The prevailing perception of wastewater has significantly changed in the past century. One century ago, the first treatment plant was designed and constructed to properly treat wastewater prior to disposal. Half a century ago, wastewater reclamation was becoming common practice for industrial applications and crop irrigation to increase the efficiency of water usage. Since the turn of this century, wastewaters are no longer merely viewed as the source of environmental pollution but rather as source of various valuable resources, such as purified water, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), precious metal (lithium, palladium, etc.), and renewable energy. The economic benefits of these valuable resources could potentially offset the cost of wastewater treatment, enabling a paradigm shift toward a sustainable energy/environment and a circular economy.
Membrane technology has gained enormous attention in the past decade to achieve an energy-efficient resource recovery from wastewaters, thanks to its notable advantages, including small footprints, superior treated water quality, sustainable operation, and versatile applications scenarios. Nevertheless, the existing membrane system suffers from low treatment/recovery efficiency, relatively high energy consumption, poor understanding of fundamental transport mechanisms, severe membrane fouling, and high maintenance costs. Mitigating these problems represents both a significant challenge and an important opportunity. Based on the research outcomes in the past five years, as well as the latest results available in the literature, Dr. Zhe Yang will present state-of-the-art knowledge on novel membrane and membrane processes to achieve energy-efficient resource recovery from wastewaters. The seminar will also cover the mathematical modelling of treatment/recovery performances at the system-scale and opportunities for future resource recovery processes.
Bio: Dr Zhe Yang currently is an ARC DECRA Research Fellow in the Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation/School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Yang completed his PhD in Environmental Engineering at The University of Hong Kong in 2018 (Advisor: Chair Prof. Chuyang Tang) and he has been recognized as a Top 1% Scholar worldwide ranked by Clarivate Analytics by citations in 2023. His main research focuses on membrane-based water treatment and resource recovery for enhanced sustainability at water-energy-environment nexus. To date, he has published over 70 papers and two book chapters including 11 papers selected as ESI Highly Cited Papers, with total citations of over 6000 and an h-index of 41 based on Google Scholar. Most of these papers (90%) are published in Nature indexed/top-tier journals in the field of environmental engineering and membrane technology, including Chemical Society Review (IF 46.2), Environmental Science & Technology, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, Water Research, and Journal of Membrane Science. He has been awarded numerous prestigious awards, including the 2024 Rising Star in Environmental Research, the First Prize of the Water 2023 Young Investigator Award, the 2022 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher (DECRA) Award, The 2022 ACS ES&T Engineering/Environmental Science & Technology Letters Best Paper Award, and etc. His invention of a water filter for rapid micropollutant removal won a Gold Metal at the 2019 Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, and the related patent has been successfully licensed to an HK-based company. He has led/participated in nearly 10 major research projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Innovation and Technology Commission, Research Grants Council (RGC), National Natural Science Foundation of China/RGC Joint Research Scheme, etc., totaling ~AU$1M in his role as lead/sole CI and >AU$1.5M as Co-CI. He currently serves as the Early Career Editorial Board member of the leading journal in his field (Desalination, IF 9.9).