Areas of expertise
- Soil
- Sustainable Land Systems
- Waste Management and Resource Efficiency
- Water Science and Engineering
Background
Dr Ruben Sakrabani obtained his first degree in Chemistry from the National University of Malaysia. He obtained the prestigious British High Commissioners Chevening Award to pursue an MSc in Environmental Pollution Control from University of Leeds. After his MSc, he worked for a year at Earth Tech Engineering Ltd as an Assistant Environmental Specialist. He then started his PhD at University of Abertay Dundee and later transferred to University of Bradford. His PhD work was on contaminated sediments. He has experience in field and laboratory analysis involving contaminated sediments and hands on experience operating AAS, HPLC and ion chromatograph. During his PhD, Dr Sakrabani spent four months at Aalborg University in Denmark developing novel methods to predict biodegradability of organic matter from combined sewer sediments. In addition, he was also involved in an EU collaborative project involving trans-national access to Major Research Infrastructure (MRI) at WL Delft Hydraulics in the Netherlands. Dr Ruben Sakrabani joined Cranfield in September 2002 as Lecturer in Soil Chemistry.
Research opportunities
MSc by Research in Evaluating the role of biochar derived from carbon capture technology in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Current activities
Dr Sakrabani has more than 15 years of experience in determining nutrient dynamics in soils associated with application of organic amendments such as compost, manure, slurry, sewage sludge, biochar and digestates. His work explores the resource efficiency and reliability of organic amendments as alternative sources of fertilisers to reduce demand on inorganic fertilisers in order to maximise resource efficiency and promote sustainable intensification of agriculture. As a chemist his expertise also lies in the fate and transport of heavy metals and micropollutants in soils. He has an excellent and extensive track record in projects on biosolids application to land in relation to its use as alternative phosphorus fertiliser. He has published in over 70 peer reviewed journals and is currently the Associate Editor of Soil Use and Management. His work related to sanitation is linked to valorisation of faecal sludge into fertilisers in Madagascar, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya and Haiti. He is also member of the NERC Advisory Network and NERC Peer Review College. Selected examples of projects that he is involved in are :
Nutrient dynamics and mechanisation of organo-mineral fertilisers derived from sewage sludge
Renewable sources of phosphorus from sewage sludge and faecal derived fertilisers (developing countries)
Carbon capture technology into organic waste to be utilised as novel fertilisers
Use of dry spectral technology as novel approach in fertiliser recommendation
Mobile phone App technology use in soil nutrient assessment
Tackling soil fertility in cocoa farms in West Africa and Indonesia
Tackling reuse of palm oil waste in Malaysia and Nigeria
Tackling organic sources of fertilisers in tea plantations
Assessing the balance between greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from pastures receiving slurry
Fate and transport of micropollutants (such as personal care products) present in sludge when applied to soil
Clients
Agri-Food Charities
Defra
EPSRC
EU
NERC
MRC
Unilever
United Utilities
WRAP
Carbon capture technology providers
Sanitation venture companies in Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Madagascar
