Bill Anderson, PEng
Biography
William A. Anderson is a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department and the former Director of Admissions for the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
With his expertise in photochemical (UV) and biological air and water pollution control and biochemical engineering of fermentation and pharmaceutical processes, Professor Anderson maintains industry research collaborations in the areas of hospital air emissions control, clinical water testing, residential air UV disinfection and agricultural resource recovery.
His recent projects include automated UV disinfection in hospitals, rapid detection of microbial contamination of water, removal of ammonia from water, and antimicrobial materials for use in engineered infection control.
A major emphasis of Professor Anderson’s work in pollution control technology for air treatment is reactor engineering for photocatalysis and photolysis, using an ultraviolet light irradiated catalyst to degrade organic contaminants at ambient temperatures. He is frequently consulted by industry and others on the use of UV germicidal devices for disinfection of air, surfaces, and water.
In addition to his research work, Professor Anderson has written over 105 journal articles, in addition to conference proceedings and technical reports. During his time as Director of Admissions, Professor Anderson started a blog about engineering undergraduate admissions which has been widely read by current and prospective Waterloo Engineering undergraduate students.
William Anderson is a member of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research), the Water Institute), the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy), and the Tsinghua-Waterloo Joint Research Centre for Micro/Nano Energy and Environmental Technology)
With his expertise in photochemical (UV) and biological air and water pollution control and biochemical engineering of fermentation and pharmaceutical processes, Professor Anderson maintains industry research collaborations in the areas of hospital air emissions control, clinical water testing, residential air UV disinfection and agricultural resource recovery.
His recent projects include automated UV disinfection in hospitals, rapid detection of microbial contamination of water, removal of ammonia from water, and antimicrobial materials for use in engineered infection control.
A major emphasis of Professor Anderson’s work in pollution control technology for air treatment is reactor engineering for photocatalysis and photolysis, using an ultraviolet light irradiated catalyst to degrade organic contaminants at ambient temperatures. He is frequently consulted by industry and others on the use of UV germicidal devices for disinfection of air, surfaces, and water.
In addition to his research work, Professor Anderson has written over 105 journal articles, in addition to conference proceedings and technical reports. During his time as Director of Admissions, Professor Anderson started a blog about engineering undergraduate admissions which has been widely read by current and prospective Waterloo Engineering undergraduate students.
William Anderson is a member of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research), the Water Institute), the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy), and the Tsinghua-Waterloo Joint Research Centre for Micro/Nano Energy and Environmental Technology)
Research Interests
- Photocatalysis
- Photoreaction engineering
- Antimicrobial materials
- Disinfection
- Air pollution control
- Biochemical Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Green Reaction Engineering
- Nanoparticle synthesis
- Advanced Oxidation Processes for Wastewater and Air Treatment
- Photochemical Reactor Engineering
- Biofiltration
- Water
- Environmental Engineering
- Infection and Pathogen Control
- Devices
Scholarly Research
Research interests lie in the areas of environmental engineering and biochemical engineering. More specifically recent work focuses on photochemical and biological air pollution control, and nanobiotechnology applications., I am a frequent reviewer for journals publishing research papers in the areas of air and water pollution control and biochemical engineering. I regularly review grant applications to NSERC, CFI, MITACS, and similar agencies in Hong Kong and Qatar in these same fields.
Industrial Research
Consulting and collaborative R&D activities with the following: 1) wastewater treatment development, Hatch Inc, 2017; 2) rapid water test methods, Genemis Laboratories, 2015-2019; 3) antimicrobial materials, Aereus Technologies, 2014-2019; 4) hospital air emissions control, Class 1 Inc, 2011-2019; 5) automated UV disinfection, Class 1 Inc, 2016-2017;
Education
- 1991, Doctorate Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada
- 1986, Master's Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada
- 1981, Bachelor's Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada
Awards
- 2003 Engineering Distinguished Performance Award
- 2005 UW Outstanding Performance Award
- 2015 OCE’s Mind-to-Market Award celebrates the best OCE-supported research collaboration between the business and research communities resulting in effective commercialization of leading edge ideas and solutions.
- https://youtu.be/C0E15jYFjfo?t=6m46s
Teaching*
- CHE 572 - Air Pollution Control
- Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- CHE 672 - Air Pollution Control
- Taught in 2020, 2021
* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.
Selected/Recent Publications
- Saha, DC and Boegel, SJ and Tanvir, S and Nogueira, CL and Aucoin, MG and Anderson, WA and Jahed, H, Antiviral and Antibacterial Cold Spray Coating Application on Rubber Substrate, Disruption in Disease Transmission Chain, Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, 1, 2023
- Javid, Faisal and Xin, Xing and Anderson, William A and Derraik, José GB and Anderson, Yvonne C and Baroutian, Saeid, Deconstruction of Waste Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) using Subcritical Wet Air Oxidation, The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, 105900, 2023
- Xin, Xing and Javid, Faisal and Anderson, William A and Derraik, José GB and Sullivan, Trudy and Anderson, Yvonne C and Baroutian, Saeid, Hydrothermal deconstruction of single-use personal protective equipment: process design and economic performance, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 565, 2022
- Javid, Faisal and Xin, Xing and Anderson, William A and Derraik, José GB and Anderson, Yvonne C and Baroutian, Saeid, Deconstruction and valorisation of a mixture of personal protective equipment using hydrothermal processing, Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 583, 2022
- Javid, Faisal and Xin, Xing and Derraik, José GB and Anderson, William A and Anderson, Yvonne and Baroutian, Saeid, Hydrothermal deconstruction of single-use personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, Waste Management, 178, 2022
- Harfoot, Rhodri and Yung, Deborah BY and Anderson, William A and Wild, Cervantée EK and Coetzee, Nicolene and Hernández, Leonor C and Lawley, Blair and Pletzer, Daniel and Derraik, José GB and Anderson, Yvonne C and others, Ultraviolet-C irradiation, heat, and storage as potential methods of inactivating SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial pathogens on filtering facepiece respirators, Pathogens, 83, 2022
- Cholewinski, Aleksander and Dadzie, Eugenia and Sherlock, Cassandra and Anderson, William A and Charles, Trevor C and Habib, Komal and Young, Steven B and Zhao, Boxin, A critical review of microplastic degradation and material flow analysis towards a circular, ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, , 2022
- Liu, Minghui and Bauman, Lukas and Nogueira, Christiane Lourenco and Aucoin, Marc G and Anderson, William A and Zhao, Boxin, Antimicrobial polymeric composites for high-touch surfaces in healthcare applications, Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 100395, 2022
- Sanjay Krishna Muralidharan, Lukas Bauman, William A. Anderson, Boxin Zhao, Recyclable antimicrobial sulphonated poly(ether ether ketone) - copper films: Flat vs micro-pillared surfaces, Materials Today Communications, 101485, 2020
- J.G.B. Derraik, W.A. Anderson, L. Connelly, Y.C. Anderson, Rapid review of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 viability, susceptibility to treatment, and the disinfection and reuse of PPE, particularly filtering facepiece respirators, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, , 0000
In The News
Graduate studies
- Not currently accepting applications for graduate students