Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan
Honorary Professor

Zhiguo Yuan

Email: 

Background

Prof Yuan received his PhD degree in aeronautical engineering in 1992 from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. He changed research direction to wastewater management in 1994, when he took up a postdoctoral research fellow position at Ghent University, Belgium. He joined the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), renamed as the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology in July 2021, at The University of Queensland in 1998. He served as the AWMC Deputy Director 2001-2014, and then the AWMC/ACWEB Director in 2015 to July 2022. His research focuses on development of innovative solutions for urban water management and environmental biotechnology through effective integration of fundamental science and applied engineering. He won over $50M in government, industry and university research funding including many ARC Discovery, Linkage and Fellowship grants, mostly as the lead Chief Investigator. Prof Yuan was one of the founding members of the $117m Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. He has published intensively both in specialised journals such as Water Research and Environmental Science and Technology, and multidisciplinary journals including Nature and Science. He is the founder of three biotechnology businesses namely SeweX, Cloevis and Lodomat, and his research has delivered documented savings of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian water industry. His research achievements and leadership have been recognized through major national and international awards including the 2015 ATSE Clunies Ross Award and the International Water Association (IWA) 2014 Global Project Innovation Award (Applied Research Category). Prof Yuan was named as one of Engineers Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers for 2015. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), an IWA Distinguished Fellow, and was awarded the highly prestigious ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2017. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2019.

Availability

Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan is:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Fields of research

Environmental biotechnology Environmental engineering

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics

Research interests

  • Integrated Urban Water Management

    A whole-of-system approach to managing multiple water resources in an urban water cycle and multiple elements in an urban water system.

  • Digital water

    Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive data analytics for proactive urban water management

  • Sustainable carbon bioeconomy

    Gas fermentation to convert organic wastes to carbon commodities

  • Corrosion and odour management in sewers systems

    Effective control of H2S production in sewer systems and minimise its effect on sewer corrosion and odour generation

  • Sludge management in wastewater treatment systems

    Innovative technologies for enhancing bioenergy recovery from wastewater and reducing sludge production

  • Greenhouse gas emissions from water and wastewater systems

    Fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater systems including CH4 emission in sewers, N2O emission from wastewater treatment processes and CH4 and N2O emissions from estuaries, dams and bays

  • Biological nutrient removal and recovery

    Innovative technologies and fundamental science for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal and recovery from wastewater

Research impacts

  • His research in sewer management has fundamentally changed practice of many Australian water utilities in corrosion and odour management in sewers. The documented savings to date for the water industry amounts to approximately $400 million, based on the testimonial letters provided by industry partners.
  • He has collaborated with almost all major water utilities in Australia through many ARC Industry Linkage projects as well as a large number of collaborative research projects.
  • He was a founding and Executive Committee member of the $117 million Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cites, with over 80 industry partners, and led the Future Technologies Program Leader.
  • Established SeweX, a consulting company under UniQuest Pty Ltd, in 2008. SeweX has undertaken over $3 million consulting work since 2009. Clients included both Australian water utilities and companies from overseas. SeweX has been recently licensed to Envirosuite, an ASX listed technology company.
  • Established Cloevis Pty Ltd, a spin-off company from my sewer research. The company has licenced its patented technology on biofilm removal from sewer pipes to USP Technologies (US).
  • His research on sludge treatment using free nitrous acid has led to the development of the patented Lodomat technology that substantially increases biogas production from wastewater sludge. The technology has recently attracted >$5M (+ >$4M in-kind) industry and government funding for pilot plant demonstrations.
  • His research has frequently attracted media attention, with many articles published in newspapers such as The Australian and The Courier Mail, the News Agency Websites (e.g. ABC, Xinhua Agency), and industry magazines, newsletters and websites. Five of his papers have Altmetric Attention Scores that are in the top 5% of the 6.4 million research outputs tracked.
  • He is an Editor of Water Research, a top journal in water science and technology.
  • He published over 500 papers in internationally leading journals (the full list and citation record: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1IPdGqkAAAAJ&hl=en)

