Some of the Centre’s research leaders include:

• Professor Stephen Gray, Victoria University
• Dr Pierre Le-Clech, The University of New South Wales
• Dr Sophie Leterme, Flinders University
• Professor Michael Monteiro, The University of Queensland
• Professor S. (Vigi) Vigneswaran, University of Technology Sydney
• Professor Linda Zou, University of South Australia

Professor Stephen Gray
Victoria University

Victoria University Professor Stephen Gray leads two collaborative research projects to increase water recovery from reverse osmosis brine and reduce requirements for expensive evaporation ponds and brine waste disposal.

Professor Gray has been Director of Victoria University’s Institute for Sustainability and Innovation since leaving CSIRO in 2006, and is responsible for the university’s water research program.

He has over 20 years’ research experience in water and wastewater treatment.

One of Professor Gray’s NCED-funded projects investigates new membrane distillation design to treat reverse osmosis brine from brackish water treatment to recover additional water and reduce needs for large evaporation ponds.

This research is a collaborative effort with his VU team, CSIRO’s Advanced Water Treatment research group, Siemens, Osmoflo and GWMWater.

Another project led by Professor Gray investigates the onsite removal of silica from reverse osmosis brines via precipitation, seeded precipitation or adsorption – which will also reduce silica fouling of membranes.

This research at the Murrin Murrin Nickel Refinery involves collaboration with Origin Energy – the focus is Origin’s coal seam gas water – and Hatch. It’s also supported by the Victorian Water Corporation, GWMWater and Coliban Water.

Both projects seek to dramatically increase brackish water recoveries for inland communities and mine operations with limited groundwater resources from current levels of 70-80 per cent (as low as 50 per cent for some bore waters) and stem current losses of 20-30 per cent as waste brine for disposal and/or due to evaporation.

Additionally, the high cost of evaporation ponds – $36 million for 60ha of ponds needed for a five ML/d plant – are an economic disincentive and require an impermeable membrane which adds further expense to construction costs. For instance a double liner adds about $1million/ha to an operation.

Hence processes to recover silica and increase water recovery from reverse osmosis brine have the potential to save companies and communities tens of millions of dollars and provide up to 95 per cent water recovery.

Professor Gray leads a team of more than 25 staff and PhD students at VU developing such multi-disciplinary research projects to deliver research outcomes to meet industry needs.

He is the Australian Water Association’s co-convenor for the Desalination and Membranes Special Interest Network, and VU representative for Water Quality Research Australia.

Professor Gray previously led the CSIRO Urban Water team, was part of the national science agency’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, and led the CSIRO Custer project on Advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment.

He is also Editor of the new IWA journal, Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination, Associate Editor of Water Research, part of the editorial board for the Desalination journal, and has authored more than 100 scientific journal and conference publications, and over 100 internal and industry reports.

NCEDA projects

• Reverse osmosis brine management by membrane distillation crystallisation
• Evaluation of non-chemical pulsed-power technology as an antifouling pre-treatment for reverse osmosis desalination membranes
• Continuous silica removal during desalination for increased water recovery (co-PI with Dr Nicholas Milne and Dr Peter Sanciolo)

Contact details

Dr Pierre Le-Clech
The University of New South Wales

Dr Pierre Le-Clech from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) aims to meet a growing industry challenge – how to reuse and recycle reverse osmosis membranes which otherwise end up in landfill. Dr Le-Clech leads the NCEDA project to develop options for reuse of the desalination membranes which only have a typical three to four-year lifespan. He says finding solutions is a necessity for sustainable desalination in Australia. At present, no other option than landfill discharge is proposed to membrane users, and the current amount of waste generated will reach 200 tonnes this year and nearly 800 tonnes by 2015.

Dr Le-Clech, a Senior Lecturer in the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering, is collaborating with Victoria and Monash universities and industrial partners Dow Chemical Australia, Sydney Water, SA Water, the WA Water Corporation and SkyJuice Foundation. His team of joint investigators will research new options for sustainable disposal such as energy recovery, and recycling of reverse osmosis membranes as porous membranes.

Another NCEDA project Dr Le-Clech leads from UNSW’s UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology is optimising low pressure membrane pre-treatment for desalination. This work will characterise organic compounds present in feedwaters, enable better understanding of and optimal strategies for membrane fouling control and recommendations for sustainable operation and performance. UNSW is collaborating with Curtin University, Siemens, Veolia Water Australia and the WA Water Corporation.

Dr Le-Clech, who was awarded a two-year New South Global Fellowship in 2005, currently supervises ten research students, and serves as Associate Editor of the Desalination and Water Treatment journal. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Membrane Water Treatment.

