Kevan Brian
16th January 2026
In this blog series, which is part of our Sustainability Hub, we speak with chemical engineers from around the world who are making a difference by turning sustainable practices and products into a reality, helping to make them more accessible for the benefit of society and the planet.
Kevan Brian is an environmental engineer with experience across regulatory compliance, environmental management, consulting, and technology. He studied Environmental Engineering at Massey University in New Zealand and began his career with Environment Bay of Plenty. He later transitioned into the technology space and now works at Watercare, where he focuses on introducing innovative, optimised processes into water and wastewater treatment plants.
Background in the water sector and sustainability
My environmental engineering degree was heavily focused on process design, which shaped my early career in compliance and licensing at Environment Bay of Plenty. I then moved into consulting and, after time in the UK, purchased a consulting firm in Auckland.
Our focus was on optimising and intensifying wastewater treatment processes to improve resilience and capacity, enhance discharge quality, and reduce energy use and chemical addition. We carried out extensive process-based work, supported by strong laboratory capability, including research that led to changes in rate kinetics. These sustainability drivers remain a core focus of my work today.
I later moved into technology, and in my current role at Watercare I focus on bringing innovative processes into treatment plants. This now also includes a strong emphasis on understanding and managing process emissions, supported by in-house monitoring and R&D for new technologies.
What led you to focus on process optimisation?
We wanted to deeply understand treatment processes and use full COD mass balances to drive better outcomes. In a competitive consulting environment, optimisation and intensification – rather than simply building more – became our key differentiator.
Having our own laboratory allowed us to control data quality and truly understand plant performance. Combined with close engagement with operational staff, this hands-on approach gave us strong insight into how processes, equipment, and control systems influence real-world decision-making.
We then used process simulation tools such as BioWin and SUMO to test optimisation options and integrate operational insights, helping develop clear pathways from concept to implementation.
Current focus
My current focus is introducing innovation into Watercare’s assets to reduce upgrade costs, delivery time, and carbon emissions. We have strong evidence that reducing carbon also reduces cost, with our intensification solutions delivering up to 50% reductions in both CAPEX and OPEX.
This is supported by smarter procurement, delivery models, and standardisation of innovative processes, which also improves operational consistency across our assets.
Alongside this, we have undertaken extensive emissions monitoring to ensure intensification does not introduce new liabilities. We continue to work closely with Liu Ye and her team at the University of Queensland to better understand emissions data and develop mitigation strategies where required.
The future of process emissions and effective monitoring
Great monitoring comes from owning and staying close to the data. Direct control of instruments allows faster responses to issues and deeper understanding of outcomes, rather than simply confirming expected results. By deliberately varying monitoring locations and methods, we’ve observed outcomes we didn’t anticipate.
I believe we will increasingly understand emission mechanisms well enough to actively reduce them. Fully predicting these mechanisms across dynamic systems will take time, but progress is being made.
Advice for developing new technology
Owning trials alongside technology suppliers has been critical to our success. It accelerates learning, clarifies performance limits, and helps identify why systems succeed or fail.
Understanding that process guarantees are never absolute is key. Early pilot studies help define risk profiles, design envelopes, and where commercial risk should sit. Collaborative approaches with the supply chain are far more effective than traditional contractual models when developing new technologies.
Emerging and future technologies
We have seen strong results developing MaBR technologies and are preparing to trial non-migrating carrier systems at full scale, offering significant intensification potential.
Future developments are likely to include PdNA processes for mainstream wastewater treatment, alongside advances in solids processing technologies to address emerging contaminants.
Key message for chemical engineers and Net Zero
Develop deep technical expertise and stay hands-on with new ideas. Owning testing accelerates learning and impact.
Innovation is often technically achievable – the challenge is commercial. Standardisation and using carbon as a proxy for value engineering can help overcome bias. Collaboration across the supply chain is essential.
This is an exciting time for chemical engineers in the water sector, with ongoing discoveries shaping the path to Net Zero.
Visit our Sustainability Hub to access a suite of on-demand training courses that are free to members, and knowledge resources that will help you embed sustainable principles and practices into everyday work and life.