Membrane Technology for Osmotic Power Generation by Pressure Retarded Osmosis

Dr. Tai-Shung (Neal) Chung is the Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore. His research focuses on polymeric membranes for clean water and clean energy. In 2005-2008, he worked as a Senior Consultant for Hyflux, led and built its membrane research team. He became a Fellow in the Academy of Engineering Singapore in 2012 and received IChemE (Institute of Chemical Engineers, UK) 2014 Underwood Medal for exceptional research in separations and Singapore President’s Technology Award in 2015. He was a highly cited researcher in Chemical Engineering & Materials Science and Engineering by the Elsevier and Shanghai Global Ranking in 2016 and received Distinction Award in Water Reuse and Conservation from International Desalination Association (IDA) in 2016. He is an author of 1 book, 24 book chapters, ³ 700 Journal papers, > 70 patents (including 46 US patents, 34 regional and Singapore patents), and 350 conference papers. He has the world highest number of publications in J. Membrane Science (Impact Factor = 6.578). So far, he has trained and produced 68 PhD, 23 MEng and 120 post-doctors. His H-index = 89 (Scopus) or 103 (Google Scholar); Number of citations > 31,486 (Scopus) and > 40,577 (Google Scholar) (June 30, 2018). Dr. Chun Feng Wan is a research fellow at the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his bachelor (1st Honor) and PhD in chemical engineering from in Prof Chung’s membrane research group in NUS. His research focuses on membrane synthesis, membrane module production, process design and pilot testing for osmotic power generation by pressure retarded osmosis. He has been awarded the Chinese out-standing PhD student study abroad, AICHE-SLS young researcher award and Forbes 30 under 30 Asia. He has first-authored 8 and co-authored 12 research articles in Journal of Membrane Science, Applied Energy and other leading research journals. His H-index in 11 (Scopus)12 (Google Scholar) and citation is 458 (Scopus) or 548 (Google Scholar) (June 30 2018).

1. Osmotic energy and pressure retarded osmosis. 2. Recent development of flat-sheet PRO membranes. 3. Recent development of hollow fiber PRO membranes. 4. Mass transport within pressure retarded osmosis membranes of different configurations. 5. Analysis of flux reduction behaviors in PRO. 6. Development of antifouling pressure retarded osmosis membranes. 7. PRO pretreatment. 8. Design and fabrication of thin-film composite hollow fiber modules for pressure retarded osmosis. 9. Design and optimization of seawater reverse osmosis and pressure retarded osmosis-integrated pilot processes. 10. Operation and maintenance of SWRO-PRO pilot systems. 11. Techno-economic evaluation of various RO+PRO and RO+FO integrated processes. 12. Design of other pressure retarded osmosis hybrid processes (pressure retarded osmosis-membrane distillation and pressure retarded osmosis-forward osmosis).