Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan
Honorary Professor

Zhiguo Yuan

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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)

741 - 760 of 805 works

2004

Conference Publication

A novel wastewater treatment process: Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal

Zeng, R. J., Lemaire, R., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2004). A novel wastewater treatment process: Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal. 3rd IWA Specialised Conference on Sequencing Batch Reactor Technology (SBR3), Noosa, Brisbane, Australia, 22-26 February 2004. London, United Kingdom: IWA Publishing.

A novel wastewater treatment process: Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal

2004

Conference Publication

Selective production of nitrite using hydroxylamine as inhibitor of nitrite oxidation.

Blackburne, R. J., de Sousa Carvalho, G., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2004). Selective production of nitrite using hydroxylamine as inhibitor of nitrite oxidation.. IWA Conference on Environmental Biotechnology: Advancement on Water and Wastewater Application in the Tropics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 9 -10 December 2003. London, United Kingdom: IWA Publishing.

Selective production of nitrite using hydroxylamine as inhibitor of nitrite oxidation.

2004

Conference Publication

The rate of nitrate production during a two-stage nitrification batch reaction

Pratt, S., Gapes, D., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2004). The rate of nitrate production during a two-stage nitrification batch reaction. 3rd IWA Specialised Conference on Sequencing Batch Reactor Technology (SBR3), Noosa, Australia, 22-26 February 2004. London, U.K.: IWA Publishing; Portland Press.

The rate of nitrate production during a two-stage nitrification batch reaction

2004

Conference Publication

Performance of enchanced biological phosphorus removal systems enriched with different volatile acid.

Oehmen, A. M., Yuan, Z., Zeng, R. J. and Keller, J. (2004). Performance of enchanced biological phosphorus removal systems enriched with different volatile acid.. International Water Association 2nd Young Researchers Conference, Waginingen, Netherlands, 23-24 April 2004. London: IWA.

Performance of enchanced biological phosphorus removal systems enriched with different volatile acid.

2003

Journal Article

An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 2. Residuals analysis and a case study

Lennox, James A. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2003). An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 2. Residuals analysis and a case study. International Journal For Numerical Methods In Engineering, 57 (5), 707-722. doi: 10.1002/nme.699

An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 2. Residuals analysis and a case study

2003

Journal Article

Online titrimetric and off-gas analysis for examining nitrification processes in wastewater treatment

Gapes, Daniel, Pratt, Steven, Yuan, Zhiguo and Keller, Jurg (2003). Online titrimetric and off-gas analysis for examining nitrification processes in wastewater treatment. Water Research, 37 (11), 2678-2690. doi: 10.1016/S0043-1354(03)00022-8

Online titrimetric and off-gas analysis for examining nitrification processes in wastewater treatment

2003

Journal Article

Development of a novel titration and off-gas analysis (TOGA) sensor for study of biological processes in wastewater treatment systems

Pratt, Steven, Yuan, Zhiguo, Gapes, Daniel, Dorigo, Marco, Zeng, Raymond J. and Keller, Jurg (2003). Development of a novel titration and off-gas analysis (TOGA) sensor for study of biological processes in wastewater treatment systems. Biotechnology And Bioengineering, 81 (4), 482-495. doi: 10.1002/bit.10490

Development of a novel titration and off-gas analysis (TOGA) sensor for study of biological processes in wastewater treatment systems

2003

Journal Article

Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification, and phosphorus removal in a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor

Zeng, R. J., Lemaire, R., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2003). Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification, and phosphorus removal in a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor. Biotechnology And Bioengineering, 84 (2), 170-178. doi: 10.1002/bit.10744

Simultaneous nitrification, denitrification, and phosphorus removal in a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor

2003

Conference Publication

Mutation analysis to verify feature matrices for isolating errors in simulation models

Carter, S., Graham, M. L., Strooper, P. A. and Yuan, Z. (2003). Mutation analysis to verify feature matrices for isolating errors in simulation models. Computer Science 2003: Twenty-Sixth Australasian Computer Science Conference, Adelaide, SA, Australia, 4-7 February 2003. Sydney, Australia: Australian Computer Society Inc..

Mutation analysis to verify feature matrices for isolating errors in simulation models

2003

Conference Publication

Characterising biological processes using a titration and off-gas analysis sensor.

Pratt, S., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2003). Characterising biological processes using a titration and off-gas analysis sensor.. IWA Conference on Environmental Biotechnology: Advancement on Water and Wastewater Applications in the Tropics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 9-10 December 2003. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: International Water Association.

Characterising biological processes using a titration and off-gas analysis sensor.

2003

Conference Publication

Bacterial biopolymer production from carbonaceous wastewater.

Dai, Y., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2003). Bacterial biopolymer production from carbonaceous wastewater.. Environmental Engineering Research Event (EERE), Marysville, Victoria, 1-5 December 2003. Australia: Environmental Engineering Research Event.

