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Staff Profile

Dr Elizabeth Heidrich

CEng. MIWater, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, Director of the NUAcT Scheme.

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 8997
  • Address: School of Engineering
    Room 1.14, Cassie Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

My research is focused in the field of microbial electrochemistry, developing biological systems which are able to convert organic molecules directly to electrical current, and vice versa. Most of my research is in developing these systems for wastewater treatment, ultimately aiming to turn this sector into a resource recovery process rather than a large net energy consumer. I have trialled and led global efforts to develop these technologies at pilot scale and under real life conditions. This practical success is aided by understanding the fundamental biological processes occurring in these systems, as well as the properties of wastewater itself, and how these relate to real world application. My research interests are in understanding the fundamental aspects microbial systems, and how these may be controlled by energy. I believe in understanding the microbial world at this level we may be able to begin to control and engineer it. This research has lead to the award of a £1.2M EPSRC grant: METzero - Bringing the water sector towards Net-Zero using Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (METs) I have also spun out a company from the university to develop these systems commercially, we have so far received £350K Innovate UK funding. For more details please follow me on linked in: (25) Elizabeth (Liz) Heidrich | LinkedIn


My first degree was in physical geography from Bristol University and after a period of working as a secondary school teacher I returned to academia in 2007 to gain an MSc in Environmental Engineering from Newcastle University. Working jointly with the Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering departments at Newcastle University and Northumbrian Water Ltd. I completed a PhD tackling the question of how to treat wastewater efficiently. Approaching this question systematically led to my initial work on quantifying the internal energy in wastewater. Developing a new methodology I discovered that wastewater has more energy than previously measured or estimated, published in Environmental Science and Technology the leading journal in its field. The strategic importance of my work to the wastewater industry led to substantial media and industrial interest.

Most of my research has though been in the field Microbial Electrochemistry. Creating value added products from the treatment of wastewater. I has designed, built and ran the World’s first working pilot Microbial Electrochemical Cell (MEC) producing valuable hydrogen gas from raw domestic wastewaters at ambient temperature, crucially operating over a 12 month period including a Northern England winter.


Areas of expertise

  • Microbial Electrochemical Technologies
  • Wastewater treatment

Qualifications

  • PhD Newcastle University 2012
  • MSc Environmental Engineering, Newcastle University 2008
  • BSc Geography, Bristol, 1999 

SCOPUS: Click here.

Google Scholar: Click here.

 

 

Research

 

Research Interests

Microbial Electrochemical Technologies

Thermodynamics and energy

Wastewater engineering

Microbial ecology 


Funding

  • Innovate UK ICURe Exploit Funding, 2023, £350,000. Co-I 2.
  • EPSRC Responsive Mode 2023: METzero: Bringing the water sector towards Net-Zero using Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (METs), £1.2M. PI 3.
  • BBSRC EBNET Proof of Concept Grant 2022 - Pure biomethane £100,000 PI
  • EPSRC/NBIC Impact Acceleration Account Strategic Impact Project 2022, £24,096.00. PI
  • EPSRC WIRE Eng. Doc Northumbrian water Ltd 2020-2024 Implementation of microbial electrolysis cells for treating sludge return liquor, value £180,314 (£90,000 from industry). PI
  • EPSRC RENU CDT PhD, Bacteria Recognition-Extraction from Wastewater (BREW) for next generation Microbial Fuel Cell Technology, £68,000. Co-I
  • EPSRC New Investigator Award, 2018: BIOHEAT: Husbanding biological heat to transform wastewater treatment £300,470. PI 8. Newcastle University Research Fellowship, 2018, Fundamental and predictive understanding of Bioelectrochemical Systems, £250,000. PI


Teaching

I teach across BEng, MEng and MSc cohorts. I lead module CEG2101 - Water treatment for the 21st Century, teaching 2nd year civil engineering students the unit processes of water and wastewater treatment, and reflecting on how these will need to develop in our changing world. I also teach in several modules on the Environmental Engineering MSc, and lead many BEng, MEng and MSc dissertation projects each year.


Publications