Membrane Technology SG Newsletter_2012-08

Specialist Group on Membrane Technology

Newsletter No. 3 August 2012

Editors: Vigid S. Vigneswaran and Allan Kuo-Lun Tung

Welcome all. This is the 3rd issue newsletter of IWA Specialist Group on Membrane Technology (MTSG). The group intends to bring out two newsletters per year on recent activities on membrane technologies.

CONTENTS

Chairmans Message ..... 2

Introduction of Membrane Research Centers (I).... 3

Singapore --- Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC)... 3

Italy --- Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM) ....... 6

IWA MTSG Member Statics 9

Know Your Committee Members .. 13

Coming Conferences: IWA 3rd Regional Membrane Conference 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina .. 18

Coming Conferences: The 7th IWA-MTC 2013 Toronto, Canada ..... 19

Coming Conferences: Membrane Workshop at IWA-WWC 2012 Pusan, Korea . 20

Coming Conferences: The 4th Oxford Water & Membranes Res. Event ... 21

Coming Conferences: Advanced Membrane Tech Conference V ... 22 Disclaimer: This is not a journal, but a Newsletter issued by the IWA Specialist Group on Membrane Technology. Statements made in this Newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of the Specialist Group or those of the IWA. The use of information supplied in the Newsletter is at the sole risk of the user, as the Specialist Group and the IWA do not accept any responsibility or liability.

2 Specialist Group on Membrane Technology: Newsletter No. 3, August 2012

CHAIRMANS MESSAGE: GREETING FOR NEWSLETTER

Dear members of the Membrane Technology Specialist Group,

Thank you for the constant interest and participation in the MTSG. From the 3rd issue on, we plan to travel to the most important worldwide membrane research centers. We start with Singapore Membrane Technology Center (SMTC, Singapore) and The Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM, Italy) with the assistance of Tony Fane and Enrico Drioli respectively. On 3th-6rd December, we will meet together, for the first time in the history of MTSG, in the southern hemisphere, at Buenos Aires for the 3rd regional MT conference. Prof. Maria Cortalezzi, is hoping for your active participation and has informed me that more than 100 abstracts were submitted from Latin & North America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, etc. As of 2012, our group has 1,834 members from 84 countries. The 3rd issue is also expected to be fruitful for the continuous exchange and promotion of knowledge between us. Best regards, Chung-Hak Lee Chair of Specialist Group on Membrane Technology, IWA

Specialist Group on Membrane Technology: Newsletter No. 3, August 2012 3

INTRODUCTION OF MEMBRANE RESEARCH CENTERS (I)

Singapore --- Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC)

Membranes and Water: Achievements and Prospects

Tony Fane Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Nanyang Technological University

Over the past two decades membrane technology has moved from a niche player in the water industry to centre stage. The future looks buoyant with desalination capacity predicted to grow by 120% and water reclamation by 180% over the period 2009 to 2016. As a result it continues to be an exciting time to be involved in membranes for water and water reuse, whether in industry, R&D or academia. Singapore provides a show case for the application of membranes in the water industry with more than a megaton/day of water passing through membranes in desalination and reclamation (the NeWater process). The Singapore environment is also attractive for membrane research, with both universities, NTU and NUS, having major membrane activities. At NTU the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC) has interests in novel and improved membranes and processes focused on the water industry (see below for more about SMTC). The following article looks at developments and opportunities in the membranes and water domain, and also highlights activities at the SMTC.

Water Treatment

Low pressure membranes are playing an increasingly dominant role in water treatment. Hollow fibre MF and UF, contained and submerged, are the most popular and often coupled with physico-chemical pretreatment. An interesting recent development is the use of ceramic UF with ozone for very high flux operation; PWN Technologies (Netherland) is pioneering this approach. At the other end of the spectrum, gravity driven membrane (GDM) processes developed by Ewag (Switzerland) and SkyJuice (Australia), provide exceptionally low energy use (< 0.01 kWh/m3), but at low fluxes (< 10 lmh). In addition to applications in developing countries the GDM approach could offer low energy processing more generally in the water industry. At SMTC we have developed, in collaboration with Siemens WT, a low pressure hollow fibre NF membrane for water softening.

Desalination

Desalination capacity by RO now exceeds that by thermal processes. Flat sheet thin film composite membranes in spiral wound modules (SWM) dominate RO desalination. Advances over the past 35 years have been dramatic, with the Figure of Merit (comprising relative improvements in permeability, salt retention, lifetime and affordability) increasing by a factor of about 500x. Energy demand for the RO-only component of seawater desalination is down to approximately 2.0 kWh/m3 at 50% recovery, which is about 2x the minimum theoretical energy for separation. There is still room for improvement with higher permeability membranes that could be operated at close to osmotic pressure conditions; energy savings of the order 25% could be achieved. The latest generation RO membranes (NanoH2O, USA) incorporate inorganic nanoparticles in the TFC layer and further developments could see carbon nanotubes or biomimetic RO membranes. Several groups, including SMTC, are incorporating aquaporins into RO membranes. Aquaporins are natures water channels present in living cells, and


having very high water permeability and negligible salt transmission. At SMTC we have developed biomimetic membranes containing aquaporin with double the permeability of conventional RO membranes. These membranes are to be commercialized through a start-up company, Aquaporin Asia P/L.

