Towards Circular Economy: Developing Innovative Membrane Technologies for Wastewater Reuse and Resource Recovery

Project Member(s): Shon, H., Choo, Y., Huang, Y.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Water Association
Australian Water Association

Start year: 2023

Summary: The national foundation for Australia-China relations is an Australian government initiative to strengthen understanding and engagement between Australia and China. The foundation supports grants to develop, promote and strengthen understanding and engagement between Australia and China, including with business and community stakeholders, in support of Australia's national interests. To showcase Australian excellence in sustainable technology, the Australian Water Association (AWA) supports sub-projects that can foster engagement between Australia and China to improve environmental management via innovative water management practices and emerging technologies. The UTS team will focus on scoping, designing, and evaluating innovative membrane technologies (e.g., ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and membrane bioreactor) and membrane configurations for treating, purifying, and recycling complex industrial fluid waste streams and nutrient-rich biowaste. To achieve this, two approaches are proposed. 1) Using the membrane (UF/RO) process to separate organic pollutants and selectively recover them without post-processing. 2) Design and optimisation of the MBR process parameters to obtain final product (fertilizers) and stabilisation without any chemical addition.

Publications:

Kabir, MM, Roy, SK, Alam, F, Nam, SY, Im, KS, Tijing, L & Shon, HK 2023, 'Machine learning-based prediction and optimization of green hydrogen production technologies from water industries for a circular economy', Desalination, vol. 567, pp. 116992-116992.
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Samadi, A, Ni, T, Fontananova, E, Tang, G, Shon, H & Zhao, S 2023, 'Engineering antiwetting hydrophobic surfaces for membrane distillation: A review', Desalination, vol. 563, pp. 116722-116722.
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Sharma, K, Akther, N, Choo, Y, Zhang, P, Matsuyama, H, Shon, HK & Naidu, G 2023, 'Positively charged nanofiltration membranes for enhancing magnesium separation from seawater', Desalination, vol. 568, pp. 117026-117026.
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FOR Codes: Management of liquid waste from mineral resource activities (excl. water), Separation¿¿technologies

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.