Research interests

• Hybrid membrane processes for water and wastewater treatment
• Water reclamation and recycling
• Extrapolymer substances and biofilm
• Membrane autopsy

NCEDA projects

• Reuse of reverse osmosis membranes
• Optimising low-pressure membrane pretreatment for desalination
• Assisted forward osmosis for energy savings in RO desalination

Contact details

Dr Sophie Leterme
Flinders University

Dr Sophie Leterme is a Flinders University microbiologist studying the adapability of phytoplankton to changes in salinity as a result of coastal desalination operations. The South Australian lecturer in biological oceanography secured National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia funding for research at the Port Stanvac desalination plant to create a predictive model for species sustainability around plant intake and discharge (brine diffusers) pipes.

Phytoplankton or diatom communities in the sea and inland freshwater are often used for monitoring environmental conditions and water quality – in oceans they are vital for overall ecological health, contributing to nearly half of the sea’s total primary production. Dr Leterme’s research will determine if and how phytoplankton populations are affected by saline discharges from the SA desalination plant, and her findings should then be applicable for plant locations around Australia and throughout the world.

Dr Leterme is comparing seasonal adjustments in salinity in the immediate months before and then during desalination plant operations in the St Vincent Gulf. “The results should demonstrate that either there’s no changes in salinity and phytoplankton other than natural seasonal changes, or that salinity changes are due to brine discharge and species are either adapting to those levels or not coping,” Dr Leterme said.

“No changes would mean that brine discharge from desalination plants doesn’t impact phytoplankton communities and isn’t detrimental for the primary producers of the pelagic food chain – whereas the latter findings would mean we have to find strategies to reduce the impact of brine discharge on these important primary producers.

Dr Leterme has also received an ARC Discovery Grant focusing on the morphological flexibility of diatoms under environmental changes in the SA Coorong wetland. She leads a multi-disciplinary team of two research associates, a PhD student and two Honours students working on ecological aspects of the projects in the Coorong and at the desalination plant. Her team collaborates with Flinders Associate Professors Melissa Brown and Amanda Ellis for the molecular, metagenomic and nanostructure/chemistry parts of the research projects.

In addition to her position at Flinders University, Dr Leterme also works for the South Australian Research and Development Institute’s Aquatic Sciences Centre’s Oceanography program. She is co-developer, principal investigator and deputy node leader of the Southern Australian Integrated Marine Observing System which studies the coastal upwelling south of Kangaroo Island and its impact on the spatiotemporal
dynamic of the planktonic community.

Research interests

• Phytoplankton species dynamic in different ecosystems
• Nanostructure of diatoms frustules
• Hydroclimatic forcing from local to global scales
• Impact of raising salinity and temperature levels on phytoplankton community composition and dynamics

NCEDA projects

• Nanostructure of diatoms: a predictive model for species sustainability
• Assessing the biofouling role of microbes in the desalination system; From the intake pipe to the reverse osmosis membranes

Contact details

Professor Michael Monteiro
The University of Queensland

University of Queensland scientists are developing novel organic membranes with high selectivity, high water permeation rates with low energy requirements.

Leading the NCEDA-funded research to deliver the next generation in membrane technology is Professor Michael Monteiro, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow based at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the Brisbane university.

Prof. Monteiro says that with the new methods developed by his team, these membranes have the potential to be made on industrial scales.

Prof. Monteiro has established an international reputation in the field of ‘living’ radical polymerisation to produce highly complex polymer architectures and nanostructures in water.

His recent collaborative work on using polymeric systems in biology is highly regarded internationally and he was appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board of Macromolecules for three years – the top polymer journal – and welcomed as a plenary and invited speaker at many international conferences.

Prof. Monteiro has previously held positions at universities in Canada, the Netherlands and Sydney and been Principal Scientist at Sydney company Gradipore Ltd.

In the Netherlands, his research group was the first to develop polymer nanostructures with controlled size, morphology and block copolymer composition using the Australian invented RAFT technology, a significant step in its commercialisation success.

Other collaborative research discovered a self-regulation mechanism for copper-mediated living radical polymerisation, which led to the making of ultrahigh and ultrafast polymers using copper to catalyse the polymerization, contributing considerable commercial significance for application in high heat distortion temperature PVC materials and ultra-strong coatings.

Prof. Monteiro is inventor on seven patents including modified rubber polymer latex and dendritic molecules, has published over 140 peer reviewed publications and has over 4500 citations.

He has won nine national science, innovation travel and leadership awards, and received a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship.

Professor Monteiro’s research has attracted ARC Discovery grants, ACR Linkage, ARC LIEF, NHMRC and Queensland state government funding in excess of $7 million and he is on the editorial board of the Journal of Polymer Science Part A Polymer Chemistry and The Open Macromolecules Journal.

His research into reducing heavy metals at minute levels for the purification of waterled to his invitation to the Australian Academy of Science High Flyers Think Tank – developing best practices and technologies for water management and sustainability. He has consulted widely across Europe, the US, Australia and India.

