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)

401 - 420 of 805 works

2015

Journal Article

A novel and simple treatment for control of sulfide induced sewer concrete corrosion using free nitrous acid

Sun, Xiaoyan, Jiang, Guangming, Bond, Philip L., Keller, Jurg and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). A novel and simple treatment for control of sulfide induced sewer concrete corrosion using free nitrous acid. Water Research, 70, 279-287. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.12.020

A novel and simple treatment for control of sulfide induced sewer concrete corrosion using free nitrous acid

2015

Journal Article

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from a subtropical coastal embayment (Moreton Bay, Australia)

Musenze, Ronald S., Werner, Ursula, Grinham, Alistair, Udy, James and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from a subtropical coastal embayment (Moreton Bay, Australia). Journal of Environmental Sciences, 29, 82-96. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2014.06.049

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from a subtropical coastal embayment (Moreton Bay, Australia)

2015

Journal Article

Degradation of methanethiol in anaerobic sewers and its correlation with methanogenic activities

Sun, Jing, Hu, Shihu, Sharma, Keshab R., Ni, B.-J. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Degradation of methanethiol in anaerobic sewers and its correlation with methanogenic activities. Water Research, 69, 80-89. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.11.004

Degradation of methanethiol in anaerobic sewers and its correlation with methanogenic activities

2015

Journal Article

Role of indigenous iron in improving sludge dewaterability through peroxidation

Zhou, Xu, Jiang, Guangming, Wang, Qilin and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Role of indigenous iron in improving sludge dewaterability through peroxidation. Scientific Reports, 5 (7516) 7516, 1-6. doi: 10.1038/srep07516

Role of indigenous iron in improving sludge dewaterability through peroxidation

2015

Journal Article

Producing free nitrous acid - A green and renewable biocidal agent - From anaerobic digester liquor

Law, Yingyu, Ye, Liu, Wang, Qilin, Hu, Shihu, Pijuan, Maite and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Producing free nitrous acid - A green and renewable biocidal agent - From anaerobic digester liquor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 259, 62-69. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.07.138

Producing free nitrous acid - A green and renewable biocidal agent - From anaerobic digester liquor

2015

Conference Publication

Control of microbial corrosion in sewers using a green biocidal agent

Jiang, Guanamina, Sun, Xiaoyan, Bond, Philips, Keller, Jurg and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Control of microbial corrosion in sewers using a green biocidal agent. European Corrosion Congress, EUROCORR 2015, Graz, Austria, 6-10 September 2015. Leoben, Austria: Austrian Society for Metallurgy and Materials (ASMET).

Control of microbial corrosion in sewers using a green biocidal agent

2015

Journal Article

Enhancing aerobic digestion of full-scale waste activated sludge using free nitrous acid pre-treatment

Wang, Qilin and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Enhancing aerobic digestion of full-scale waste activated sludge using free nitrous acid pre-treatment. RSC Advances, 5 (25), 19128-19134. doi: 10.1039/c4ra17215a

Enhancing aerobic digestion of full-scale waste activated sludge using free nitrous acid pre-treatment

2015

Conference Publication

Concrete sewer corrosion due to wastewater inoculation

Jiang, Guangming, Chiu, Tsz Ho, Zhou, Mi, Sun, Xiaoyan, Bond, Philips, Yuan, Zhiguo and Keller, Jurg (2015). Concrete sewer corrosion due to wastewater inoculation. European Corrosion Congress, EUROCORR 2015, Graz, Austria, 6-10 September 2015. Graz, Austria: Austrian Society for Metallurgy and Materials (ASMET).

Concrete sewer corrosion due to wastewater inoculation

2015

Journal Article

Advances in research of devices for wet flue gas desulfurization

Song, Wei, Yuan, Zhi-Guo, Liu, You-Zhi, Kang, Xiao-Feng, Liu, Hui-Jun and Gao, Ya-Jie (2015). Advances in research of devices for wet flue gas desulfurization. Guocheng Gongcheng Xuebao/The Chinese Journal of Process Engineering, 15 (2), 354-360.

Advances in research of devices for wet flue gas desulfurization

2015

Journal Article

Online dissolved methane and total dissolved sulfide measurement in sewers

Liu, Yiwen, Sharma, Keshab R., Fluggen, Markus, O'halloran, Kelly, Murthy, Sudhir and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Online dissolved methane and total dissolved sulfide measurement in sewers. Water Research, 68, 109-118. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.09.047

Online dissolved methane and total dissolved sulfide measurement in sewers

2015

Conference Publication

Predicting the corrosion initiation time of fresh concrete sewers by artificial neural network

Jiang, Guangming, Yuan, Zhiguo, Bond, Philips and Keller, Jurg (2015). Predicting the corrosion initiation time of fresh concrete sewers by artificial neural network. European Corrosion Congress, EUROCORR 2015, Graz,, September 6, 2015-September 10, 2015. Austrian Society for Metallurgy and Materials (ASMET).

