For many people, a career spent working with sewage would be a challenge. For environmental engineer Prof Guanghao Chen, it is the adventure of a lifetime that has seen the leading international researcher and his team develop pioneering wastewater treatment technology to help solve one of the world’s major issues on sustainable living As a native son of Jiaxing, a picturesque canal water town around 100km from Shanghai, Prof Guanghao Chen has always felt an affinity for rivers, lakes, streams and seas, and respected the essential role that water has played in human civilization. Now the School of Engineering professor and his research team are set to make a revolutionary contribution of their own to development through their Sulphate reduction, Autotrophic denitrification and Nitrification Integrated(SANI)Process – one of the most remarkable technological breakthroughs in wastewater treatment in over 100 years. More than 10 patents related to the ideas and technology have been received or applied for, and the groundbreaking nature of the research brought a clutch of international awards in 2012. The team received three International Water Association awards, Germany’s International Huber Technology Prize (second prize)and a finalists’ award in Spain’s World Smart Cities Awards. Prof Chen was also the first Hong Kong scholar to be elected a Fellow of the prestigious International Water Association in 2011. Such achievements follow 18 years of strenuous research efforts, which have engaged Prof Chen since he arrived at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1995. But they also mark a watershed where Prof Chen can now place his dream of advancing the world’s capabilities for sustainable water resources within a 10-20 year realizable framework. “I had witnessed the impact of the pollution that went together with industrialization and development in China and destroyed plants and people’s lifestyle,”said Prof Chen, explaining his drive to explore the field. “When I finished high school, I knew without hesitation I wanted to study water. I applied for postgraduate studies in this area, also without hesitation. I worked as a water engineer for three years. I am fascinated by how you can turn dirty water into clean water. I feel it is my destiny, my mission, to work in this field, to change the world to have a better future – like Steve Jobs.” The task is growing more urgent by the day. The sewage sludge produced by conventional wastewater treatments is a costly, difficult item to eliminate. In Hong Kong, for example, landfills taking sewage sludge are close to capacity and sludge incineration will be unpopular with nearby residents and further impact on air quality in the city. SANI – known as “sludge killer” in Chinese – is a novel technology that minimizes the environmental impact of sewage treatment plants by getting rid of 90% of the sludge. The idea for such a technology was inspired by Hong Kong’s globally pioneering seawater flushing system in use for the past 50 years to help solve the city’s lack of water resources. Hong Kong is the only city globally using seawater for flushing on a city scale, saving 740,000 cubic meters of freshwater per day. Using sulphate-reducing bacteria and the sulphate in seawater as the medium to oxidize and get rid of pollutants, Prof Chen discovered he could minimize CLEANING 3 IN FOCUS
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