Desalination with low green house gas (GHG) emissions can be provided by use of renewable energy, such as wind power as employed in major SWRO plant in Australia. Solar energy or waste heat can be harnessed by Membrane Distillation (MD) or Forward Osmosis (FO). There is a surge of interest in both of these membrane technologies. Developments in MD include a wide range of flat sheet MD membranes and also hollow fibre membranes. At SMTC hollow fibre membrane modules for direct contact MD have been developed with improved shell-side flow properties that increases overall performance by 50 to 100%. An interesting commercial development is the flat-sheet multistage vacuum MD module by memsys that gives improved gain-output (GOR) values. GE and memsys have linked up to bring this technology to high salinity streams in the gas industry. The ability to operate at high salinity means MD can achieve very high recoveries and be coupled with crystallization in the MDC process where the final products are water and salt solids. Groups, such as Enrico Driolis at ITM-CNR (Italy) and our MD researchers at SMTC are developing this potential application of MD.

FO is also under active development, with the promise for lower energy desalination if a suitable draw solute can be identified. Ammonium carbonate solution, that can be regenerated by waste heat, has been promoted by Yale (Meny Elimelech et al.) but other options are also being studied. Improved FO membranes are being produced and at SMTC Wang Rongs group have developed composite hollow fibre FO membranes with high performance that are suitable for a range of FO applications, including desalination, concentration, bioreactors and pressure retarded osmosis (see below).

An ongoing challenge for desalination and reclamation is biofouling, which can significantly decrease performance and increase costs and energy use. Recent research has been looking at the potential role of transparent exopolymers (TEPs) present in seawater and treated wastewater. There is strong evidence that TEP exacerbates biofouling so techniques to limit this component are being developed (groups include TU Delft, KAUST and SMTC). Another interesting approach to tackle biofouling, based on biomimicry, is being evaluated at SMTC with colleagues in microbiology. This involves either interfering with quorum sensing (QS) during biofilm formation or using biofilm dispersal triggers, such as NO. The quorum quenching method has been used successfully for MBR fouling control by Chung Hak Lee and colleagues (Seoul National U). The control of biofouling by biomicry could have a significant future.

Water Reclamation

The reclamation of high quality water from treated wastewater is now common place for industrial reuse, but indirect potable reuse applications are slow to be accepted. This may gradually change due to increased water scarcity and the proven reliability of reuse technology. All modern reclamation plant, such as Singapores NeWater, use dual membrane processes with low pressure membrane pretreatment prior to RO purification. The attraction of these NeWater type systems is the low energy and cost compared with SWRO (typically 50% lower). Reclamation typically has a recovery of 75 to 80%, but future applications could see this rise to 85 to 90% . In addition, future green field reclamation plant will probably see the MBR-RO combination; the benefit being the better quality feed to RO and reduced fouling. The PUB in Singapore has demonstrated this dual process and recent studies by SMTC with Toray have confirmed this approach. Novel high retention (HR) MBRs with retentive membranes may also have a future in reclamation. SMTC has been evaluating the FOMBR


(also studied by groups in the US and Europe), and a patented MDMBR; the latter operates at about 550C with thermophilic biomass. Both HRMBRs produce high quality product water, but the retained inorganics lead to high salinity in the reactor, so halotolerant microorganisms are required. The MDBR has been operated successfully on petrochemical wastewater by IESE Ltd (NTU associated company).

Energy Issues

Concern with the link between global warming and GHG emissions has implications for the membrane-water domain. Improved efficiency and reduced fouling can reduce energy demand. At SMTC we are evaluating several approaches to improved hydrodynamic control of concentration polarization by two-phase flow, vibrations and ultrasound. It is hoped that this will lead to reduced fouling, along with the biomicry control mentioned above. Energy production by membrane-enabled processes could have a significant future. For example, the generation of biogas by anaerobic processes, including the AnMBR, has obvious appeal, as shown by David Stuckey (Imperial College) and Perry McCarty and colleagues (Inha, Korea). SMTC has research on AnMBRs, including a thermophilic An(MD)MBR, and is developing membranes to upgrade biogas by selective removal of CO2 from methane. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) could be another source of power from waste water, and has been pioneered by Bruce Logan (Penn State, USA). Some MFC configurations make use of ion-exchange membranes. Whether the MFC will become a significant means of power generation is a moot point.

Osmotic power generation looks more promising. Two membrane-enable processes are under development, effectively reversing other desalting membrane processes. They are reverse electrodialysis (RED) and pressure- retarded osmosis (PRO). In PRO a pressurized saline stream is contacted, across a robust FO membrane, with a low salinity stream so that the volumetric flow of pressurized water is increased by osmotic transfer of water. The additional flow is passed through a turbine to generate electricity or used directly as pumping energy. This concept was originally proposed by Sidney Leob (co-inventor of the RO membrane), and has been actively promoted over the past decade by Statkraft (Norway). Many research groups are working on the PRO process. At SMTC we have developed PRO membranes in hollow fibre format that have been able to generate over 10 W/m2 (membrane area), a value 2x that identified by Statkraft as interesting.

