Prof. Dennis Y.C.
Leung
University of Hong Kong, China
Head of the department
specializing in environmental
pollution control and renewable
& clean energy
Biography | Prof. Dennis Y.C. Leung received his BEng (1982) and PhD (1988) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He had worked with the Hongkong Electric Co., Ltd. for five years heading the air pollution section of the company before joining the University of Hong Kong in 1993. Professor Leung is now a full professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering specializing in environmental engineering and renewable & clean energy. He has published more than 500 articles in these two areas including 350+ peer reviewed SCI journal papers. His current h-index is 82 and total citations are 40,000+. He is one of the top 1% highly cited scientists in the world in energy field since 2010 (Essential Science Indicators) and named as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics for the past six years consecutively from 2017 to 2022. Prof. Leung has delivered more than 80 keynote and invited lectures in many international conferences.
Keynote title: Carbon mitigation: Development and current status of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) Technologies
Abstract: Global warming and climate
change concerns have triggered global efforts to reduce
the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
Although renewable energy has been widely developed in
many countries, carbon capture, utilization and storage
(CCUS) is considered a crucial strategy for meeting
CO2
emission reduction targets in short to medium term. In
this talk, various aspects of CCUS are reviewed and
discussed including the state of the art technologies
for
CO2
capture, separation, transport, usage, storage, and life
cycle analysis. The selection of specific
CO2
capture technology heavily depends on the type of
CO2
generating plant and fuel used. There are multiple
hurdles to CCUS deployment including the absence of a
clear business case for CCUS investment and the absence
of robust economic incentives to support the additional
high capital and operating costs of the whole CCUS
process. The challenges and prospects of various carbon
mediation measures, and their current status will be
discussed in this talk.
Prof. Roland
Kallenborn
Norwegian University of Life
Sciences, Norway
UArctic Chair in Arctic
Environmental Pollution Research
Biography
|
Professor Roland Kallenborn is a
senior scientist and university
teacher in the field of organic
analytical chemistry,
environmental chemistry and
environmental risk assessment.
Kallenborn is also affiliated as
adjunct professorship in Arctic
Technology to the University
Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and as
external supervisor for graduate
and post graduate students, to
the Harbin Institute of
Technology (HIT, China).
– The steadily increasing number
of priority pollutants in the
Arctic requires new analytical
methods and detection
strategies. The UArctic network
will help to coordinate and
harmonize current international
efforts to investigate today’s
pollutant profiles in the
Arctic, says Kallenborn.
As UArctic chair for
Environmental pollution
research, Kallenborn will focus
on developing circum-Arctic
academic networks for graduate
and post -graduate education of
future experts in Arctic
environmental chemistry. His
scientific focus will be on fata
and distribution profiling of
organic Arctic pollutants
including Chemicals of Emerging
Arctic Concern (CEACs).
Keynote title: Organic pollutants as sustainability indicators for new circular bioeconomy strategies - Presence, remediation and consequences
Abstract: In order to reduce the anthropogenic footprint in the bio- and geosphere and for ensuring a sustainable future for mankind, circular bio-economy strategies, recycling and reuse of both non-renewable and renewable resources mainly derived from organic residues today considered an important prerequisite for urban and industrial planning. Thus, applying, reusing, and refining organic residues, previously considered as wastes, is an important research and societal focus on the national and international level. In many countries, biowastes are currently applied as a preferred soil amendment and fertilizer for the effective recycling the nutrients incl. nitrogen and phosphorous in modern sustainable agricultural applications. However, such soil amendments may also lead to dispersal and accumulation of contaminants in agricultural soils if not properly monitored and treated. From soils, these contaminants may be absorbed and accumulated into food and fodder plants, ultimately resulting in animal and human exposure. The development of suitable production and refinement pathways for recycling and renewable energy production in recent years still does not take potential associated pollutant transfer sufficiently into account when commercializing their refined products. Various technologies have been promoted and applied with the potential for uncontrolled emission of anthropogenic pollution. For instance, the use of biological (waste) materials in anaerobic digestion processes, both as decentralized farm based as well as municipal biogas plants is currently marketed as a new pathway for sustainable energy production. Hence, among others, organic household waste, as substrates for biogas production has increased significantly in Europe, Asia, and the North Americas. This development leads not only to an increasing amount of bioenergy produced but also to a considerable amount of production waste to be handled properly as starting material for new products. Also, recent development in large-scale Urban Agriculture (UA) for the greening of large cities is expected to develop into an important new pathway for bioeconomic production in an urban context. AS part of UA-related urban sustainable strategies, agricultural substrate soil, fertilizer, and infrastructures from the respective urban areas are utilized or reused. However, pollutant-associated aspects of the soils and the potential for uptake in commercially available consumer products are often not sufficiently implemented in the current international UA and other planning strategies. Possible consequences of organic pollutants in UA installations and commercially distributed products will be discussed as case studies in the presentation.
