Research Focus
PFAS treatment | pilot upscaling | commercialisation
PFAS | Water Engineering | Applied Microbiology
Turning environmental chemistry and microbiology into field-ready treatment technologies.
I develop PFAS removal technologies for complex waste streams and microbial processes for sustainable water treatment, with current work spanning magnetic/polymer sorbents, adsorption membranes, foam-fractionation integration and pilot deployment.
Research Areas
field-ready environmental solutions
PFAS removal in complex matrices
Magnetic/polymer sorbents and adsorption membranes for PFAS treatment in biosolids, contaminated soil, industrial water and landfill leachate.
Water treatment process engineering
Packed-bed hydraulics, pilot filtration, foam-fractionation integration, contaminant-safe reuse and deployable treatment design.
Acidic nitrogen cycling microbiology
Acid-tolerant nitrifiers, nitrite oxidation, anammox adaptation and comammox communities in engineered wastewater systems.
Research Highlights
original visual summaries
Selected Outputs
high-signal publications
Minimal data required in reporting new sorbents for removing 'forever chemicals'
First-author perspective in Nature Reviews Materials on robust reporting standards for PFAS sorbent research.
Read articleKinetic and physiological characterization of acidophilic Nitrobacter spp.
First-author Environmental Science & Technology study on nitrite-oxidizing cultures under acidic conditions.
Read articleControl strategies for PFAS in aquatic environments
Book chapter in UNESCO's Emerging Contaminants in Water in Asia Pacific, Chapter 4, Section 4.4.
UNESCO record
Funding, IP & Translation
selected records
Funding
PFAS biosolids remediation
CRC-P CRCPXVII000450; AUD6.97M total project value; CI, one of two chief investigators.
Funding
PFAS adsorption membranes for mobile treatment of persistent chemicals
ARC Linkage LP250100270; AUD580k; CI role.
Industry funding
Seed and direct industry projects
>AUD330k for nanoscale magnetic sorbents, foam-fractionation recovery and PFAS capture in biosolids.
Patent / IP
PFAS sorbent patent WO2025905313
Inventor on filed PFAS sorbent IP; helped enable a UniQuest-mediated licence within approximately one year.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
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Substantial N2O accumulation under acidic oxic conditions driven by constrained N2O reduction in a denitrifying consortium
Zicheng Su et al. (2026). Environmental Science & Technology, under revision; manuscript no. es-2026-037052.R1.
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Toward standardized evaluation of PFAS sorbents
Zhuojing Yang, Zicheng Su, Kehan Liu et al. (2025). Advanced Materials. Published
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Non-PFAS-based magnetic polymer sorbents for efficient removal of perfluorinated compounds from landfill leachate
Xiao Tan, Zhuojing Yang, Zhe Chen, Zicheng Su et al. (2025). Advanced Materials. Published
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Minimal data required in reporting new sorbents for removing 'forever chemicals'
Zicheng Su, Zhuojing Yang, Kehan Liu, Chunrong Yu, Jianhua Guo, and Cheng Zhang (2025). Nature Reviews Materials. Published
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Kinetic and Physiological Characterization of Acidophilic Nitrobacter spp. in a Nitrite-Oxidizing Culture
Zicheng Su, Tianyi Zhang, Tao Liu, Min Zheng, and Jianhua Guo (2025). Environmental Science & Technology. Published
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Enrichment and identification of a moderately acidophilic nitrite-oxidizing bacterium
Jun Xia, Chen Cai, Tao Liu, Zicheng Su, Zhiguo Yuan, and Min Zheng* (2025). Water Research X. Published
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Nitrite Oxidation in Wastewater Treatment: Microbial Adaptation and Suppression Challenges
Zicheng Su, Tao Liu, Jianhua Guo, and Min Zheng* (2023). Environmental Science & Technology. Published, Critical Review
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Adaptation of anammox process for nitrogen removal from acidic nitritation effluent in a low pH moving bed biofilm reactor
Zhetai Hu, Tao Liu, Zicheng Su, Jing Zhao, Jianhua Guo, Shihu Hu, Zhiguo Yuan, and Min Zheng* (2023). Water Research. Published
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Selective Enrichment of Comammox Nitrospira in a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor with Sufficient Oxygen Supply
Jing Zhao, Min Zheng*, Zicheng Su, Tao Liu, Jie Li, Jianhua Guo, Zhiguo Yuan, and Shihu Hu (2022). Environmental Science & Technology. Published
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Comammox Nitrospira Bacteria Are Dominant Ammonia Oxidizers in Mainstream Nitrification Bioreactors Emended with Sponge Carriers
Tuo Huang, Jun Xia, Tao Liu, Zicheng Su, Yuntao Guan, Jianhua Guo, Chengwen Wang*, and Min Zheng* (2022). Environmental Science & Technology. Published
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Control strategies for PFAS in aquatic environments
Ali, M.; Safarniya, M.; Zicheng Su; Zhang, C.; Xu, D.; Guo, J.; Hu, J. (2024). In Emerging Contaminants in Water in Asia Pacific; UNESCO; Chapter 4, Section 4.4, pp. 64-69. UNESCO
Research Experience
trajectory
Postdoctoral Researcher, The University of Queensland
Developing PFAS polymer/membrane materials, magnetic sorbents and deployable separation technologies at AIBN.
PFAS research role / postdoctoral transition, AIBN, The University of Queensland
Led pilot-scale sorbent production, treatment-unit design, foam-fractionation integration and Urban Utilities pilot deployment.
PhD, Environmental Engineering, The University of Queensland
Research on novel nitrogen-cycle microorganisms, acidic nitrification, genome-resolved microbiology and wastewater bioprocesses.
Invited Talks & Service
professional visibility
- Invited guest and oral presenter, Consortium for analysis and remediation of per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances (CAR-PFAS Japan), Tokyo and Tsukuba, 2026
- Committee, National PFAS Symposium (NFS26), 2026
- Session Chair and Outstanding Contribution to Conference Organisation, National PFAS Symposium (NFS25), 2025
- Invited speaker, Australasian Land and Groundwater Association (ALGA), Brisbane, 2025
- The Eighth International Conference on Nitrification and Related Processes (ICoN8), Princeton University, 2023
- The Tenth IWA Microbial Ecology and Water Engineering Specialist Conference (MEWE 2023), Brisbane, 2023