Sensing and Monitoring

Compared with the chemical process industry the membrane water industry is not well provided with online Sensors and Monitors. This is an area ripe for further development to improve the efficiency of membrane processes. At SMTC we have several projects, including sensors for measuring the fouling propensity of the feed and for evaluating the state of the process. The latter uses side-stream canary cells fitted with detectors such as ultrasonic time domain reflectometry (UTDR) (for foulant height and density) and electrical impedance spectrometry (EIS) ( for foulant finger-printing). These sensors will be commercialized by a spin-off company, MINT P/L, that has an initial product for integrity sensing low pressure membranes.

Special Needs

Water supply in situations of chronic or acute need can be provided by membranes due to their effective separation properties, portability and relative simplicity. Many of the major membrane companies have emergency systems available and there are organizations, such as the SkyJuice Foundation (Rhett Butler, Australia) who supply gravity-driven hollow fibres (based on Siemens technology). At SMTC we have a Special Needs group introducing membranes for water treatment to local groups in Indonesia and Myanmar. We have also developed a Decision Support methodology to


help in selecting the appropriate technology (not necessarily membrane based) for a given scenario.

Overall, while membranes may not be the universal panacea for water supply and wastewater they are clearly playing an increasing role in these key aspects of our life. This brings exciting challenges and opportunities to the industry and the R&D community.

Singapore Membrane Technology Centre

The Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC) was started in January 2008 to do fundamental and applied research in membranes for water and the environment. The SMTC is a successor to the Temasek Professor programme in Membranes for Sustainable Water (A G Fane, 2002-2006) at NTU. The co-Directors of SMTC are Professor Tony Fane and Professor Wang Rong who work with more than 100 researchers (> 85 PhDs and post docs and > 15 faculty). SMTC has over 40 projects in the membranes and water domain. Projects include novel membranes, water treatment, desalination, fouling control, novel MBRs, membrane distillation, forward osmosis, biomimetic membranes, hybrid processes, monitoring and sensing and life cycle assessment of membrane processes. SMTC has collaborative links with numerous companies and international research groups. SMTC is a member of the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) at NTU in Singapore. It is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board, the university and through individual projects, many of which are from the Environment and Water Industry Development Council of Singapore. More details on SMTC can be found at http://smtc.ntu.edu.sg or by contacting Tony Fane ([email protected]) or Wang Rong ([email protected]).

Italy --- Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM)

Enrico Drioli

Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM) University of Calabria

The Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM) is a research structure created by the National Research Council of Italy (CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche) for the development, at a national and international level, of membrane science and technology. Prof. Enrico Drioli was appointed as First Director since its founding in 1993. The Institute is currently directed by Dr. Lidietta Giorno.


ITM is headquartered in Rende (CS), in the Campus of the University of Calabria with a subsection in Padua. The Institutes mission is the multidisciplinary research, development, technology transfer and high education in membrane science and engineering as well as the application of membrane operations in various fields, including water treatment, gas separation, bio artificial organs, biotechnology, agro-food. ITM is internationally recognized for its skills in membrane preparation (organic, inorganic, mixed matrix, biohybrid membrane), transport phenomena, molecular membrane separation, catalytic membranes, catalytic membrane reactors, membrane contactors (including membrane emulsification and membrane crystallizer), integrated membrane processes, membrane in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.

Membrane are applied in most strategic fields, such as energy, environment, health, chemical manufacturing. In these areas, membrane technology reached a leading role with an annual growth higher than 20%. ITM strongly contributes to this development, playing a leading role also at the international level. ITM has established solid relationship with other Research Institutions, Universities and private Companies in Italy, Europe (CNRS, University of Twente, -Lisbon, -Leuven, -Tarragona; Biotechnological- Biomedical Center (BBC) of the Leipzig University, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, IBET, VITO); China (CAS and CAAS), South Korea (KRICT, Hanyang University); Japan (Tsukuba University), Saudi Arabia (KACST). ITM is in fact participating and coordinating various research projects on a national and international level, sponsored by European Union, by the Italian Government and by various industrial groups.

A significant exchange of young researchers, coming from various foreign Countries, e.g. Spain, The Netherlands, Russia, Algeria, South Korea, China, India, Bangladesh has been always strongly encouraged in order to accelerate the growth of the structure and to integrated research activities at international level. At present 15-20 external researchers per year visit the Institute and collaborate to its research activities. The Institute is also involved in sponsoring and organizing many different Conferences and Workshop (e.g. EMCC5 in 2008, EUROMEMBRANE in 2006, ECI Conference, etc.) ITM-CNR Water Treatment Projects

The ITM-CNR is involved in several projects on water treatment by membrane technology. Among them, BIONEXGEN (Development of the Next Generation Membrane Bioreactor system; www.bionexgen.eu) is a collaborative FP7 EU research project which has started in September 2010 and will last until February 2014. The consortium consists of 11 partners from 8 countries including 4 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia). The overall objective of BIONEXGEN is to develop and test on pilot scale a new class of functional low fouling membranes for membrane bioreactor technology with high water flux and high rejection of organic pollutants with low molecular weight. The field tests with these newly developed membranes will be carried out with wastewater from 3 different industries (cosmetics, textiles and olive oil industry) which play an important role in the MENA countries and will be compared to conventional, commercially available membranes for benchmarking.

