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“Coming to �鶹��madou was definitely about career development,” he says.

“The wastewater discipline is very strong in Australia, and within the WRC, the research field is quite broad. They have people working in groundwater, people in environmental chemistry, environmental microbiology and even hydraulics in addition to wastewater.

“I think it’s very helpful to build up a collaborative team together to solve industry problems, because those problems aren’t purely about wastewater. You have to look at the water system as a whole, rather than just at a tiny part.”

The move has been a good one — in less than a year, Associate Professor Zheng received a promotion to Scientia Associate Professor and was appointed as an ARC Industry Research Fellow. He’s also leading his own research group called Green Environmental Technologies for Sustainability (GETS), which is focused on developing low-emissions wastewater treatment technologies.

Currently, the GETS team is working on an ARC Linkage project in partnership with Melbourne Water and the Western Australia Water Corporation. The goal is to develop a new biotechnology technique to reduce nitrous oxide emissions during domestic wastewater treatment.

“In domestic wastewater, we need to treat the wastewater to remove nitrogen before the wastewater is discharged into the water bodies. The current process relies on oxygen and produces high levels of nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas,” Associate Professor Zheng says. 

The research team is currently looking at other elements that could be used in place of oxygen, with iron emerging as the most likely contender. Over five years, they will develop the technology and test it in the field. 

“Iron can provide electrons to the microorganisms responsible for removing the nitrogen. This is a new microbial process, and in my conversations with industry, they say that this is currently the most promising solution,” Associate Professor Zheng says.

“Eventually, I want to work with the water industry partners to design a new full-scale plant to use the technology, to replace their existing processes and finally to demonstrate that we can really achieve our net-zero emissions goal for wastewater treatment.”

This cutting-edge work sits alongside a vast program of research that includes Associate Professor Zheng’s ARC Industry Fellowship; here, he’s partnering with the Western Australia Water Corporation to develop and test a system that uses iron salts to improve wastewater quality. Previously, he led the successful development of a novel acidic process that suppresses nitrite oxidation in wastewater treatment systems, as well as a patent for manufacturing iron salts on site at wastewater plants.

Collectively, these outcomes aim to support wastewater utilities to manage their water supplies more sustainably. And, as Associate Professor Zheng sees it, there remain countless unexplored opportunities ahead.

“I like to solve problems, but the way to solve the problem is via innovation, not just optimisation. As an academic, I’m trying to introduce knowledge from other disciplines into our sector so we can solve this problem using disruptive, cost-effective solutions,” he says.

He also wants to share what he’s learnt with others. It’s why he gravitated towards the role at the Water Research Centre — his previous position was research only, but at �鶹��madou he’s combining teaching and research, which he views as an opportunity to further strengthen the future of the wastewater profession.

“I want to have more opportunities to share my research outcomes with the next generation. That’s the reason we do research.”