George Nakhla, Western University

Research

Anaerobic digestion Ammonia recovery Biochar Bioenergy Value-added products Volatile fatty acids recovery biogas and energy recovery cattle manure

Latest papers

Mainstream anammox in inverse fluidized bed bioreactors.
Water research · 2025
A technological and economic analysis of vacuum-assisted fermentation to augment enhanced biological phosphorus removal at full-scale.
Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation · 2025
Microalgae-bacteria symbiosis enhanced nitrogen removal from wastewater in an inversed fluidized bed bioreactor: performance and microflora.
Frontiers in microbiology · 2025 · senior author

All 96 publications

Latest funding

Innovative Approaches for Enhanced Resource Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Biosolids
NSERC · 2023 · Principal investigator
$138,000
Integration of the vacuum-assisted IntensiCarb Digestion (ID) with emerging thermophilic technologies for enhanced resource recovery
NSERC · 2023 · Principal investigator
$214,534
Development of innovative anaerobic digestion technologies for enhanced energy recovery from cattle manure
NSERC · 2022 · Principal investigator
$248,860

All 23 grants and awards

96 publications.

01

Mainstream anammox in inverse fluidized bed bioreactors.

Liu R, Nakhla G, Zhu J

Water research2025

DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2025.124374 PMID: 40816016

02

A technological and economic analysis of vacuum-assisted fermentation to augment enhanced biological phosphorus removal at full-scale.

Armenta M, Kakar FL, Al-Omari A, Muller C, Nakhla G, Santoro D, Bell K

Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation2025

DOI: 10.1002/wer.70068 PMID: 40320727

03

Microalgae-bacteria symbiosis enhanced nitrogen removal from wastewater in an inversed fluidized bed bioreactor: performance and microflora.

Zheng X, Liu R, Li K, Sun J, Wang K, Shao Y, Hu Z, Zhu J, Pan Z, Nakhla G

Frontiers in microbiology2025Senior author

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1591974 PMID: 40356659

04

Overcoming ammonia inhibition via biochar-assisted anaerobic co-digestion of thermally-treated thickened waste activated sludge and food waste.

Haroun B, El-Qelish M, Abdulazeez M, Khalil A, Kim M, Nakhla G

Journal of environmental management2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123909 PMID: 39736230

05

Vacuum evaporation coupled with anaerobic digestion for process intensification and ammonia recovery: Model development, validation and scenario analysis.

Mustafa Abdelrahman A, Khadir A, Santoro D, Jang E, Al-Omari A, Muller C, Bell KY, Walton J, Batstone D, Nakhla G

Bioresource technology2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131753 PMID: 39510353

06

Biohydrogen production from lignocellulosic hydrolysate: Unveiling the synergistic impact of substrate concentration and furfural inhibition.

Haroun B, El-Qelish M, Akobi C, Hafez H, Nasr F, Kim M, Nakhla G

Environmental science and pollution research international2024Senior author

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-35186-6 PMID: 39379652

07

Effect of thermal shock and sustained heat treatment on mainstream partial nitrification and microbial community in sequencing batch reactors.

Afroze N, Kim M, Chowdhury MMI, Haroun B, Andalib M, Umble A, Nakhla G

Environmental science and pollution research international2024Senior author

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-31421-8 PMID: 38147251

08

Effects of trace elements on digester performance and microbial community response in anaerobic digestion systems.

Afroze N, Nakhla G, Kim M, Yazdanpanah A

Environmental technology2023

DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2022.2082324 PMID: 35611656

09

Comparison of carrier particles in the gas-liquid-solid inverse fluidised bed bioreactor.

Wang L, Liu S, Nakhla G, Zhu J, Shao Y

Environmental technology2022

DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2021.1924287 PMID: 33908820

10

Vacuum-enhanced anaerobic fermentation: Achieving process intensification, thickening and improved hydrolysis and VFA yields in a single treatment step.

Haroun B, Bahreini G, Zaman M, Jang E, Okoye F, Elbeshbishy E, Santoro D, Walton J, Al-Omari A, Muller C, Bell K, Nakhla G

Water research2022Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118719 PMID: 35704979

Innovative Approaches for Enhanced Resource Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Biosolids

Principal investigatorNSERC2023Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

Keywords: bioenergy; anaerobic digestion; value-added products; ammonia recovery; volatile fatty acids recovery; biochar

$138,000

Integration of the vacuum-assisted IntensiCarb Digestion (ID) with emerging thermophilic technologies for enhanced resource recovery

Principal investigatorNSERC2023Alliance Grants

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George GF

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biosolids dewatering; biosolids processing; physiochemical treatment processes; resource recovery; thermophilic digestion processes

$214,534

Development of innovative anaerobic digestion technologies for enhanced energy recovery from cattle manure

Principal investigatorNSERC2022Alliance Grants

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George GF

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biogas and energy recovery; cattle manure; lignocellulosic wastes; physiochemical pretreatment; thermal pretreatment

$248,860

The IntensiCarb Digester: An Innovative Anaerobic Digestion Technology for Process Intensification and Resource Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Biosolids

Principal investigatorNSERC2021Alliance Grants

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George GF

$295,125

Investigating the feasibility of biomethane production and nutrient recovery from aquaponics-derived sludge

Principal investigatorNSERC2019Engage Grants Program

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

$25,000

Energy Optimization at Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Principal investigatorNSERC2017Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

$306,000

Organizing the Waterloo Biofilter biological process for treating wastewater concentrated by extreme water conservation plumbing

Principal investigatorNSERC2015Engage Grants Program

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

$25,000

Municipal wastewater treatment technology innovation

Principal investigatorNSERC2015Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

$856,700

Research and development of a novel pilot-scale two-stage anaerobic digestion process for renewable energy production and treatment of high strength organic industrial streams

Co-investigatorNSERC2014Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Principal investigators: Biswas, Nihar

$354,000

Development of a novel twin-screw extruder for resource recovery and renewable energy production from lignocellulose biomass and industrial organic wastes

Principal investigatorNSERC2013Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Principal investigators: Nakhla, George

$448,581

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Frequent collaborators

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Civil Engineering

Co-authors at Western University, colored by department. Thicker lines mean more shared papers; select anyone to open their profile and their own map.

Domenico Santoro

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

11 shared papers, latest 2025

Amarjeet Bassi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

6 shared papers, latest 2008

Elsayed Elbeshbishy

Civil Engineering

5 shared papers, latest 2022

Lars Rehmann

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

2 shared papers, latest 2014

Jingxu Zhu

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

1 shared papers, latest 2005

Madhumita Ray

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

1 shared papers, latest 2011

Ahmed Eldyasti

Civil Engineering

1 shared papers, latest 2014

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their NSERC grant from 2023

Subject: Prospective PhD student: Anaerobic digestion Dear Professor Nakhla, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "Mainstream anammox in inverse fluidized bed bioreactors." (2025), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your NSERC-funded project "Innovative Approaches for Enhanced Resource Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Biosolids" (2023), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]