In another EU ongoing project, WATERBIOTECH (Biotechnology for Africas sustainable water supply; www.waterbiotech.eu) the main aim is to Cope with water scarcity in developing countries: Role of Biotechnology in water treatment Mandatory ICPC (AFRICA). The consortium consists of 20 partners from 17 different African and European countries. The target countries of the project are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Ghana. The idea is to disseminate best practices jointly with all the requirements and the strategy necessary for the


implementation of selected biotechnologies specifically assigned to local regions within the targeted countries. The purification and reuse of wastewater in combination with efficient use of water is the only sustainable way to solve the problem in water scarce region in Africa and all over the world. The high costs of conventional treatment processes have lead experts and authorities to search for creative, efficient and environmentally sound ways to control water pollution. The development of simple and cost effective Biotechnological water treatment technologies is particularly interesting for African countries. The Biotechnological water treatment methods proposed in this project include Membrane bioreactor (MBR), Bio-desalination, neutralization and heavy metal removal, the nutrient film techniques and the tricking filter. Moreover, in order to ensure a substantial impact of the project results, WATERBIOTECH will build the capacities of relevant stakeholders in the region through specialized seminars and workshops that enable the transfer of knowledge from experts within the consortium to key actors in the water management field.

Another FP7 European Marie Curie project, ILMC, deals with the Preparation of ionic liquid microcapsule membranes loaded and their application in VOCs removal. In this project, the fellowship has been awarded to an Indian post-doc who spent two years of research activities at ITM-CNR. The aim of the work is to demonstrate the feasibility of ionic liquid encapsulated microcapsules as alternatives to conventional separation techniques. In particular, in this work toluene has been successfully removed from water using the novel produced capsules. Furthermore, in the framework of the Italy-India bilateral project on Membrane contactors for arsenic(III) to arsenic(V) conversion (2009-2011), different exchange visits have been made for carrying out research on arsenic oxidation. At ITM-CNR, experiments on arsenic oxidation with MnO2 coated ceramic membranes, previously prepared in India, and with polymeric capsules (both in PEEK-WC and PES) and flat membranes, coated with MnO2, were carried out. Other projects leaded by ITM or where ITM is involved as a partner are addressed to seawater and brackish waters desalination and water reuse. Integrated membrane processes for realising a zero liquid discharge have been developed in the framework of the EU project MEDINA (http://medina.unical.it ).

New membrane operations as Membrane Distillation and Membrane Crystallisers have been studied for increasing recovery factors in NF and RO and for extracting salts as high quality crystals from brines. Membrane condenser is also attracting attention for the recovery of water from the gas streams of industrial productions in the CAPWA EU Project: (http://www.watercapture.eu/ index.php/capwaproject).

Energy from salinity gradients through forward osmosis or reverse electrodialysis (EU project REAPOWER http://www.reapower.eu/) is one of the recent topics where ITM researchers are focalising growing attention.

Address Istituto di Ricerca per la Tecnologia delle Membrane Via Pietro Bucci, Cubo 17C, c/o Universit della Calabria 87030 Rende (CS) ITALIA Tel: (39) - (0984) 492050; Fax: (39) - (0984) 402103 http://www.itm.cnr.it/English/index.htm


IWA MTSG MEMBER STATICS (August, 2012)

Introduction

This SG membership annual report gives a comprehensive overview of the trends for SG membership in 2012 and previous years. This report looks at the trends on SG members in terms of years, age groups, genders, segments and geographical distributions. Furthermore, it also analyses membership crosslink with other groups.

Analysis on Gender and Age Groups

As of August 2012 there are 1834 in total current members in the Membrane Technology Specialist Group. Despite those who have not indicated their age (34 out of 1834), among all these members, there are 417 (23% of 1834) members who are 35 years or younger and there are 1383 older than 35. In addition, despite those who have not indicated their gender, there are 298 (16% of 1834) members who are female. You can see the Analysis for gender and age for the past 5 years from 2008 to 2012 in table 1 and figure 1.

Table 1 Total numbers of SG members within different age groups and gender groups

MTSG(#29)

Year

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 N N N N N

Age_group 258 329 385 414 417 35 and under

36-50 years 585 669 690 703 725 51+ years 426 429 413 390 658 Data undisclosed 449 429 382 330 34 Gender

246 290 304 318 298 F M 1380 1463 1470 1442 1465 Data undisclosed 92 103 96 77 71 Total 1718 1856 1870 1837 1834

Figure 1 Trends of SG members in the past 5 years in terms of total number, gender and YWP


From table 1 and figure 1 we can see that in the past 5 years: a. the total number of group members has increasing trend (slight decrease in 2011 and 2012); b. the number of YWP has obviously increasing trend; c. the number of female members has increasing trend (slight decrease in 2012);

Analysis on Geographical Distribution

We have considered the regions of Africa, Central Asia, China, East Asia & the Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America, South Asia, The Middle East, Western Europe (total 9 regions) for the analysis of geographical distribution (table 2). Furthermore, a comparison of total members in High Income Countries (HIC) and Low And Middle Income Countries (LAMIC) was made and shown in table 3.

