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Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

Agricultural and Urban Waste Management

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The Agricultural and Urban Waste Management research group aims to improve nutrient and resource recovery.

Agricultural and urban waste management is sub-optimal. Materials regarded as wastes are often valuable co-products and an important source of nutrients and organic matter.

This research group investigates nutrient re-use and recycling and the recovery of other valuable resources from agricultural and urban waste with the aim to generate stable, pathogen-free bioproducts that can be used as soil conditioners to improve sustainability of agricultural production systems and remediate degraded land.

Key focus areas include:

  • The use of lignite (brown coal) and modified coal products to improve nitrogen retention in intensive animal production systems and during the subsequent processing and re-use of manures and composts
  • Production of biochar from urban waste such as biosolids and green waste
  • Improvement of soil properties using amendments such as biochar, lignite and municipal green waste.

News and events

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Contact the team

    Agricultural waste

  1. Dr Clayton Butterly

    Lecturer in Soil Science

    • clayton.butterly@unimelb.edu.au
    • +613 9035 4228
  2. Urban waste

  3. Dr Tony Weatherley

    Senior Lecturer in Soil Science

    • anthony@unimelb.edu.au
    • +613 8344 4642

The group’s capabilities include advanced chemical analysis and the production of biochar to understand nutrient cycling and recovery.

We carry out a range of fundamental and applied research with the aim to help policy makers, industry partners and farmers make evidence-based decisions.

  • Nutrient and resource recovery from agricultural and urban wastes using novel technologies

    Production of biochar from organic waste, biochar, compost and soil characterisation, glasshouse and laboratory incubation experiments to understand nutrient cycling and nutrient recovery from organic materials, in-vessel composting and quantification of greenhouse gases.

  • Soil node – Melbourne TrACEES Platform

    The Melbourne Trace Analysis for Chemical, Earth and Environmental Sciences (TrACEES) Platform’s Soil node has a strong capability in soils and environmental research and testing.

Our researchers and graduate research students.

    Group members

  1. Professor Deli Chen

    Professor of Soil Science; Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor

    Deli Chen has expertise in water and nutrient dynamics in plant-soil systems, GIS based agroecosystem modelling and decision support systems for optimal irrigation and fertiliser management; and the measures, models and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions from land sources, impact of climate on agro-ecosystems, agricultural ‘big data’ and sustainable indices.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • delichen@unimelb.edu.au
  2. Professor Jim (Jizheng) He

    Professor (Molecular Soil Ecology)

    Jim He’s research employs advanced bio-molecular and physicochemical approaches to understand the distribution and diversity of microbial communities in soils, and the processes and mechanisms of microbes-mediated C, N and other elemental cycling.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • jizheng.he@unimelb.edu.au
  3. Dr Tony Weatherley

    Senior Lecturer (Soil Science)

    Phosphorous cycling in pasture systems, urban waste management, biochar, soil health and nutrient cycling.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • anthony@unimelb.edu.au
  4. Dr Clayton Butterly

    Lecturer (Waste Management)

    Soil organic matter and nutrient cycling, agricultural waste management, soil acidity, soil-plant interactions and climate change in Agricultural systems.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • clayton.butterly@unimelb.edu.au
  5. Dr Bhawana Bhatta

    Tutor (Soil Science) Dookie

    Management of urban waste through pyrolysis and composting, impacts of biochar on soil health and nutrient cycling, subsoil amelioration.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • bbhatta@unimelb.edu.au
  6. Dr Bing Han

    Research Fellow (Soil Remediation Materials)

    Surface modification of lignite to enhance ammonia adsorption capacity and production of N fertilizer and soil conditioner.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • bing.han@unimelb.edu.au
  7. Dr Tina Gao

    Nutrient recovery from organic waste, food waste management, waste bioconversion technique, phosphorus use efficiency, soil nutrient cycling, soil science.

    • hang.gao@unimelb.edu.au
  8. Graduate researchers

  9. Brendon Costello

    PhD candidate

    Brendon Costello’s PhD project is focused on the use of lignite to reduce ammonia emissions from intensive animal agriculture systems and limit nitrogen loss from animal waste.

    • b.costello@student.unimelb.edu.au
  10. Wei Zhang

    PhD candidate

    Wei Zhang’s PhD is focused on the modification of lignite and black coal to mitigate ammonia loss from livestock manure.

    • zhangw13@student.unimelb.edu.au
The Agricultural and Urban Waste Management group researches waste reuse and processing to enable recovery of valuable nutrients that would otherwise be lost to the environment.

Research projects

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Completed projects

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