Search Professor Zhiguo Yuan’s works on UQ eSpace

805 works between 1992 and 2025
All (805) Journal Article (623) Book Chapter (9) Conference Publication (169) Book (1) Other Outputs (3)

321 - 340 of 805 works

2017

Journal Article

Technologies for reducing sludge production in wastewater treatment plants: state of the art

Wang, Qilin, Wei, Wei, Gong, Yanyan, Yu, Qiming, Li, Qin, Sun, Jing and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). Technologies for reducing sludge production in wastewater treatment plants: state of the art. Science of the Total Environment, 587-588, 510-521. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.203

Technologies for reducing sludge production in wastewater treatment plants: state of the art

2017

Journal Article

Microbial community structure and biodiversity of size-fractionated granules in a partial nitritation-anammox process

Luo, Jinghuan, Chen, Hui, Han, Xiaoyu, Sun, Yanfang, Yuan, Zhiguo and Guo, Jianhua (2017). Microbial community structure and biodiversity of size-fractionated granules in a partial nitritation-anammox process. Fems Microbiology Ecology, 93 (6) fix021. doi: 10.1093/femsec/fix021

Microbial community structure and biodiversity of size-fractionated granules in a partial nitritation-anammox process

2017

Journal Article

A greenhouse gas source of surprising significance: anthropogenic CO2 emissions from use of methanol in sewage treatment

Willis, John L., Al-Omari, Ahmed, Bastian, Robert, Brower, Bill, DeBarbadillo, Christine, Murthy, Sudhir, Peot, Christopher and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). A greenhouse gas source of surprising significance: anthropogenic CO2 emissions from use of methanol in sewage treatment. Water Science and Technology, 75 (9), 1997-2012. doi: 10.2166/wst.2017.033

A greenhouse gas source of surprising significance: anthropogenic CO2 emissions from use of methanol in sewage treatment

2017

Journal Article

The metabolic impact of extracellular nitrite on aerobic metabolism of Paracoccus denitrificans

Hartop, K. R., Sullivan, M. J., Giannopoulos, G., Gates, A. J., Bond, P. L., Yuan, Z., Clarke, T. A., Rowley, G. and Richardson, D. J. (2017). The metabolic impact of extracellular nitrite on aerobic metabolism of Paracoccus denitrificans. Water Research, 113, 207-214. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.02.011

The metabolic impact of extracellular nitrite on aerobic metabolism of Paracoccus denitrificans

2017

Journal Article

Impact of in-sewer degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) population markers on a population model

O'Brien, Jake William, Banks, Andrew Philip William, Novic, Andrew Joseph, Mueller, Jochen F., Jiang, Guangming, Ort, Christoph, Eaglesham, Geoff, Yuan, Zhiguo and Thai, Phong K. (2017). Impact of in-sewer degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) population markers on a population model. Environmental Science and Technology, 51 (7), 3816-3823. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b02755

Impact of in-sewer degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) population markers on a population model

2017

Journal Article

Biodegradation of atenolol by an enriched nitrifying sludge: products and pathways

Xu, Yifeng, Radjenovic, Jelena, Yuan, Zhiguo and Ni, Bing-Jie (2017). Biodegradation of atenolol by an enriched nitrifying sludge: products and pathways. Chemical Engineering Journal, 312, 351-359. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2016.11.153

Biodegradation of atenolol by an enriched nitrifying sludge: products and pathways

2017

Journal Article

Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge at low exposure times

Zahedi, S., Icaran, P., Yuan, Z. and Pijuan, M. (2017). Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge at low exposure times. Bioresource Technology, 228, 272-278. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.12.117

Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge at low exposure times

2017

Journal Article

Biotransformation of acyclovir by an enriched nitrifying culture

Xu, Yifeng, Yuan, Zhiguo and Ni, Bing-Jie (2017). Biotransformation of acyclovir by an enriched nitrifying culture. Chemosphere, 170, 25-32. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.12.014

Biotransformation of acyclovir by an enriched nitrifying culture

2017

Journal Article

Optical sorting and cultivation of denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation archaea

Qi, Xiaoqiong, Carberry, David M., Cai, Chen, Hu, Shihu, Yuan, Zhiguo, Dunlop, Halin Rubinsztein and Guo, Jianhua (2017). Optical sorting and cultivation of denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation archaea. Biomedical Optics Express, 8 (2) #279253, 934-942. doi: 10.1364/BOE.8.000934

Optical sorting and cultivation of denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation archaea

2017

Journal Article

Comparison of different two-pathway models for describing the combined effect of DO and nitrite on the nitrous oxide production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria

Lang, Longqi, Pocquet, Mathieu, Ni, Bing-Jie, Yuan, Zhiguo and Sperandio, Mathieu (2017). Comparison of different two-pathway models for describing the combined effect of DO and nitrite on the nitrous oxide production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Water Science and Technology, 75 (3), 491-500. doi: 10.2166/wst.2016.389

Comparison of different two-pathway models for describing the combined effect of DO and nitrite on the nitrous oxide production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria

2017

Journal Article

Complete nitrogen removal from synthetic anaerobic sludge digestion liquor through integrating anammox and denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation in a membrane biofilm reactor

Xie, Guo-Jun, Cai, Chen, Hu, Shihu and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). Complete nitrogen removal from synthetic anaerobic sludge digestion liquor through integrating anammox and denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation in a membrane biofilm reactor. Environmental Science and Technology, 51 (2), 819-827. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b04500

Complete nitrogen removal from synthetic anaerobic sludge digestion liquor through integrating anammox and denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation in a membrane biofilm reactor

2017

Book Chapter

Denitrification processes for wastewater treatment

Ni, Bing-Jie, Pan, Yuting, Guo, Jianhua, Virdis, Bernardino, Hu, Shihu, Chen, Xueming and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). Denitrification processes for wastewater treatment. Metalloenzymes in dentrification: applications and environmental impacts. (pp. 368-418) edited by Isabel Moura, Jose J. G. Moura, Sofia R. Pauleta and Luisa B. Maia. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Royal Society of Chemistry. doi: 10.1039/9781782623762-00368

Denitrification processes for wastewater treatment

2017

Conference Publication

Manuscript: The national implications of adding sewer CH4 and methanol-derived CO2 to wastewater treatment and conveyance GHG inventories

Willis, John, Brower, Bill, Murthy, Sudhir, Peot, Chris, Sharma, Keshab and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). Manuscript: The national implications of adding sewer CH4 and methanol-derived CO2 to wastewater treatment and conveyance GHG inventories. Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference 2017 (WEFTEC 2017), Chicago, IL, United States, 30 September - 4 October 2017. Water Environment Federation. doi: 10.2175/193864717822156758

Manuscript: The national implications of adding sewer CH4 and methanol-derived CO2 to wastewater treatment and conveyance GHG inventories

2017

Conference Publication

An overview of 10 years of research in understanding and preventing concrete corrosion in sewers

Jiang, Guangming, Bond, Philip, Keller, Jurg and Yuan, Zhiguo (2017). An overview of 10 years of research in understanding and preventing concrete corrosion in sewers. EUROCORR 2017, Prague, Czech Republic, 3-7 September 2017 . Prague, Czech Republic: Czech Association of Corrosion Engineers.