Table 2 Total numbers of SG members within different regions

Regions: MTSG(SG#29) year

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

N N N N N

Africa 30 32 43 49 51 Central Asia 0 0 1 2 1 China 71 78 113 152 187 East Asia & the Pacific 467 520 493 465 455 Eastern Europe 76 106 119 109 102 Latin America & the Caribbean 65 66 76 79 60 North America 315 309 283 262 259 South Asia 26 26 26 31 41 The Middle East 48 63 57 61 54 Western Europe 620 656 659 627 624

Total 1718 1856 1870 1837 1834

Figure 2 SG members within different regions in 2012

Specialist Group on Membrane Technology: Newsletter No. 3, August 2012

11

Figure 3 Trends of SG members in the past 5 years within different regions

Table 3 Total SG members in HIC and LAMIC regions

MTSG(SG#29) Year

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

N N N N N

HIC 1398 1490 1452 1371 1347

LAMIC 320 366 418 466 487

Total 1718 1856 1870 1837 1834

From tables 2 and 3 and figures 2 and 3 we can see that:

a. In 2012, the majority of group members are from Western Europe, East Asia & the Pacific, and North America;

b. In the past 5 years, SG membership figures have been growing continuously in some regions such as China, Eastern Europe and Africa.

c. Members from LAMIC countries in particular with an increasing trend in the past 5 years


A list of the ranking of the number of the MTSG members in each country is attached as following:

Rank Country Number

1 USA 198 2 CHN 187 3 AUS 133 4 GBR 113 5 JPN 95 6 DEU 90 7 ESP 84 8 NLD 62 9 CAN 61 10 KOR 49 11 SGP 46 12 BEL 44 13 FRA 40 14 IND 37 15 MYS 36

16 SWE

30 ZAF

18 ITA 29

19 TWN

24 PRT

21 DNK

22 NZL

23 MEX 21

24 BRA

19 NOR

26 SWE 18 27 AUT 17

28

HKG

15

HUN IRN RUS TUR UKR

34 PHL

14 ARE

36 FIN 12 37 POL 11

38 THA 10

39 IRL 9

Rank Country Number

40

GRC

8 ISR CHL SAU

44 ROU 7

45 IDN

6 SVN

47 HRV

5 NAM

49 CZE 4

50

ARG

3

BFA COL KEN LBN NGA LBN PER SCG

59

BRN

2

GEO JOR LUX OMN VNM

Rank Country Number

65

AFG 1 BGD 1 BLR 1 CMR 1 CYM 1 CRI 1 CIV 1 CYP 1 DJI 1 EGY 1 GIB 1 LVA 1 MAC 1 MUS 1 QAT 1 SVK 1 SDN 1 TJK 1 UGA 1

VEN 1

Total 84 1834


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KNOW YOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS (continued after Newsletter Issues 1 and 2)

Chair: Prof. Chung-Hak Lee (Korea)

Deputy Chairs: Prof. Franz-Bernd Frechen (Germany)

Prof. Vigid S Vigneswaran (Australia)

Secretary: Dr. Val Frenkel (USA)

Treasurer: Prof. Xia Huang (China)

Management Committee Members: (alphabetical order)

Prof. Emeritus Roger Ben Am (France)

Dr. Peter Berg (Germany) Prof. TorOve Leiknes (Norway)

Prof. Corinne Cabassud (France) Dr. Andre Lerch (Germany)

Dr. Emile Cornelissen (Netherlands)* Dr. Sebastien Logette (France)*

Prof. Maria M. Cortalezzi (Argentina) Prof. How Yong Ng (Korea)

Prof. Peter M. Huck (Canada) Prof. Gideon Oron (Israel)

Prof. Ismail Koyuncu (Turkey) Prof. Kuo-Lun Tung (Taiwan)

Dr. Masaru Kurihara (Japan) Prof. Mark Wiesner (USA)

Dr. Pierre Le-Clech (Australia)* Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto (Japan)

Prof. Sangho Lee (Korea) Prof. Hongde Zhou (Canada)

