Water Treatment Technologies for A Better Tomorrow

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing
20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

Schedule

08:45 Opening 

Matthew Tirrell
Zhi-Kang Xu

09:00 Membrane based processes for water treatment and resource recovery

Xia Huang, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, China

09:40 Water technologies by interface engineering: Purification and pollution remediation

Seth B. Darling, Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, USA

10:20 Break

10:40 Surface engineering of polymer membranes for water treatment

Zhi-Kang Xu, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, China

11:20 Novel nanoparticle based membrane for water filtration applications

Xiao-Min Lin, Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory

12:00 Lunch & Roundtable Discussion

13:30 New water-soluble associating polymers based on electrostatic complexation

Matthew Tirrell, Institute for Molecular Engineering of the University of Chicago, USA

14:10 Advances of water treatment processes to meet with the challenges of water quality in urban area

Jun Ma, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology

14:50 Break

15:05 Learning from nature to design urban green infrastructure for stormwater management

Cristina Negri, Energy Systems, Argonne National Laboratory

15:45 Preparation of PVDF Hollow Fiber Microporous Membranes via Thermally Induced Phase Separation Method and Their Applications

Ya-Kai Lin, Vice President of  Scinor membrane Co. ltd, Beijing, China

16:15 Closing, Dinner & Roundtable Discussion

Speakers

Professor Xia Huang, School of Environment, Tsinghua University

Professor Xia Huang received her PhD degree in 1988 in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. After her PhD education, she joined the Department of Environmental Engineering, Tsinghua University as a lecturer in 1989, and became associate professor in 1992 and got the full professor position in Tsinghua University in 1997.

Now, she is a Director of Division of Water Environment, Director of State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, and Chair of Academic Committee of School of Environment, Tsinghua University. She is a fellow, and Vice Chair of Management Committee of the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group on Membrane Technology, and Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief of “Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering“, Associate Editor of “Water Science & Technology”. She was awarded by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the Yangtse River Scholar reward, and has published more than 100 papers in recent 5 years, and received ES&T 2009 best paper award, two State Science and Technology Progress Awards and several awards issued by Ministry of Education of China.

Areas of Research Interests

1. Hybrid membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment
2. Bioelectrochemical systems for low-energy advanced water treatment and resource recovery
3. Novel biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal processes

Professor Jun Ma, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT)

Professor Ma Jun is committed to developing advanced water treatment technology with low energy consumption, so as to gain safe drinking water effectively. His research group is always engaged in some research about the theory and technology of advanced oxidation, nano-materials with water purification functions and the technology of permeable membranes and is aimed at applying them to the purification of drinking water, sewage reuse and sea water desalination.

Professor Jun Ma received his Ph.D. from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1990.  After postoctoral works at Tongji University and Imperial College, he joined the faculty of the Harbin Institute of Technology where he is now the Cheung Kong Professor of Enviromental Engineering and the associate Dean of the School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering. He is the editorial board member of the Applied Water Science and a fellow of the Royal Society.  In 2016, Professor Ma Jun became the first Chinese scholar to win the prize of the Sustainable Water Prize issued by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Areas of Research Interests

1. Wastewater treatment
2. Water purification technologies
3. Environmental Chemistry and Engineering

Professor Zhi-Kang Xu, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University

Professor Zhi-Kang Xu received his Ph.D. at the Chemistry Department of Zhejiang University in 1991 and was promoted as a full professor of Polymer Chemistry & Physics in 1998. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Polymer Science & Engineering. He was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Young Distinguished Scholars in 2006. He is also the Editorial Board Member for Journal of Membrane Science since 2006. He has published 2 book, 10 book-chapters and more than 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Angew. Chem. Ed. Int., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Chem. Comm., Adv. Funct. Mater., ACS Appl. Mater. & Interfaces, J. Chem. Mater., and J. Membr. Sci..

Areas of Research Interests

1. Membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment
2. Polymer membranes and their surface engineering, especially in surface glycosylation, surface bio-mineralization, surface pattern, antifouling surface, enzyme immobilization, and surface nanostructures.

Dr. Seth Darling, Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory

Seth B. Darling is a Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in physical chemistry, he came to Argonne as the Glenn Seaborg Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Materials Science Division. Following his postdoc, Dr. Darling joined the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne as a staff scientist. His group’s research is motivated by humankind’s grand challenges and centers around molecular engineering with a particular emphasis on solar energy and water treatment. In the area of water, his group is developing photocatalytic membranes, isoporous ultra/nanofiltration membranes, and tailored sorbents for environmental remediation.  Dr. Darling has published over 100 papers and a popular book on climate change, holds several patents, and lectures widely on topics related to energy, climate, and water.