Research interests

• Next generation nanostructures
• Smart nanopolymer for drug delivery
• Nanopolymer composites with complex architectures prepared in water
• Mechanisms in living radical polymerisation
• Nanoparticles for photosensitiser delivery

NCEDA projects

• Highly productive and selective bio-organic hybrid membrane water filters

Contact details

Professor S. (Vigi) Vigneswaran
University of Technology Sydney

Professor S. Vigneswaran of the University of Technology, Sydney, has outstanding achievements stretching over 25 years in developing innovative technologies in water treatment, wastewater management, water reuse and reclamation. He regularly receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and industry – in the past four years obtaining 10 ARC grants. Professor Vigneswaran works with US and European universities, international research institutes, the European Union and United Nations programs to solve water scarcity – creating treatment systems for alternative water sources such as stormwater harvesting – and to make desalination and pre-treatment more energy efficient.

In Australia he plays a major role at NCEDA in designing pre-treatment for desalination systems for small coastal towns in WA and inland areas of NSW and Victoria. His UTS research group is currently working on three Centre projects – membrane flocculation hybrid system as pre-treatment, membrane distillation and forward osmosis.

In recognition of his eminent contribution to water sciences, Professor Vigneswaran was inducted into the International Water Academy as a life member and (inaugural) fellow of the International Water Association for 2010. He won the Applied Research Honour Award in the 2010 International Water Association Asia Pacific Regional Project Innovation Awards for an environmentally friendly biofilter pre-treatment for reverse osmosis in seawater desalination. In 2008, he won the same award for his work in arsenic removal.

Professor Vigneswaran is Director of the Centre for Technologies for Water and Wastewater at UTS and Co-Chair of the IWA Specialist group on Membrane Technologies. An Associate Editor of several leading water journals, he has written and contributed to more than 350 publications including three books, and is currently working on an international membranes handbook. His expertise is frequently called upon by major industry and public sector organisations and he is Chairman of the MacArthur Water, and the Sydney Water Corporation’s Research and Development Program Management Committee.

Professor Vigneswaran has also been a Visiting Professor at universities and research institutions around the world to work with experts on filtration and membranes, and funded by UN programs and several governments to run international clean technology and environmental solutions workshops and symposiums.

Research interests

• Membrane technologies and hybrid systems for water reuse and desalination
• High rate solid liquid separation technologies for package water treatment systems
• Advanced oxidation, photocatalysis, biofiltration for persistent organic removal
• Optimising treatment systems and their operation

NCEDA projects

• Membrane flocculation hybrid system as pre-treatment to brackish water reverse osmosis desalination system: Emphasis on chemical use reduction and recovery
• Membrane adsorption bioreactor hybrid system as a pre-treatment to reverse osmosis desalination
• The optimisation and improvement of direct filtration pre-treatment to reduce both organic and bio-fouling of RO membranes
• Tjuntjunjarra remote inland indigenous community solar/waste energy groundwater desalination project (co-PI with Dr Trevor Pryor, Murdoch University)

Contact details

Professor Linda Zou
University of South Australia

Prof. Linda Zou and her team at University of South Australia are leading an NCEDA project to develop and evaluate the potential of using graphene nano sheets as novel electrode materials in capacitive deionisation (CDI). CDI is a promising alternative desalination technology that uses carbon electrodes to remove salt ions by electrosorption. It requires less energy to operate than traditional desalination methods and the electrodes are easily regenerated. Many kinds of carbon materials have been investigated as CDI electrodes, such as carbon aerogel, carbon cloth, carbon nanotubes and mesoporous carbons.

Prof. Zou received her PhD in chemistry from Monash University in 1998. Her main research contributions are in the field of novel nanomaterial synthesis and its application to solve real world problems in desalination and water purification. In desalination research, Prof. Zou has focused on applying nanotechnology to low energy alternative desalination methods. Her contribution to the development of novel carbon electrode materials in capacitive deionisation has achieved greatly improved electrode efficiency and has received international recognition. Her recent research work also involves developing novel antifouling membrane surfaces.

Prof. Zou has an outstanding track record in successful nationally competitive ARC grants. She is the principal supervisor of seven PhD students.

Research interests

• Low energy alternative desalination processes using electrosorptive carbon electrodes.
• Membrane filtration for fit for purpose water reuse/recycle
• Synthesize nano-structured materials for environmental applications, such as TiO2/porpous nanocomposites
• Desalination brine waste treatment
• Membrane surface modification for low orgnaic fouling
• Using combined advanced oxidation processes to treat the industrial effluent for water reuse.

NCEDA projects

• Developing highly conductive graphene electrodes for capacitive desalination
• Application of capacitive deionisation in inland brackish water desalination

Contact details