*New committee members since January 2012

Dr. ir. Emile Cornelissen Dr. ir. Emile Cornelissen is a Senior Scientific Researcher at KWR Watercycle Research Institute in the Netherlands. He obtained his Chemical Engineering MSc degree at the University of Twente (the Netherlands) in 1992 on modeling of multi-component feed mixtures by membrane separation in hollow fiber membrane modules. After this, he received his Chemical Engineering PhD degree at the same university in 1997 in the Membrane Technology Group lead by Professor Heiner Strathmann on the topic of membrane fouling in waste water filtration. From 1997 to 2002 he worked as a Process and Startup Engineer at Seghers better technology for Water (now: Keppel Seghers) in Belgium and worked on membrane filtration, waste water treatment in general and on the development of a new membrane bioreactor. Since 2003 he is a Senior Scientific Researcher at KWR Watercycle Research Institute and his research topics include membrane fouling and cleaning (organic fouling and biofouling), rejection of organic micropollutants (OMPs) and engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) by pressure driven membranes and innovative processes, such as (i) use of air/water to control spiral wound membrane fouling, (ii) fluidized ion exchange, (iii) osmotic membrane processes (forward osmosis on activated sludge and waste water) and (iv) salinity driven membrane processes for water and energy production (reverse electro dialysis and pressure retarded


osmosis). He published more than 40 papers in well-respected scientific journals, co-filed 3 patents, written three book chapters and (co-)chaired several sessions at membrane and water conferences. He was and still is involved in several European projects related to membrane technology (e.g. Techneau, Medina, and Nanonext). Finally, he received several innovation awards in the field water treatment and membrane filtration.

Professor Dr.-Ing. Franz-Bernd Frechen (IWA SGMT Vice-Chair)

Dr. Frechen since 1996 is full professor and head of the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (DESEE) and of the Institute for Water, Waste and Environment (IWWE) at the University of Kassel/Germany. He studied civil engineering at the Aachen University and continued as scientific staff in the field of sanitary and environmental engineering and received his PhD from Aachen University in 1988. Beginning 1988 he joined a consulting engineer as a shareholder and was responsible for the biological design of major wastewater treatment plant projects up to 1.6 million p.e. and multi-stage biological treatment. In 1994, he founded his own consultancy, and in 1996 he was appointed to full professor in the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Kassel. He in addition to standards like wastewater and industrial wastewater treatment has multiple interests which lead to a very broad professional range, main topics being membrane technology and application, odour emissions, measurement and abatement in sewers, wwtps and waste facilities, electronic noses, renewable energy from water and biomass, biological treatment of CSO and others. Consequently he serves in associations like DWA (German Water Engineers), IWA, VDI, DIN, CEN etc. and chairs the German expert groups on Membrane systems as well as the German expert group on odours. In the same topics he is serving at IWA as vice-chair of the SGMT and vice chair of the SGOVE on odours and volatile emissions, and in additions contributes to some 15 other voluntary expert group works national and international continuously. As one outcome, he holds several patents in wastewater and membrane technology as well as in odour technology in Germany, Europe, Russia and the US. Another outcome is that he has written more than 140 publications whereof ca. 45 in English He has so far given more than 300 lectures worldwide, many as invited or keynote Speaker, whereof more than 90 in English and is a reviewer for national, European and international research grant organizations as well as national and international journals. The most recent success is the membrane-based waterbackpack called PAUL, a small filtration unit for cases of natural disasters, that can be used without energy, chemicals, maintenance requirements even by illiterates in rural areas as decentralised simple water treatment method. Since 2010, more than 750 units were distributed in 30+ countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, providing water for several hundred thousand people. For this humanitarian action, he was awarded Federal Winner in the competition Germany Land of Ideas in the category Society in 2011.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Franz-Bernd Frechen mobile +49-172-6504683 Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (DESEE), University of Kassel Kurt-Wolters-Str. 3, D-34125 Kassel, Germany Tel +49-561-804-2795, Fax +49-561-804-3642 Skype frechen_fb, Mail [email protected] www.uni-kassel.de/fb14/siwawi and www.waterbackpack.org

Winner 2011 in thecategory society


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Dr. Masaru Kurihara

Dr. Masaru Kurihara is Fellow of Toray Industries, Inc. & Senior Scientific Director of Mega-ton Water System in Funding program for world-leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST). He received the B.S. in 1963 at Gunma University, Japan and Dr. Engineering 1970 at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He joint to Toray Industries, Inc. since 1963. Over 42 years, his research activities have primary focused on membranes and membrane process for water treatment such as RO/NF/UF/MF and MBR. He has published more than 100 articles on the membranes and membrane process especially on RO membrane. He has also patented over 300 patents in Japan and overseas. Dr. Kurihara has received numerous awards from Japans Academic Society and International Desalination Association (IDA) including Lifetime Achievement Award Now, Board Member of IDA & President of Asia Pacific Desalination Association (APDA). And also, Fellow of The Society of Polymer Science, Japan and the Chemical Society of Japan.

Professor Ismail Koyuncu

He was born in 1974 and graduated from Antalya high school in 1990. He had a B.Sc., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Environmental Engineering Environmental Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University, in 1995, 1997 and 2002, respectively. He has completed two years post doctorate studies at Rice University, USA in 2003 and 2005. He worked as a Research Assistant in Istanbul Technical University between 1996-2004 and is currently working as a Professor in Environmental Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University. His main research areas are membrane technologies, reuse of industrial wastewaters by membrane technologies and environmental nanotechnology. He is especially focusing on colloidal fouling of NF membranes, water treatment with submerged membranes, effect of pretreatment on submerged membranes, characterization of cake layer on membranes, characterization of particles in filter effluents, textile industry wastewater treatment and reuse, produced water treatment, new membrane module development, low energy pump for reverse osmosis membranes, composite membrane manufacturing, membrane autopsy, membrane production with electrospinning, hollow fiber membrane development, antibacterial membranes. Prof. Koyuncu, is founding Director of National Research Center on Membrane Technologies in Turkey and serving this since 2010. This Center has been funded by The Turkish Ministry of Development and the main research focuses of the Center are production of polymeric, ceramic and composite membranes, modification of current membranes, development of innovative modules for membrane treatment systems, development of