Dr. Xiao-Min Lin, Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory

Dr. Xiao-Min Lin received a Ph.D. in physics and a M.S. in Chemistry from Kansas State University in 1999. He then spent two years as a postdoc at the University of Chicago. He joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2002 as an assistant scientist in Materials Science Division and Chemistry Division.  He is currently a staff scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE user facility that focus on nanomaterials. He also hold joint staff position at the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago, and is also a member of the Material Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC) funded by National Science Foundation. He has over 60 publications, including papers in Nature Materials, Nano Letts., JACS, and Phys. Rev. Lett.

Areas of Research Interests

His’s research interest is related to understanding nanoparticle synthesis and self-assembly process, and developing various applications for nanomaterials. His recent research effort focus on understanding dense colloids structure and dynamics under shear using x-ray scattering technique, developing nanoparticle based membranes for water filtration application, and investigating new types of core-shell nanocatalysts for enhancing chemical reactions in different energy applications.

Dr. M. Cristina Negri, Principal Argonomistand Environmental

Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory.

Dr. Cristina Negri earned her Dottore in Scienze Agrarie Degree

(Agricultural Sciences) at the University of Milan in Milan, Italy.

Prior to joining Argonne, Cristina worked in private industry in Italy

as a research and development manager and as a liaison with universities and other Italian national research organizations.  She is a Senior Fellow with the Energy Policy Institute at the Harris School and a Fellow of the Institute of Molecular Engineering, both at the University of Chicago. She is also a Fellow of the Northwestern University—Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering. She also served as the Convener of a CEN (the European Standardization Organization) Working Group, leading experts from European Union Nations toward the creation of European environmental standards for agricultural commodities.

Areas of Research Interests

During her more than 20 years at Argonne, M. Cristina Negri conducted and directed laboratory to full-scale multidisciplinary projects developing technologies and concepts for environmental remediation and stewardship, including soil remediation and water treatment. She has researched sustainable technologies for urban environmental improvement.  In addition, Cristina works on the integration of bioenergy within working agricultural landscapes to address the food, energy, water, and land nexus. Her work focuses on developing sustainable, multifunctional landscape concepts, which aim, by design, at the creation of ecosystems services. Her interests are in systems approaches where industrial ecology concepts are applied to water and land management and green infrastructure.

Professor Matthew Tirrell, The Institute for Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory

Professor Matthew Tirrell is the Dean of Faculty and Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering of the University of Chicago and the Deputy Director of Science at Argonne National Laboratory.  A pioneering researcher in the fields of biomolecular engineering and nanotechnology, Tirrell specializes in the manipulation and measurement of the intermolecular forces and surface properties of polymeric materials that in turn generates insight into the development of new materials based on self-assembly of synthetic and bioinspired materials. His research interests also include novel polymeric materials for anti-fouling membranes as well as nutrient recovery from waste water.

Tirrell received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1977 in Polymer Science from the University of Massachusetts. He began his academic career in 1977 at the University of Minnesota, where he served as Shell Distinguished Chair in Chemical Engineering, Earl E. Bakken Professor of Biomedical Engineering, director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute, and head of The Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Tirrell moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1999, where he served as the Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean of the College of Engineering for ten years.  Immediately prior to joining the University of Chicago in 2011, he was the Arnold and Barbara Silverman Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, with additional appointments in chemical engineering and materials science & engineering, and as a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He has co-authored about 350 papers and one book and has supervised about 80 Ph.D. students. Professor Tirrell is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of: the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, the AAAS, and the APS.  In 2013, Matthew Tirrell initiated and led the Collaborative Water Research Initiative among the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and Ben Gurion University of Negev of Israel.  He is a board member of the “Current”, a non-profit organization established by the City of Chicago to promote more research and technology development in water resource management.

Dr. Ya-Kai Lin, Vice President of Scinor membrane Co. ltd, Beijing, China

With industrial development and excessive exploitation of our resources – air, soil and water contamination is on the rise and has become a worlwide issue. Water being the key element for life is at a crisis level especially in developing countries where there are currently no regulations in place to protect the people and water sources are continuously polluted.

Globally, governments are becoming more aware of the growing water crisis and in order to protect their citizens have instituted new regulations to increase drinking water quality. These regulations call for more advanced technology than conventional treatment.

Scinor provides a solution to this growing concern by applying ultrafiltration membranes to any water source. These membranes remove solids and all traces of pathogens providing cleaner and safer drinking water. Furthermore, Scinor’s patented TIPS process ensures that the membranes have a long life and low cost to the customer.

Beijing Scinor Membrane Technology Co. Ltd., located at the Zhongguancun Science Park, Haidian District, is devoted to research, developing, sales and manufacture of membranes, modules, and modularized equipment. With research from Tsinghua University and three other patented technologies, Scinor was the first to establish a commercial process of TIPS PVDF Ultrafiltration fiber and modules. These membrane products exhibit high flux, high chemical tolerance, low energy consumption, and easy maintenance. Scinor’s membrane products have helped many customers to purify their water in potable, wastewater, reuse, and seawater applications. More information is provided in http://www.scinormem.com/en/index.asp