Bacterial biopolymer production from carbonaceous wastewater.

2003

Journal Article

Identification and comparison of aerobic and denitrifying polyphosphate-accumulating organisms

Zeng, RJ, Saunders, AM, Yuan, ZG, Blackall, LL and Keller, J (2003). Identification and comparison of aerobic and denitrifying polyphosphate-accumulating organisms. Biotechnology And Bioengineering, 83 (2), 140-148. doi: 10.1001/bit.10652

Identification and comparison of aerobic and denitrifying polyphosphate-accumulating organisms

2003

Journal Article

The effect of GAOs (glycogen accumulating organisms) on anaerobic carbon requirements in full-scale Australian EBPR (enhanced biological phosphorus removal) plants

Saunders, A. M., Oehmen, A. M., Blackall, L. L., Yuan, Z. and Keller, J. (2003). The effect of GAOs (glycogen accumulating organisms) on anaerobic carbon requirements in full-scale Australian EBPR (enhanced biological phosphorus removal) plants. Water Science and Technology, 47 (11), 37-43. doi: 10.2166/wst.2003.0584

The effect of GAOs (glycogen accumulating organisms) on anaerobic carbon requirements in full-scale Australian EBPR (enhanced biological phosphorus removal) plants

2003

Journal Article

Metabolic model for glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/aerobic activated sludge systems

Zeng, R. J., van Loosdrecht, M. C. M., Yuan, Z. G. and Keller, J. (2003). Metabolic model for glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/aerobic activated sludge systems. Biotechnology And Bioengineering, 81 (1), 92-105. doi: 10.1002/bit.10455

Metabolic model for glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/aerobic activated sludge systems

2003

Conference Publication

Mass transfer effects on theoxygen affinity constant estimation of a nitrobacter enrichment.

Blackburne, R. J., Vadivelu, V. M., Kim, D, Yuan, Z., Blackall, L. L. and Keller, J. (2003). Mass transfer effects on theoxygen affinity constant estimation of a nitrobacter enrichment.. EERE2003 Environmental Research Conference, Marysville, Victoria, 1-4 December 2003. Australia: Environmental Engineering Research Event.

Mass transfer effects on theoxygen affinity constant estimation of a nitrobacter enrichment.

2003

Book Chapter

Optimization and control of nitrogen removal activated sludge processes: A review of recent developments

Yuan, Z., Keller, J. and Lant, P. A. (2003). Optimization and control of nitrogen removal activated sludge processes: A review of recent developments. Biotechnology for the Environment: Wastewater Treatment and Modeling, Waste Gas Handling. (pp. 187-227) edited by Spiros N. Agathos and Walter Reineke. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. doi: 10.1007/978-94-017-0932-3_6

Optimization and control of nitrogen removal activated sludge processes: A review of recent developments

2003

Journal Article

Model-based analysis of anaerobic acetate uptake by a mixed culture of polyphosphate-accumulating and glycogen-accumulating organisms

Zeng, RJ, Yuan, ZG and Keller, J (2003). Model-based analysis of anaerobic acetate uptake by a mixed culture of polyphosphate-accumulating and glycogen-accumulating organisms. Biotechnology And Bioengineering, 83 (3), 293-302. doi: 10.1002/bit.10671

Model-based analysis of anaerobic acetate uptake by a mixed culture of polyphosphate-accumulating and glycogen-accumulating organisms

2003

Journal Article

Enrichment of denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/anoxic activated sludge system

Zeng, RJ, Yuan, ZG and Keller, J (2003). Enrichment of denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/anoxic activated sludge system. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 81 (4), 397-404. doi: 10.1002/bit.10484

Enrichment of denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms in anaerobic/anoxic activated sludge system

2003

Journal Article

An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 1. Methodology for residual generation

Yuan, Zhiguo, Graham, Malcolm L. and Lennox, James A. (2003). An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 1. Methodology for residual generation. International Journal For Numerical Methods In Engineering, 57 (5), 685-706. doi: 10.1002/nme.698

An approach to verifying and debugging simulation models governed by ordinary differential equations: Part 1. Methodology for residual generation

2003

Conference Publication

Fluorescence insitu hybridization analysis of nitrifiers in piggery wastewater treatment reactors

Kim, D, Kim, T.K., Choi, E, Park, W.C., Kim, T.H., Ahn, D.H., Yuan, Z., Blackall, L. L. and Keller, J. (2003). Fluorescence insitu hybridization analysis of nitrifiers in piggery wastewater treatment reactors. IWA Specialty Symposium on Strong Nitrogenous and Agro-Wastewa, Seoul, Korea, 11-13 June, 2003. Seoul, Korea: IWA Speciality Symposium.

Fluorescence insitu hybridization analysis of nitrifiers in piggery wastewater treatment reactors

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

    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

  • 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

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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