Dr. Masaru Kurihara Fellow of Toray Industries, Inc. & Senior Scientific Director of Mega-ton Water System. 2-1-1 Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8666, Japan Tel) +81-3-3245-5716, Fax) +81-3245-5704 E-mail) [email protected]


novel processes, investigating new methods to prevent membrane fouling, lab and pilot scale membrane applications, membrane autopsy and energy production (Microbial Fuel Cells and hydrogen from anaerobic system). Prof. Koyuncu, is the member of Management Committee of Specialized group on Membrane Technology, IWA since January 2011 and in the editorial board of Membrane Water Treatment Journal since 2009. He organized two IWA conferences namely IWA Regional Conference and Exhibition on Membrane Technology and Water Reuse and 3rd IWA International Symposium on Water and Wastewater Technologies in Ancient Civilizations.

Dr. Pierre Le-Clech

After completing his PhD on fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) in Cranfield University, UK, in 2002, Pierre Le-Clech joined the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology at the University of New South Wales where he now works as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering. He has researched many aspects of the water and wastewater treatments by membrane processes. He seeks to address the specific issue of membrane fouling by biopolymeric materials and bring fundamental understanding through application of detailed characterisation of macromolecular and particulate foulants, and has been publishing extensively on that topic, especially within the MBR field. Some of Pierres current research activities are in collaboration with the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA) on the topics of (i) forward osmosis and (ii) pre-treatment of RO in desalination applications. In addition to his work on porous membrane ageing, Pierre has also a keen interest to investigate new opportunities to reuse, recycle and dispose of old membranes at the end of their life time. Pierre is one of the Associate Editors for Desalination and Water Treatment and sits on the Editorial Board of Membrane Water Treatment, Drinking Water Engineering and Science and Process Safety and Environmental Protection. Prof. Sangho Lee

Dr. Sangho Lee is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Kookmin University in Korea. He received a master degree in Chemical Technology in 1995 and a PhD in Chemical Technology in 1999 at Seoul National University. From 1999 to 2003 he was a senior researcher at Northwestern University in U.S.A. He participated in research and development of rotating reverse osmosis system for water reuse, which was a NASA funded project for long-term human space flights. Then he worked for Korea Institute of Construction Technology (KICT) as a senior researcher (2003-2007) and a research fellow (2007-2011). From 2006 to 2011 he was an adjunct professor at the department of construction environment, University of

Address: Istanbul Technical University, Department of Environmental Engineering, National Research Center on Membrane Technologies, 34469 Maslak Istanbul Turkey Tel: 90 212 285 3789 Fax:90 212 285 6545 Email: [email protected]


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Science and Technology, Korea. In 2011 he joined Kookmin University as an assistant professor. His main research topics focus on membrane technologies for drinking water production, wastewater reuse, and desalination: Analysis of mechanisms for membrane fouling and scale formation, methods to prevent fouling in different membrane systems, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, modeling and simulation of membrane processes using mathematical/computational models, design and optimization of novel membrane modules, intelligent process control and energy optimization, forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), and membrane distillation for desalination and water reuse. He has published more than 80 papers in the literature on environmental and membrane engineering. He is co-author of 25 patents. He has been an associate editor of Water Science and Technology (WST) and Water Science and Technology: Water Supply (WSTWS) since 2011.

Dr. Andr Lerch Dr. Andr Lerch is working as project manager with Samsung Cheil Industries Inc. as member of the companies Frankfurt R&D Center (Germany) since July 2012. His work focus on module design and modelling of aerated particle suspension flow in pressure and vacuum driven UF membrane processes. Before his engagement with Samsung he was working from 2005 to 2012 as research associate at the Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany) in research and teaching. He was head of the membrane technology and the CFD modelling group. Dr. Lerch started his research activities on membranes in 1999 as research assistant at the Universitaet Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and its affiliated research institute, the IWW Water Center (Germany). After studying mechanical engineering at the Gerhard-Mercator-Universitaet Duisburg (Germany) he got his diploma in 1999. The title of his thesis was On the development of a high rate deep bed filtration unit for sewage treatment and was the outcome of a project work at the CSIRO Australia, Molecular Science in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Lerch received his PhD from the Universitaet Duisburg-Essen for his work on Fouling layer formation by flocs in inside-out driven capillary ultrafiltration membranes. This work won the Willy-Hager Award 2008 for outstanding research in the field of water and wastewater treatment. Beside water related memberships in Germany he is member of the International Water Association (IWA) since 2000 and member of the management committee of the specialist group Membrane Technology since 2005.


