Joe Cleary, PE, BCEE; Michaela McKenzie, PE; Ed Horai; and Ding-Hsiang (Shawn) Lin, PE, contributed to a chapter in Anaerobic Co-Digestion: Principles and Guidelines Toward More Efficient Systems by the Water Environment Federation (WEF), to be published in June 2025. They provided significant content for the chapter titled “Feedstocks Evaluation and Selection.”

The Geosyntec practitioners were part of a larger team of more than 40 who contributed to this book over the course of three years. Our practitioners’ work addresses the kinds and amounts of waste materials that can be added to existing industrial digester feedstocks and how these elements interact to produce methane. The chapter explores ways to optimize co-digestion systems to produce more renewable natural gas and, ultimately, beneficially use more of the energy available in waste streams.

WEF is a nonprofit that provides technical education and training for thousands of water-quality professionals who clean water and return it safely to the environment.

About the Geosyntec Contributors

Joe is a Senior Consultant and Subject-Matter Expert based in New Jersey with more than 50 years of experience as an environmental engineer focusing on industrial wastewater, water reuse, energy recovery, and the treatment of emerging contaminants. Much of his recent work addresses sustainable practices, including food-waste-to-energy and co-digestion projects. Joe was named a 2024 WEF Fellow and earned WEF’s Industrial Water Quality Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Michaela is a Project Engineer based in Texas with more than 15 years of experience in environmental and process engineering and permitting. With a background in industrial manufacturing, she routinely provides water and wastewater permitting, strategic planning, and engineering support to domestic and global industrial manufacturing sites.

Ed is a Senior Staff Engineer based in New York who focuses on civil, environmental, and process engineering. His work often addresses industrial wastewater analysis and treatment-technology evaluation, in addition to leading and executing field sampling. Ed works closely with Joe on industrial wastewater, water reuse, and anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment projects.

Shawn is an Environmental and Process Engineer based in Georgia who focuses on remedial technology design and implementation, water and wastewater treatment-system design and optimization, data analysis and visualization, reporting, and laboratory and field experimentation.

About the Book

Anaerobic Co-Digestion: Principles and Guidelines Toward More Efficient Systems provides guidelines and insights for the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of anaerobic co-digestion systems and offers a detailed explanation of fundamental concepts and practical applications of the process more generally.

More Information

Learn more about the book.

Learn more about WEF.

For more information about anaerobic co-digestion, industrial wastewater treatment, process engineering, and sustainable practices contact Joe at JCleary@geosyntec.com, Michaela at Michaela.McKenzie@Geosyntec.com, Ed at EHorai@geosyntec.com, and Shawn at SLin@geosyntec.com.

Learn more about Joe: Joe Cleary (Geosyntec.com)

Learn more about Michaela: Michaela Mackenzie (Geosyntec.com)

Learn more about Ed: Ed Horai | LinkedIn

Learn more about Shawn: Shawn Lin | LinkedIn