Predicting the corrosion initiation time of fresh concrete sewers by artificial neural network

2015

Conference Publication

Manuscript: DC water’s sewer-methane carbon footprint

Willis, John, DeClippeleir, Haydee, Graf, Walter, Kumar, Akshay, Lucas, Barry, Murthy, Sudhir, Peot, Chris, Regmi, Pusker, Satyadev, Abhiram, Sweeney, Charles, Sharma, Keshab, Tanner, Hiram and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Manuscript: DC water’s sewer-methane carbon footprint. 88th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC 2015, Chicago, IL, United States, 26 - 30 September 2015. Alexandria, VA, United States: Water Environment Federation.

Manuscript: DC water’s sewer-methane carbon footprint

2015

Journal Article

Free nitrous acid breaks down extracellular polymeric substances in waste activated sludge

Zhang, Tingting, Wang, Qilin, Khan, Javaid and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Free nitrous acid breaks down extracellular polymeric substances in waste activated sludge. RSC Advances, 5 (54), 43312-43318. doi: 10.1039/c5ra06080j

Free nitrous acid breaks down extracellular polymeric substances in waste activated sludge

2015

Conference Publication

South Australia Water Corporation’s pro-active corrosion and odour management strategy development

Cesca, Josef, Sharma, Keshab, Vuong, Lam, Yuan, Zhiguo, Hamer, Graeme and McDonald, Amy (2015). South Australia Water Corporation’s pro-active corrosion and odour management strategy development. Alexandria, VA, United States: Water Environment Federation. doi: 10.2175/193864715819555463

South Australia Water Corporation’s pro-active corrosion and odour management strategy development

2015

Journal Article

Mass transfer-reaction process of NO gas absorbed by FeII(EDTA)2- solution

Wang, Fei, Liu, You-Zhi, Yuan, Zhi-Guo, Qi, Gui-Sheng and Jiao, Wei-Zhou (2015). Mass transfer-reaction process of NO gas absorbed by FeII(EDTA)2- solution. Hanneng Cailiao/Chinese Journal of Energetic Materials, 23 (3), 285-290. doi: 10.11943/j.issn.1006-9941.2015.03.016

Mass transfer-reaction process of NO gas absorbed by FeII(EDTA)2- solution

2015

Journal Article

Electrochemical abatement of hydrogen sulfide from waste streams

Pikaar, Ilje, Mejia Likosova, Elena, Freguia, Stefano, Keller, Jürg, Rabaey, Korneel and Yuan, Zhiguo (2015). Electrochemical abatement of hydrogen sulfide from waste streams. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 45 (14), 1555-1578. doi: 10.1080/10643389.2014.966419

Electrochemical abatement of hydrogen sulfide from waste streams

2015

Journal Article

Comparison of pressure-drop and mass-transfer characteristics of two kinds of packing in countercurrent rotating packed bed

Yuan, Zhi-Guo, Song, Wei, Jin, Guo-Liang, Kang, Xiao-Feng and Liu, You-Zhi (2015). Comparison of pressure-drop and mass-transfer characteristics of two kinds of packing in countercurrent rotating packed bed. Huaxue Gongcheng/Chemical Engineering (China), 43 (7), 7-11. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1005-9954.2015.07.002

Comparison of pressure-drop and mass-transfer characteristics of two kinds of packing in countercurrent rotating packed bed

2014

Journal Article

Effects of airflow field on droplets diameter inside the corrugated packing of a rotating packed bed

Chengcheng, Xu, Weizhou, Jiao, Youzhi, Liu, Liang, Guo, Zhiguo, Yuan and Qiaoling, Zhang (2014). Effects of airflow field on droplets diameter inside the corrugated packing of a rotating packed bed. China Petroleum Processing and Petrochemical Technology, 16 (4), 38-46.

Effects of airflow field on droplets diameter inside the corrugated packing of a rotating packed bed

2014

Journal Article

Modeling nitrogen removal with partial nitritation and anammox in one floc-based sequencing batch reactor

Ni, Bing-Jie, Joss, Adriano and Yuan, Zhiguo (2014). Modeling nitrogen removal with partial nitritation and anammox in one floc-based sequencing batch reactor. Water Research, 67, 321-329. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.09.028

Modeling nitrogen removal with partial nitritation and anammox in one floc-based sequencing batch reactor

2014

Journal Article

The effect of dissolved oxygen on N2O production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in an enriched nitrifying sludge

Peng, Lai, Ni, Bing-Jie, Erler, Dirk, Ye, Liu and Yuan, Zhiguo (2014). The effect of dissolved oxygen on N2O production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in an enriched nitrifying sludge. Water Research, 66, 12-21. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.08.009

The effect of dissolved oxygen on N2O production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in an enriched nitrifying sludge

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

    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

  • Doctor Philosophy

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

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Xueqin Zhang, Dr Bernardino Virdis

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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