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Staff Profile

Dr Paul Sallis

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5735
  • Fax: +44 (0) 191 208 6502
  • Address: Civil Engineering
    School of Engineering
    Room 1.11
    Cassie Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
    UK
Background

Background

Joined Civil Engineering within the School of Engineering in 1997 as a Lecturer in Environmental Engineering specialising in biological treatment processes in wastewater treatment, focusing on the degradation of recalcitrant contaminants in industrial wastewaters by aerobic and anaerobic treatment systems. Recent focus has been on the conversion of biological waste to renewable energy by anaerobic systems.

Currently a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=gV5HhmsAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

 

Roles & Responsibility

DPD for MSc in Environmental Engineering

Member Civil Engineering Programme Management Group

Member School Safety Committee

Member School Staff Student Committee

Member of the Faculty Ethics Commitee

 

Qualifications

BSc Biochemistry (Bristol)

PhD Environmental Microbiology (Kent)


Industrial Experience

Worked for 4 years as Project Development Manager, IBS Viridian Ltd, Whitstable, Kent.

Effluent Treatment - Process design for liquid effluent treatment systems; preparing proposals and tender documents; management of laboratory and technical treatability programmes; responsible for pilot plant demonstration trials.

New Business Development - evaluation of business and product development opportunities; Patent application and registration; resource and project management from initial concept designs through to finished product; coordination of manufacture, fabrication, installation, commissioning, and system performance.  Specifying service and maintenance protocols for new equipment.

Scientific R&D Programmes -  Management of collaborative industrial research and development ventures with academic partners to exploit and commercialise leading-edge technologies for soil bioremediation and liquid effluent treatment. Securing IPR protection.



Worked for 3 years as Project Team Leader, International Institute of Biotechnology, Kent.

Headed a team of five multi-disciplinary scientists and engineers working on a three year programme for Hercules Chemical Corporation developing a novel bioprocessing technology to remove organohalogen pollutants from wet-strength resins used in commercial paper manufacture. Managed all stages of process development from initial identification, selection and evaluation of potential bacterial biocatalysts, to the design and implementation of a patented industrial bioprocess now used in the production of modern environmentally improved wet-strength resins.


Research

Research Interests

Theme  - Anaerobic Digestion and Sustainable Energy

  1. Anaerobic digestion of industrial wastewaters (pharmaceutical) with  Eli Lilley
  2. Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste organic residues (North Tyneside Council)
  3. Use of macroalgae (seaweed) as large-scale biomass feedstocks in  sustainable biogas production (ITI Energy)
  4. Biogas generation from microalgae – effect of AD reactor design and operation on Biogas yield (EPSRC).
  5. Biogas generation from microalgal feedstocks in membrane anaerobic bioreactors.

 

 Theme - Water treatment in developing countries

1. Development of sustainable production methods for simple ceramic water filters 

2. Development of hand-pumped membrane water filters (with The Safe Water Trust).

3. Development of simple solar stills for fluoride and arsenic removal.

4. Development of solar tracked Fresnel lens for thermal disinfection of raw water

 

Postgraduate Supervision

Has mentored over 10 successful doctoral  theses and has supervised over 50 M.Sc. Dissertations. Currently  supervises  three  PhD  students,  two  being  overseas  students,  and  one  Postdoctoral Associate through funding from the Jordanian, Malaysian and Kuwait Governments and the UK EPSRC.

 

Esteem Indicators

Invited Speaker, British Council Short Course, Management of Liquid and Solid Hazardous Waste, Newcastle, 2000
Invited Speaker - IWA Members Meeting, Newcastle, Jan 2003
Invited presentation - World Bank, Development Marketplace, Washington DC, May 2006.
Invited speaker - CIWM Open Meeting, Newcastle March 2007
Featured Contributor - ITV Current Affairs programme "Around the Home", March 2007.

Acted asTrustee for Team Kenya Charity. teamkenya.org.uk/
Mission - to empower communities in Western Kenya to overcome poverty, injustice and inequality, by encouraging sustainable development, the use of appropriate technologies, and the provision of training and advice.

Reviewer, Journal, Water Research
Reviewer, Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE
Reviewer, Journal, Environmental Science & Technology
Reviewer, Journal, Bioresource Technology
Reviewer, Journal, Enzyme and Microbial Technology
Reviewer, Journal, Chemosphere
Reviewer, Journal of Biotechnology
Reviewer, Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology
Reviewer, Journal of Environmental Management
Reviewer, Journal of Air, Water and Soil Pollution

External Course Assessor, MSc, University of Sunderland

External Examiner, PhD, Imperial College, London

External Examiner, PhD, Abertay University , Dundee

External Examiner, PhD, University of South Wales, Glamorgan
External Examiner, MRes, University of Central Lancashire
External Examiner, PhD, University of Kent
External Examiner, PhD, University of Oxford

 

Funding

Anaerobic digestion of seaweed (CI with Caldwell, € 138 k); Anaerobic Digestion of Cellmatt Material (CI

with  Gray,  €  242  k);  Treatment  Options  for  Municipal  Solid Waste  Disposal  (PI  for  North  Tyneside

Council,  €  140  k); General  and  unifying  concepts  in wastewater  treatment  design  (CI with Curtis  and

Sloan, € 822 k).

Teaching

Degree Programme Director

MSc in Environmental Engineering


Undergraduate Teaching

I teach undergraduate modules:

CEG8099 Investigative research project

CEG3001 Design of sustainable engineering systems 3

CEG3099 Individual Project


Postgraduate Teaching

I teach postgraduate modules, some as Module Leader (ML): 

CIV8099 Project and Dissertation  (Individual M Projects)

CEG8101 Core concepts in Environmental Engineering

CEG8103 Water supply and treatment (ML) 

CEG8105 Solid Waste Management

CEG8107 Environmental engineering for developing countries 

CEG8110 Project skills and professional development

CEG8198 Project and dissertation in environmental engineering

CEG8503 Hydrosystems Processes & Management

SPG8008 Renewable Energy: Biomass and Waste Technology

 

Publications