As a Co-PI, Dr. Alicia An, in collaboration with Prof. Guanghao Chen at HKUST (the PC) and other Co-PIs (HKU, PolyU, and CUHK) successfully joined the 9th round of the TRS. Our proposal, titled “Paradigm-shifting, Fully-integrated, Compact Wastewater-to-resource Facility (WWRF).” has been approved by the University Grants Committee, receiving HK$ million 35.555 to fund its goal of developing a Sustainable Wastewater-to-Resource Technology.

Theme-based Research Scheme involves themes of a more long-term nature and strategically beneficial to the development of Hong Kong. Dr. An, Assistant Professor in SEE, an expert on membrane-based water and wastewater treatment, will lead one of the main tasks, which is to develop a sustainable hybrid membrane module system for the next five years from 2020 to 2024 to complete this important work. This system will optimize the process operations by minimizing the cost of producing water from saline sewage and maximizing the rate of water recovery.

The resulting fully-integrated and compact WasteWater-to-Resource Facility (WWRF) will feature novel technologies (namely new membrane, chemical and biological treatment approaches, and resource recovery technologies) for production of potable water and valuable biochemicals from saline wastewater, while generating minimal brine and biological sludge to minimize discharges to the environment associated with traditional water production technologies.