COMING CONFERENCE: 3rd REGIONAL MEMBRANE CONFERENCE 2012

The 3rd IWA Regional Conference on Membrane Technology Date: 3-6 Dec, 2012

Venue : Centro Argentino de Ingenieros (Argentina Engineer Center) Buenos Aires, Argentina

Website: http://www.membrane2012.com/

On behalf of the organizing committee, we are pleased to invite you to the IWA 3rd Regional conference in Membrane Technology, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 2012. The objective of this conference is to promote the development and use of membrane technology on water treatment by favoring the exchange of knowledge and experience between professionals from academia and industry. The topics of the conference will cover all the areas of membrane technology, with focus on the development of the technology in Latin American countries. Special topics to be covered are:

Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes in water treatment

Membrane bioreactors and waste water treatment

Ceramic membranes

Membranes for water treatment in the developing world and emergency response

Forward osmosis

Case studies

Over 100 abstracts were submitted before deadline and this event is still accepting submissions for poster presentations. The deadline for early-bird registration is October 1st, 2012:

Prof. Maria M. Fidalgo Prof. Chung-Hak Lee Chair of Regional Conference Chair of Membrane Technology Specialist Group of IWA

Contact: Prof. Maria Cortalezzi, Instituto Technologico de Buenos Aires

E-mail: [email protected]


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COMING MEMBRANE WORKSHOP AT IWA-WWC 2012 PUSAN, KOREA


COMING CONFERENCE: 4th OXFORD WATER & MEMBRANES RES. EVENT

4th Oxford Water and Membranes Research Event September 21st-22nd, 2012,

Balliol College, University of Oxford

First Announcement Following on from the success of our previous events in this series and our earlier workshops on Critical Flux, we are planning a focused workshop for around 50 participants. The theme will be

Membrane Fouling and Monitoring. The objective is to discuss advances in our understanding of fouling of membrane processes both low and high pressure Biofouling will be one of the principal foci and in addition to Monitoring we will challenge those concerned to advance the matter of Fouling Control. Taking place in the uniquely inviting intellectual, social and architectural environment of Oxford the atmosphere will be friendly and relatively informal, while the quality will be high. The size of the meeting will allow for interactive discussion after each presentation. Professor Tony Fane (NTU Singapore and UNSW Sydney) is chairing the Scientific Committee. The dates have been chosen to immediately precede Euromembrane2012 which is being held in London from 23rd to 27th September 2012. Those interested in participating should email Robert Field whose contact details are below. The cost of attendance including accommodation in ensuite rooms for the nights of 21st and 22nd and all meals including the Conference Dinner is 310. Information on double rooms and additional nights of accommodation will be available upon request. Please inform us as soon as possible, if you intend to attend and if you wish to present. In early April, we will be sending out a detailed programme for the meeting and a registration form. Those responding now have a chance to shape the event. We look forward to hearing from you. To express interest in participating do contact: Professor Robert W Field Email: [email protected] Professor of Engineering Science University of Oxford Department of Engineering Science, Parks Road, OXFORD, OX1 3PJ, UK Tel: 44(0)1865 273814


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COMING CONFERENCE: ADVANCED MEMBRANE TECH CONFERENCE V

ADVANCED MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY V: Membranes for Sustainable Water Energy and the Environment

An ECI Conference Series October 14-19, 2012

Singapore

Chair: Tony Fane, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Co-Chair: Rong Wang, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre

Membrane technology is increasingly playing an essential role in our life. This ECI membrane conference will show case the recent advancements of membrane research development and applications related to water production, wastewater reclamation, gas and liquid separations & purifications, energy issues, the environment, special needs, etc. It will provide a forum for exchange of ideas and thoughts, and discussions for the global membrane community. It will also serve to build important professional networks. The sessions will cover:

. Overview of R&D activities in several membrane centers

. Advances in desalination and nanofiltration

. Hybrid/low pressure membrane systems- Membranes for drinking water, food, life science and pharmaceutical industries

. Osmotic and thermal membrane processes

. Membrane for gas separation and energy related applications

. Novel membranes-functionalized responsive modified

. Membranes for special needs (acute and chronic)

. Future directions and strategic issues

To receive the next mailing/call for abstracts, please complete and return the Request for Next Mailing Form at http://engconfintl.org/12am.html. ENGINEERINCGO NFERENCEISN TERNATIONAL 32 Broadway, Suite 314, New York, NY 10004 Tel: 1-212-514-6760; Fax:1-212-514-6030; www.engconfintl.org- [email protected]


WE WANT HEAR FROM YOU!

Thank you to all contributors for this Newsletter. Please send any information and articles relating to Membrane Technology for Water and Wastewater Treatment Issues, to the editors:

Vigid S. Vigneswaran Kuo-Lun (Allan) Tung Professor/Director Professor/Director Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater R&D Center for Membrane Technology University of Technology, Sydney Chung Yuan University Sydney, Australia Taoyuan, Taiwan [email protected] [email protected]

Alliance House 12 Caxton Street London SWIH 0QS, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 7654 5500 Fax: +44 (0)20 7654 5555 Email: [email protected] Web: www.iwahq.org Company registered in England No. 3597005 Registered Charity (England) No. 1076690

Documents

Membrane Technology SG Newsletter_2012-08