Conall Holohan from National University of Ireland, Galway is winner of the ESAI 2018 Postgraduate of the Year Award. His entry based on his PhD research project on "The Anaerobic Digestion of Fats: exploring microbial technological solutions" was of exceptional high calibre.
Fat is a residue from many industries and can be present in high concentrations in wastewaters. Fat is extremely difficult to degrade, causing inhibition of conventional wastewater treatment technologies and blocking sewer pipes. The current treatment approach is to separate the fat out of the waste stream and dispose of via landspreading or add to the feedstock of agricultural anaerobic digesters. Conall’s research involved the testing of a novel  bioconversion process which utilised the natural ability of anaerobic microbiological fermentation, enhanced within a bioreactor to convert the waste fats into a renewable energy resource, biogas.
Thank you to all the entrants for the "ESAI 2018 Postgraduate of the Year Award" - all of the entrants were of a very high standard. We encourage MSC and PhD researchers, in the final year of their research study, to apply for the ESAI Postgraduate Award in 2019. The competition will be launched at Environ 2019 in IT Carlow and closes on September 30th.
(Photo L-R: Prof Vincent O'Flaherty, NUIG PhD Supervisor, Conall Holohan NUIG, Dr Gesche Kindermann ESAI College Liaison NUIG.)
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