Cigdem Eskicioglu

Professor

Civil

Other Titles: NSERC/Metro Vancouver Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Resource Recovery from Wastewater
Office: EME4273; Lab: EME0212
Phone: 250.807.8544
Email: cigdem.eskicioglu@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Wastewater and Sludge Treatment; Pretreatment Technologies for Enhanced Biomethane and Biohydrogen Production from Organic Waste; Side-stream Nutrient Removal; Fate and Transformation of Micropollutants during Biological Treatment Processes; Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of Biological Wastewater/Sludge Treatment Processes; Waste Minimization and Resource Recovery

Courses & Teaching

ENGR 446/546 - Biological Treatment Processes
ENGR 447 - Design of Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment
ENGR 347 - Environmental Engineering

Biography

Dr. Eskicioglu is a Professor and NSERC/Metro Vancouver Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in the School of Engineering, at the University of British Columbia (UBC), specializing in wastewater and sludge treatment. She is also the Founder/Leader of the Bioreactor Technology Group (BTG), which focuses on advanced wastewater treatment processes for more efficient contaminant removal, energy conservation and production, resource recovery and mitigation of trace contaminants of emerging concern (TCEC). BTG operates three state-of the-art laboratory facilities (i.e., Advanced Anaerobic Digestion, Particle Sizing/Imaging and TCEC Detection) at UBC’s Okanagan Campus.

Dr. Eskicioglu has conducted extensive research on novel pretreatment technologies coupled with anaerobic digestion for converting slowly biodegradable organic residues from municipal, industrial and agricultural sources, into bio-methane and bio-hydrogen to generate heat and/or energy. Faced with challenges of reducing operational risks and of intensifying resource recovery, BTG has identified viable bioreactor configurations for many wastewater utilities to reduce effluent toxicity risks and increase net energy yields from the solids stream treatment works.

Dr. Eskicioglu is a registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia and a member of Water Environment Federation (WEF), Canadian Association on Water Quality (CAWQ), Modeling Expert Group of Americas (MEGA), Design of Municipal Treatment Plants (joint force of WEF & ASCE), UBC Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), UBC Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI), and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).

Dr. Eskicioglu has been recognized by the UBC Okanagan’s Researcher of the Year Award (2020), the UBC’s Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Recognition Nomination (2020), the School of Engineering’s Outstanding Researcher Award (2017), the British Columbia Confederation of University Faculty Associations (CUFA) Early in Career Award (2012) and the City of Kelowna’s Mayor’s Environmental Award (2011). She is also the recipient of the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, the University of Ottawa National Excellence Scholarship and the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) Doctoral Research Award.

Websites

Bioreactor Technology Group

Degrees

Postdoctoral – Environmental Engineering (U of Ottawa)
PhD – Environmental Engineering (U of Ottawa)
BSc – Environmental Engineering (Istanbul Tech University)

Research Interests & Projects

• Thermochemical sludge conversion through hydrothermal liquefaction
• Biochemical sludge conversion through bioaugmented anaerobic digestion
• Nutrient removal/recovery from sludge treatment processes
• Impact of sludge treatment technologies on fate of emerging contaminants
• Biodegradability assessment of bioplastics

Selected Publications & Presentations

To see an updated list of the most recent publications, please visit: Google Scholar or Research Gate

Selected Refereed Journal Articles

• Kor-Bicakci, G., Abbott, T., Ubay-Cokgor, E., Eskicioglu, C. (2020) Occurrence and fate of antimicrobial triclosan and its transformation products in municipal sludge during advanced anaerobic digestion using microwave pretreatment. Science of the Total Environment, 705.
• Cimon, C., Kadota, P., Eskicioglu, C. (2020) Effect of biochar and wood ash amendment on biochemical methane production of wastewater sludge from a temperature phase anaerobic digestion process. Bioresource Technology, 297.
• Eskicioglu, C., Monlau, F., Barakat, A., Ferrer, I., Kaparaju, P., Trably, E., Carrere, H. (2017) Assessment of hydrothermal pretreatment of various lignocellulosic biomass with CO₂ catalyst for enhanced methane and hydrogen production. Water Research, 120, 32-42.
• Hosseini Koupaie, E., Johnson, T., Eskicioglu, C. (2017) Advanced anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge using a novel and energy-efficient radio frequency pretreatment system. Water Research, 118, 70-81.
• Galvagno, P., Eskicioglu, C., Abel Denee, M. (2016) Biodegradation and chemical precipitation of dissolved nutrients in anaerobically digested dewatering centrate. Water Research, 96, 84-93.
• Hosseini Koupaie, E., Eskicioglu, C. (2015) Below and above boiling point comparison of microwave irradiation and conductive heating for municipal sludge digestion under identical heating/cooling profiles. Bioresource Technology, 187, 235-245.
• Wahidunnabi, A.K, Eskicioglu, C. (2014) High pressure homogenization and two-phased anaerobic digestion for enhanced biogas conversion from municipal waste sludge. Water Research, 66, 430-446.
• Mehdizadeh, N., Eskicioglu, C., Bobowski, J., Johnson, T. (2013) Conductive heating and microwave hydrolysis under identical heating profiles for advanced anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge. Water Research, 47, 5040-5051.
• Hamid, H., Eskicioglu, C. (2013) Effect of microwave hydrolysis on transformation of steroidal hormones during anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge cake. Water Research, 47, 4966-4977.
• Hamid, H., and Eskicioglu, C. (2012) Fate of estrogenic hormones in wastewater and sludge treatment: A review of properties and analytical detection techniques, Water Research, 46 (18), 5813-5833.

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