School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo　Research Center for Water Environment Technology

[Lecturer abstract]

An energy self-sustainable wastewater treatment plant has been long envisioned by the engineering community. Indeed, wastewater contains over three times the energy required for complete treatment, using conventional treatment processes.

Novel processes may extract larger fractions of the chemical energy bound in the organic matter of wastewater; and if combined with energy sustainable wastewater treatment processes may lead into an energy self-sustainable wastewater treatment plant.

Our lab has manufactured a large-scale demo plant for energy production from biosolids, using a novel microsieving process for low moisture-high energy biosolids production, combined with biosolids gasification. The above, if combined with novel downstream process, can drive to an energy positive wastewater treatment process.

The lecture focuses on the process for developing and manufacturing the above process at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, with hydraulic capacity of 5000m3/d and net electric power capacity of 30kW, and provides operational data and mas and energy balances.

[Curriculum Vitae]

Prof. Gikas is the Dean of the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, at Technical University of Crete, Greece, and Director of the “Design of Environmental Processes Laboratory”. He studied Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and got his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK. During the academic year 2006-2007 he visited the University of California (UC), Davis, USA, where he was engaged in environmental research at the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

He is specifically active in the design of novel wastewater treatment processes with emphasis in low cost – low energy treatment processes and on water reclamation and reuse applications. He is also working on energy recovery from biosolids and municipal solid waste, utilizing thermal or biological processes. He is also engaged in research for the development of algorithms for integrated water recourses management (with emphasis on water reuse).

He has published more than 100 academic papers and has more than 250 scientific conference presentations. He has edited more than 15 Special Issues, as Leading Guest Editor, on Environmental Engineering topics. Since 2010, he is a member of the Editorial team of the Journal of Environmental Management (Elsevier). Since 2022, he organizes and chairs, on an annual base, the International Conference on Chemical and Environmental Engineering (SUSTENG) (www.susteng.tuc.gr). He has been classified as the World's Top 2% Scientists 2018-2024 (list of Stanford University).