CIVL Graduate Wins Best Final-Year Environmental Project Competition

Mr. MAN Hoi Kit Justin, BEng graduate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has won the First Runner-up Prize in the 2021–2022 Best Final-Year Environmental Project (Individual Project) Competition, organized by the Environmental Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE).

The Best Final Year Project Competition recognizes final-year students who have completed high-quality final year projects, with a view to encouraging them to further improve their environmental engineering practice in the future as professional engineers. The prize-giving ceremony was held on February 6 at the HKIE headquarters. The award was presented by the Chairperson of the HKIE Environmental Division, Ir. Prof. Shelly Zhou, and the panel members of the FYP Award.

Justin’s final-year project, entitled “Low Carbon Emission Photoelectrochemical Activation of Chloride Ions for Removing Ammonia-nitrogen in Sewage”, was supervised by Prof. Irene Lo. The project developed a novel photoelectrochemical (PEC) system for ammonia removal in saline sewage. The PEC system achieved superior performance in ammonia removal in wastewater, while recording a significant reduction in operational carbon emission compared to conventional activated sludge processes, owing to the use of a reduced-BiVO4 photoanode which enabled the robust generation of reactive chlorine species. This ability to activate chloride, as well as the decent reusability of photocatalytic material suggest that the system can potentially have very high practicality in local applications.

Congratulations to Justin and Prof. Lo!