Professor Liu Ye

Professor

School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
l.ye@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 54152

Overview

Dr Liu Ye is is a Professor at The University of Queensland (UQ) in the School of Chemical Engineering. Dr Ye’s research is focused on sustainable environmental engineering and is dedicated to finding innovative and practical solutions to tackle challenges in achieving net zero emissions, climate resilience, and sustainability. She is the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) research program leader at UQ urban water engineering. She has an established national and international leadership in the research field of net-zero emissions from urban wastewater systems. Prof Ye has been awarded over AU$10M competitive research funding and has a broad research collaboration within academia and industry. She collaborated extensively with water industry partners (> 15, both Australia and overseas water utilities), Australian state Government, Industry peak bodies (Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), Water Research Australia (WarterRA)) and Technology companies (e.g., Jacob, Suez, Veolia). She has also received more than eight scientific awards (including Research Innovation Award from Australia Water Association, UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award, etc.), and the EAIT faculty teaching excellence award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and an elected member in the Strategic Council of International Water Association (IWA). She is also a member of the Australia Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) and Engineers Australia (EA). She current servers as the Associate editor of Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology and in the Editorial board of Engineering journal.

Research:

Liu’s research includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation from biological wastewater treatment processes; sludge minimization and biogas production enhancement; advanced biological nutrient removal (BNR) technology development; on-line process control and optimisation and resource recovery from wastes.

Teaching and Learning:

CHEE2020: Process Equipment and Control (Coordinator and Lecturer);

CHEE2501: Environmental Systems Engineering I: Processes (Lecturer);

CHEE4012: Industrial Wastewater & Solid Waste Management (Lecturer);

CHEE4007/4027 Thesis project;

Research Impacts

Prof Liu Ye's research is having a substantive impact in gaining a deeper scientific understanding of biological nutrient removal and recovery during wastewater treatment and outputs from her research are used by industry to recover nutrients from wastewater and reduce greenhouse gas emission and activate sludge production during wastewater treatment, which directly benefits the Australia water utilities and the living environment-:

  • Leader and one of the key drivers to the development of N2O research at UQ, with solid and active collaboration with Australia water utilities. Research outcome has set a benchmark for reducing emissions by 35% at one of the largest Australian treatment plants in Adelaide, translating to potential annual savings of $50M for the water industry.
  • GHG outcome featured as an exemplar of how chemical engineering can drive real change for a better future, as recognized by the IChemE in their publication "Chemical Engineering Impact in Australia" at the end of 2019.
  • Featured by IChemE Sustainability Hub: Sustainability success stories on “Wastewater treatment and process emissions – Dr Liu Ye”, (https://www.icheme.org/knowledge-networks/sustainability-hub/sdg-6-clean-water-and-sanitation/making-a-difference-sustainability-success-stories/)
  • Her methodology for real-time greenhouse gas emission measurement, which was applied in Melbourne Water’s full-scale treatment plant, won the 2022 Australia Water Association Research Excellence and Innovation award (Victoria region).
  • Developed the first systematic approach to quantify the N2O emissions from wastewater system with surface aerators. It was successfully applied to estimate the N2O emission factor for a well-mixed full-scale oxidation ditch wastewater treatment plant in Perth.
  • Her ground-breaking research has led to substantial development and commercialisation of the free nitrous acid (FNA) technology. Her research revealed, for the first time, FNA at a low concentration can completely suppress bacterial growth. This research, together with another research result, underpinned the application of FNA as a green chemical to control biofilm growth on sewers and to reduce the sludge production during urban wastewater treatment.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Beijing University of Technology
  • Bachelor of Engineering, Zhengzhou University

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Nopens, Ingmar, Porro, Jose and Ye, Liu (2022). Perspectives on fugitive GHGs reduction from urban wastewater systems. Quantification and modelling of fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from urban water systems. (pp. 245-257) edited by Liu Ye, Jose Porro and Ingmar Nopens. London, United Kingdom: IWA Publishing. doi: 10.2166/9781789060461_0245

  • Ye, Liu and Porro, Jose (2022). Introduction. Quantification and modelling of fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from urban water systems. (pp. 1-9) edited by Liu Ye, Jose Porro and Ingmar Nopens. London, United Kingdom: IWA Publishing. doi: 10.2166/9781789060461_0001

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Note for students: Professor Liu Ye is not currently available to take on new students.

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Completed Supervision