Water's supply schemes and identifying and installing bulk meters at strategic locations where data may be lacking. These meters will aid in the development of District Metering Areas (DMAs) to provide an accurate water balance for each area. The DMAs will be developed in the Taggle Aqualus system.

Bore Water Quality

Student: Thomas Hosking
Academic Supervisor: Professor Jun Huang

The scope of this project is to improve bore water quality delivered to the mill so that bore water can be used in all weather conditions, minimizing the usage of city water and reducing operational costs for the business.

Assessment of Nitrate-Free Explosives

Student: William McCombe
Academic Supervisor: Associate Professor John Kavanagh

 Decomposition Kinetics Study of Hydrogen Peroxide Explosives – This project involves a kinetics study to quantify the potential hazards of hydrogen peroxide-based explosives in mining applications. The work aims to define criteria for the safe use of hydrogen peroxide-based explosives by developing kinetics models of their decomposition when in contact with contaminants. The study will utilize DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), and ARC (accelerating rate calorimetry) lab techniques. Thermal explosion theory will be applied to determine critical parameters for the industrial application of this technology.

Evaluating Environmental Benefits of Orica’s Cyclo™ Technology: A Life Cycle Assessment Approach

Student: Peggy McKenzie
Academic Supervisor: Dr David Wang

This project involves using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to examine the impacts of various alternative waste oil uses and Cyclo™ offerings. The objective is to evaluate the true environmental benefits of the Cyclo™ technology.

Development of Options for Increased Resilience of the B-Section Pipeline

Student: Johnny Huang
Academic Supervisor: Dr Lizhuo Wang

This project aims to improve water quality outcomes and increase supply security to support mining-related growth. The B-Section water supply scheme serves townships west of Parkes, from Forbes to Tottenham. The system's capacity, designed for current usage, is routinely exceeded during high-demand periods. Critical infrastructure condition poses significant risks, including water quality issues. A previous MIPPS student developed a hydraulic model and water quality improvement options for the scheme. This project will validate the model under new operating scenarios and develop options to increase the hydraulic capacity of the system for both short-term and long-term demand escalation scenarios.

Impact of Extruder Design and Operation on Dry Yeast Properties 

Student: Mia Thorburn  

Academic Supervisor: Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh 

This project aims to identify the underlying reasons why dry yeast produced at different AB Mauri plants show varying dispersion characteristics in bread dough. These differences in yeast dispersion and rehydration performance are believed to result from the varying extruder designs and operations worldwide. By characterising dry yeast particles using advanced techniques such as SEM-EDS, XPS, and Zetasizer analysis, the project aims to identify influential factors affecting performance and to build a mechanistic model to correlate dry yeast properties with extruder operation. The goal is to understand the physical and chemical properties affecting this varied performance and to propose the best extruder setup (design and/or operational changes) to yield consistent outcomes at each plant. The findings will help standardise production processes, improve product consistency, and enhance customer satisfaction across AB Mauri’s global operations.

Process Review and Optimisation of Wastewater Treatment Plant Odour Control Facilities

Student: Audrey Straesser
Academic Supervisor: Associate Professor Alejandro Montoya

The new Nowra and Bomaderry WWTPs have capacities of 37,500 EP and 18,000 EP, respectively, and use an inlet works, an SBR process, filtration, and disinfection to produce recycled water. Both treatment plants feature covered inlet works that capture wastewater odours and transfer them to an on-site ‘Odour Control Facility’ (OCF). These OCFs aim to remove hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas from the air before it is discharged from a stack. The Odour Control Facilities utilize two Biotrickling Filters followed by an Activated Carbon Filter. The project aims to assess the current performance of the OCFs and optimize them to maximize H2S removal.

Analysis of the Use of Ion Exchange Resins in a Copper Refinery

Student: James Rossiter
Academic Supervisor: Dr Gordon Weiss

This project aims to experimentally quantify the operating parameters and efficacy of supplied ion exchange resins for the removal of metal impurities from acidic solutions, in preparation for scale-up. The first resin to be tested is for iron (and aluminum) removal, with a second resin for copper removal to be tested, time permitting.

Potable Recycled Water – Advanced Monitoring Methods

Student: Celina Trezise
Academic Supervisor: Professor Yuan Chen

Sydney Water is developing an approach for the implementation of the first potable recycled water scheme in NSW. Providing recycled water into the drinking water system requires a very high level of treatment and strict control over the performance of treatment infrastructure, using advanced instrumentation. Ensuring, in real time, that pathogen removal has been effective has led instrument companies to push the boundaries of what can be practically measured online in very low quantities, and to verify that membranes have retained their integrity.

This project will investigate the latest advancements in advanced instrumentation for online pathogen removal monitoring in drinking water, including the latest developments in online monitoring of sulphate and strontium. The project will include both research into methods used internationally for similar facilities and the development of an approach for procuring the correct equipment for the first facility of its kind in NSW.

Biochar Utilisation and Carbon Credits

Student: Sachin Lalloo
Academic Supervisor: Dr Li Wei

Sydney Water is constructing a carbonisation plant at the Riverstone water resource recovery facility. This plant will produce biochar that is low in contaminants of concern and can be used as a fertiliser replacement on land. Sydney Water is seeking a student to help analyze and make the best use of the biochar product. The project will involve a review of its beneficial uses on different types of farms, optimization of the treatment technology and operation, and assessment of expected carbon credits under various configurations.

Develop and Implement a Primary Disinfection (Ct) Model for Water Treatment

Student: Zara Zbrog
Academic Supervisor: Dr Fengwang Li

Disinfection of drinking water is crucial to protect public health. Sydney Water uses chlorine or chloramine in treated drinking water for disinfection purposes. The performance of this disinfection process is measured by online chlorine analyzers at the Water Filtration Plants (WFPs). To protect public health, guidelines require a minimum Ct (concentration of residual chlorine x time) of 15 mg/L-min in drinking water. Sydney Water has initiated this project to integrate an online Ct calculation into the plant Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, enabling continuous monitoring of Ct levels in the clear water tank or treated water reservoir. This project will develop a Ct model and implement online Ct monitoring in the SCADA system for five WFPs. The project will help plant operators and operation managers monitor Ct in real time, ensuring the production of safe drinking water.

Optimisation of Chlorine Control at Macarthur WFP

Student: K Berger
Academic Supervisor: Professor Tim Langrish

Evaluate the current primary disinfection dosing logic for Macarthur WFP and develop a new strategy that accommodates plant shutdowns while enhancing process control. Consider data feeds from current online instrumentation and a recently acquired ‘bufferless’ chlorine analyzer as inputs to the future primary disinfection control.

• Master of Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
• Master of Engineering (Sustainability and Environmental Engineering)
• Master of Professional Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
• Master of Professional Engineering (Sustainability and Environmental Engineering)
• Master of Professional Engineering (Accelerated) (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
• Graduate Diploma in Engineering
• Graduate Certificate in Engineering

• Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering)
  
• Master of Philosophy (Engineering)