Water and Membrane Technologies Laboratory
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Dr. Alicia AN’s research group in the School of Energy and Environment (SEE) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) proposed a new paradigm shifts in the water treatment industry to move from water treatment to zero liquid discharge (ZLD) by developing ‘A Novel Membrane Distillation-crystallizer (MDCr) for ZLD and Valuable Resource Recovery’. This project has won more than 3M (including Postdoc Hub and Researcher program) under Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) - Collaborative Research Project from Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) and Prime World Limited.
A promising hybrid separator, a novel Membrane Distillation-crystallizer (MDCr), could create integrated, sustainable water production that provides additional benefits such as resource recovery, reduced waste, and increase yield. As membrane distillation technology offers us the capability to remove salt from seawater or brackish water using low-grade heat such as solar thermal energy or waste heat from industry, the study aims to develop an energy efficient MDCr process for use in desalination plants that will converting brine into an economically beneficial resource while producing additional volume of potable water valuable and achieving near zero liquid waste discharge.
It is expected that MDCr will provide simultaneous solutions to the problems faced in desalination operations, which are environmental issue raised from brine disposal and Low water recovery factor as current RO cannot go beyond 40 to 60% of recovery factor due to salinity and pressure. MDCr’ s resource recovery, increased yield, and lower energy requirements will allow desalination to become a more competitive and clean industry. This project will strengthen the scientific and technological contribution of industry to desalination and wastewater management and position Hong Kong as an international hub leading zero liquid discharge.
