Two Civil and Environmental Engineering Final Year Projects Recognized by HKIE Environmental Division
Howard CHEUNG Yau-Ming and Roland CHENG Ming-Yeung, both 2024 BEng graduates from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, were named the Champion and Second Runner-up respectively in the 2024/2025 Best Final Year Environmental Project (Individual Project) Competition, organized by the Environmental Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). The two winning projects were supervised by Ir Prof. Irene LO, Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, during their undergraduate studies.
Howard currently pursues an MPhil in Civil Engineering at HKUST under Prof. Lo’s supervision and is an Engineering Student Ambassador. His undergraduate final year project, entitled “Novel PEC/Chlorine System with BiVO4-based Photoanode for Efficient Degradation of PPCPs and Disinfection of Drinking Water”, developed a PEC/Chlorine system for drinking water treatment to simultaneously achieve effective pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs, a category of persistent organic pollutant) removal and bacteria inactivation while delivering safe drinking water to the consumer end. The operation of the PEC/Chlorine continuous-flow treatment further provided valuable insights into the scalability and practicality of PEC technology, paving the way towards the potential industrialization of PEC-based water treatment.
Roland is currently enrolled in the MSc Program in Civil Infrastructural Engineering and Management at HKUST. His final year project, entitled “Development of a novel Ov-Fe2O3@BiVO4 photoanode for efficient organic compounds removal in real saline sewage coupled with green H2 generation”, achieved superior performance in organic removal in saline wastewater with considerable H2 generation, while recording a significant reduction in operational carbon emission compared to conventional biological treatment. Owing to the developed Ov-Fe2O3@BiVO4 photoanode’s capability of intrinsically activating chloride for decontamination, the PEC technology demonstrates strong potential for sustainable saline wastewater treatment in Hong Kong.