Prof. Sue
Charlesworth
Coventry University, Coventry,
United Kingdom
Biography
|
Susanne Charlesworth is a
Professor in Urban Physical
Geography at Coventry University
in the Centre for Agroecology,
Water and Resilience. She is the
author of more than 70 peer
reviewed journal articles on
urban pollution and Sustainable
drainage (SuDS), many book
chapters, and has co-edited
books on Sustainable Drainage,
urban pollution, aquatic
sedimentology and water
resources. She collaborates with
groups internationally and has
given papers at international
conferences worldwide
SuDS seemed like the logical
move from my earlier interest in
urban sedimentology and
geochemistry associated with
rivers, streams, soil and street
dusts. These materials can be
highly polluted and in developed
countries 85% of people live in
urban areas, worldwide >50% live
in cities, thus the impacts can
be far-reaching. With climate
change and the problems
associated with greenhouse
gases, there needs to be a means
of tackling these issues with a
multiple benefit, flexible
approach, and SuDS can offer
such a management strategy. The
role of Green Infrastructure and
Ecosystem Services provision led
to an interest in Natural Flood
Management (NFM) by Working with
Natural processes at the
catchment scale. Latterly, Sue
has become particularly
interested in the design and
installation of SuDS and NFM
alongside Water, Sanitation and
Health in informal settlements,
favelas and refugee camps. There
is the potential to address
disease vecors such as mosquitos
by managing greywater disposal
and stormwater management using
SuDS approaches and thus
reducing the incidence of
viruses causing zika, dengue or
chikungunya. Its uptake in
England and Wales is less than
would be hoped, so through my
research I would like to be able
to be instrumental in providing
the information necessary to
encourage its uptake by
practitioners and stakeholders.
Research Interests
| SuDS; design and installation
of SuDS in informal settlements,
favelas and refugee camps; role
of Green Infrastructure;
Ecosystem Services Provision;
Urban lake and river sediments;
Urban Physical Processes: Urban
Hydrology; The risk to
children’s health of
contaminants in playground
material; Efficiency of porous
paving in degrading oil and
dealing with metal pollutants
Keynote title: The failure of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: where are the refugee camps and informal settlements?
Abstract: The provision of Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) is recognised by the UN as a human right. However, drainage is not specifically included, being essentially hidden in “Sanitation”. The lack of drainage infrastructure and household wastewater management leads to flooding and can affect quality of life, human health and the surrounding environment. This is particularly true in the most vulnerable of populations who live in informal settlements and refugee camps. The 2023 Synthesis Report for SDG6 includes 3 mentions of household wastewater, however, just one mention of drainage and nature-based solutions, but nothing at all around informal settlements or refugee camps, even though its overall ambition is, by 2030, to ensure water and sanitation for all.
Informal settlements are ubiquitous in developing countries. They are constructed in areas which are otherwise unsuitable for formal habitation, i.e. on steep slopes or on low lying land with high groundwater tables. On the other hand, refugee camps are set up formally under conditions of extreme crisis, but similar to informal settlements, drainage and greywater management are initially generally absent. Conventional infrastructure for water management such as the installation of a wastewater treatment plant would not be relevant in such contexts; what is needed is an approach that is multiple benefit, does not apply additional chemicals and is flexible such as Nature Based Solutions or Sustainable Drainage Systems.
This paper shows how these approaches can be used in case studies in South Africa and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.