An overview of 10 years of research in understanding and preventing concrete corrosion in sewers

2016

Journal Article

Nitrite addition to acidified sludge significantly improves digestibility, toxic metal removal, dewaterability and pathogen reduction

Du, Fangzhou, Keller, Jurg, Yuan, Zhiguo, Batstone, Damien J., Freguia, Stefano and Pikaar, Ilje (2016). Nitrite addition to acidified sludge significantly improves digestibility, toxic metal removal, dewaterability and pathogen reduction. Scientific Reports, 6 (1) 39795, 39795. doi: 10.1038/srep39795

Nitrite addition to acidified sludge significantly improves digestibility, toxic metal removal, dewaterability and pathogen reduction

2016

Journal Article

Online control of magnesium hydroxide dosing for sulfide mitigation in sewers: algorithm development, simulation analysis, and field validation

Ganigue, Ramon, Jiang, Guangming, Sharma, Keshab, Chen, Jindong, Vuong, Lam and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Online control of magnesium hydroxide dosing for sulfide mitigation in sewers: algorithm development, simulation analysis, and field validation. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 142 (12), 04016069. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001151

Online control of magnesium hydroxide dosing for sulfide mitigation in sewers: algorithm development, simulation analysis, and field validation

2016

Journal Article

Why do residential recycled water schemes fail? A comprehensive review of risk factors and impact on objectives

West, Camilla, Kenway, Steven, Hassall, Maureen and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Why do residential recycled water schemes fail? A comprehensive review of risk factors and impact on objectives. Water Research, 102, 271-281. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.06.044

Why do residential recycled water schemes fail? A comprehensive review of risk factors and impact on objectives

2016

Journal Article

Biotransformation of pharmaceuticals by ammonia oxidizing bacteria in wastewater treatment processes

Xu, Yifeng, Yuan, Zhiguo and Ni, Bing-Jie (2016). Biotransformation of pharmaceuticals by ammonia oxidizing bacteria in wastewater treatment processes. Science of the Total Environment, 566-567, 796-805. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.118

Biotransformation of pharmaceuticals by ammonia oxidizing bacteria in wastewater treatment processes

2016

Journal Article

Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates

Guo, Jianhua, Peng, Yongzhen, Fan, Lu, Zhang, Liang, Ni, Bing-Jie, Kartal, Boran, Feng, Xin, Jetten, Mike S. M. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates. Environmental Microbiology, 18 (SI), 2979-2993. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13132

Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates

2016

Journal Article

Antimicrobial effects of free nitrous acid on Desulfovibrio vulgaris: implications for sulfide-induced corrosion of concrete

Gao, Shu-Hong, Ho, Jun Yuan, Fan, Lu, Richardson, David J., Yuan, Zhiguo and Bond, Philip L. (2016). Antimicrobial effects of free nitrous acid on Desulfovibrio vulgaris: implications for sulfide-induced corrosion of concrete. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 82 (18), 5563-5575. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01655-16

Antimicrobial effects of free nitrous acid on Desulfovibrio vulgaris: implications for sulfide-induced corrosion of concrete

Availability

Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Airflow and temperature modelling for sewers

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Jiuling Li

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Understanding of Ventilation-Based Drying for Sewer Corrosion Control

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Jiuling Li, Dr Zhetai Hu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Data quality assurance in digitalisation of urban water management

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Helen Huang, Dr Jiuling Li, Dr Ruihong Qiu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Extracellular Electron Transfer-Facilitated Microbial Conversion of Methanol by Eubacterium limosum

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Xueqin Zhang, Dr Bernardino Virdis

  • Doctor Philosophy

    The Understanding of Condensation-induced Concrete Corrsoion in the Sewer Crown Region

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Damien Batstone, Dr Jiuling Li

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Integrated use of magnesium and iron chemicals in urban wastewater systems

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Zhetai Hu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    In-depth understanding of bioprocess and microbial community in a novel methane-based membrane biofilm reactor

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Jianhua Guo

Completed supervision

Enquiries

Contact Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan directly for media enquiries about:

  • Corrosion - sewers
  • Odour - sewers
  • Sewers
  • Wastewater management
  • Wastewater treatment
  • Water treatment

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