Yan Lu

Yan Lu received her Ph.D. from the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB) at the University of Queensland (Australia). Her research focused on the effective integration of process engineering and environmental biotechnology to develop innovative and sustainable wastewater treatment technology. Specifically, one of her works successfully achieved the simultaneous removal of dissolved methane and nitrogen from anaerobically treated wastewater by integrating aerobic ammonia oxidation, anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and anaerobic methane oxidation (n-DAMO) in one membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) technology. This ground-breaking technology accelerates the development of MABR technology and provides the potential for transforming wastewater treatment from energy-intensive to energy-neutral.

Yan joined the ND-ECI in March 2025 as a Postdoc Research Associate and is working with Prof. Robert Nerenberg. Her current research focuses on detachment biofilm from MABRs, and she will further develop effective control strategies for the unwanted growth of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in MABRs to achieve a stable partial nitritation and anammox process (PN/A), which is the most challenging process for the future widespread adoption of PN/A in MABRs. She is enthusiastic about pushing bench research into pilot and even full-scale application in the future.