(617d) Advancement of Membrane Technologies for Water Sustainability:Membrane Distillation and Forward Osmosis (invited)

Water, energy, affordable healthcare, and global warming are four major concerns globally resulting from resource depletion, record high oil prices, clean water shortages, high costs of pharmaceuticals, increased aging population, and changing climate conditions. Among many potential solutions, advance in membrane technology is one of the most direct, effective and feasible approaches to solve these sophisticated issues. Membrane technology is a fully integrated science and engineering which consists of materials science and engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering, biomedical and life science, separation and purification phenomena, statistical mechanics-based molecular simulation, process and product design. In this presentation, we will (1) review and summarize the recent progresses of emerging technologies on desalination and water reuse such as membrane distillation and forward osmosis, and (2) the molecular engineering of membrane materials and fabrication to produce high performance membranes.

Email: chencts@nus.edu.sg Websites: http://www.chee.nus.edu.sg/people/faculty_chungneal.html http://www.chbe.nus.edu.sg/membraneresearch/