| Assoc Prof Lim Teik Thye
Associate Professor
Division of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Email: CTTLIM@ntu.edu.sg
Phone: (+65)6790 6933
Office: N1-01b-47 |
| Education |
- PhD Nanyang Technological University 1998
- MEng Nanyang Technological University 1995
- BEng(Hons) University of Malaya 1992
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| Biography |
Prof. Lim is currently in the Division of Environmental & Water Resources Engineering, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. He received his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering (University of Malaya, Malaysia), Masters degree in Geo-environmental Engineering (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and PhD degree in Environmental Engineering (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).
He provides expert services in the fields of advanced water treatment and reclamation, pollution control, environmental site assessment, environmental monitoring, and hazardous waste site rehabilitation. He is also engaged by local authorities or organizations to provide independent third party review for environmental projects. He also conducts training courses to professionals working in the field of water and soil pollution control. |
| Research Interests |
Prof Lim's scope of research projects encompasses both practical application of environmental technologies for pollution control and investigation of the process fundamentals. His core areas of research interest focus on application of advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment, developing novel functional materials for water purification, and developing innovative subsurface remediation technologies. He has over the years developed a range of nanomaterials for treating organic and inorganic micropollutants in surface waters, industrial wastewaters, and groundwater. He has also worked on projects exploring innovative use of industrial wastes for various applications, such as construction, earthwork, and environmental preservation.
His current research projects are as follows:
Novel photocatalysts
This research engineers a novel photocatalyst for enhancing photocatalytic redox processes under solar radiation to remove emerging contaminants in water. It leverages off the complementary strengths among environmental process engineering, materials engineering and advanced materials characterization to develop a new-generation photocatalyst system. The advanced photocatalyst is a composite of nitrogen-doped titania (N-TiO2) supported on the powdered activated carbon (AC), or N-TiO2/AC. The composite have dual functionality, exhibiting high adsorptive properties for a variety of organics and photoactivity under visible light. The synergistic properties of the N-TiO2/AC composite enables its on-site regeneration, producing zero waste stream.
Selective nanoporous adsorbents
The goal is to develop various functional nano-structured materials such as layered double hydroxides (LDHs), zeolites, calcium aluminosilicates and nanoporous carbons to selectively adsorb trace inorganic contaminants, organic contaminants, and biomolecules that are difficult to be sequestrated using conventional adsorbents. The materials, such as LDHs and zeolites, can also function as catalysts to remove recalcitrant contaminants in water and air. Several types of LDHs have been synthesized in our laboratory. The LDHs have been evaluated for sorption of Cr(VI), As(III), As(V), Se(VI), and other oxyanions found in groundwater, surface waters and industrial wastewaters. Removals of up to 99% of certain oxyanions are possible.
Bimetallic zerovalent metal particles
The research group has synthesized nano-scale, bimetallic particles such as Ni/Fe and Pd/Fe for catalytic reductive transformation of halogenated alkanes and haloaromatics. The transformation pathways for these contaminants have been established for different types of synthesized bimetallic particles, through kinetic and mechanistic examinations of the experimental findings. The effects of catalyst content and particle ageing on their reactivities are investigated. Aqueous matrix effect on the transformation kinetics has been also examined in order to understand the possible performance of these reactive particles in industrial wastewater and contaminated groundwater. |
| Research Grant |
- Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (2008-) [by Ministry of Education (MOE)]
- Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (2013-)
- Environment & Water Industry Development Council (2008-) [by Environment & Water Industry Development Council (EWI)]
- JPL Industries Pte Ltd – NTU (2007-) [by JPL Industries Pte Ltd]
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| Current Projects |
- Controlled Synthesis of Catalytic Polyoxometalates for the Removal of Phenol from Waste Water
- Environmental Technology of Brine and Reject Streams
- Innovative Arsenic Removal from Waters Using a New Breed of Layered Double Hydroxide as a Thermally Stable and Regenerable Adsorbent
- Nitrogen-Doped TIO2-Activated Carbon (AC) Composite for Adsorptive Photocatalytic Oxidation-Reduction of Refractory Organic Substances Under Solar Irradiation in Water Purification
- Use of Copper Slag as a Land Reclamation Fill Material in Singapore
- Use of Copper Slag as a Land Reclamation Fill Material in Singapore (MOE)
- Use of Copper Slag as a land reclamation fill material in Singapore: Phase 1
| Selected Publications | - Subagio D.P., Srinivasan M., Lim M., Lim T.T.*. (2010). Photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol-A by nitrogen-doped TiO2 hollow sphere in a Vis-LED photoreactor. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 95, 414–422.
- Gao B, Lim T.M., Subagio D.P., Lim T.T. (2010). Zr-doped TiO2 for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A. Applied Catalysis A: General, 375(1), 107-115.
- Zhou T, Lu X., Lim T.T., Li Y., Wong F.S. (2010). Degradation of chlorophenols (CPs) in an ultrasound irradiated Fenton like system at ambient circumstance: The QSPR (quantitative structure-property relationship) study. Chemical Engineering Journal, 156(2), 347–352.
- Zhou T., Lim T.T.*, Li Y., Lu X., and Wong F.S. (2010). The role and fate of EDTA in ultrasound-enhanced zero-valent iron / air system. Chemosphere, 78, 576–582.
- Pow-Seng Yap, Teik-Thye Lim, Melvin Lim, Madhavi Srinivasan. (2010). Synthesis and characterization of nitrogen-doped TiO2/AC composite for the adsorption-photocatalytic degradation of aqueous bisphenol-A using solar light. Catalysis Today, in press.
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