Application of Nanotechnology in Membranes for Water Treatment

The book focuses on Application of Nanotechnology in Membranes for Water Treatment but not only provides a series of innovative solutions for water reclamation through advanced membrane technology but also serves as a medium to promote international cooperation and networking for the development of advanced membrane technology for Universal well-being and to achieve the common goal of supplying economically, environmentally and societally sustainable freshwater and better sanitation systems. This book is unique because the chapters were authored by established researchers all around the globe based on their recent research findings. In addition, this book provides a holistic coverage of membrane development for water treatment, from the membrane preparation and characterizations to the performance for specific processes and applications. Since that water scarcity has become a global risk and one of the most serious challenges for the scientific community in this century, the publication of this book is therefore significant as it will serve as a medium for a good reference of an alternative solution in water reclamation.

This book will provide the readers with a thorough understanding of the different available approaches for manufacturing membranes both with innovative polymeric systems and inorganic nano-materials which could give enhanced functionalities, catalytic and antimicrobial activities to improve the performance of the existing membranes. It will be useful for leading decision and policy makers, water sector representatives and administrators, policy makers from the governments, business leaders, business houses in water treatment, and engineers/ scientists from both industrialized and developing countries as well.

Alberto Figoli (1970, Italy) got his PhD degree at Membrane Technology Group, Twente University (NL) in 2001. He is Senior Researcher at Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM-CNR) in Rende (CS), Italy, since 2001. He is expert in the field of membrane technology, in membrane preparation and characterisation and application in water treatment. In 1996, he obtained his Master Degree in Food Science and Technology, at the Agriculture University of Milan. He worked for about 1 year at Quest International B.V. (ICI), Naarden (NL) at the Process Research Group, on pervaporation membrane technology. In the last years, he has been involved in several European and National projects (as scientific responsible or principal investigator for ITM-CNR) in the field of Membrane Technology. He is author of more than 100 scientific peer-review papers and chapters published in international journals and books. He is the editor of three books and author of two patents on membrane technology. In 2015, he has been elected in the Counci of the European Membrane Society (EMS) for the period 2015–2019. He is responsible for the Awards and Summer Schools.

Prof. Jan Hoinkis, born 1957 in Germany, holds a degree in chemistry and a doctorate in the field of thermodynamics from Technical University Karlsruhe. He has about 7 years work experience in chemical industry being head of a group for process development focusing on optimizing synthesis of chemical specialities for the textile and paper industry considering technical, environmental and economic constraints. . Since 1996 he is professor at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences where he is teaching and conducting research in the field of applied chemistry and process engineering in combination with sensor/control systems. He is specialized in the areas of water treatment and water recycling by use of membrane technologies. Thereby he is conducting research and development in the fields of decentralized small-scale desalinators powered by renewable energies for drinking water production as well as application of membrane bioreactor technology for waste water treatment and reuse. He has coordinated a variety of national and international R&D projects in co-operation with research institutes and companies among them EU funded projects (AsiaProEco, LIFE, FP7). Since 2008 he is scientific director of the Institute of Applied Research at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. The Institute of Applied Research (IAF) is a central facility of the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and works to promote applied scientific research and development projects through an interdisciplinary approach. The IAF main research activities are: applied computer sciences and geoinformatics; intelligent measurement systems and sensor technologies and civil; environmental and process engineering. Jan Hoinkis is author of several peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributions to international conferences. He is co-editor of the book "Renewable energy applications for freshwater production" (2012, CRC, Balkema).

Jochen Bundschuh (1960, Germany), finished his PhD on numerical modeling of heat transport in aquifers in Tübingen in 1990. He is working in geothermics, subsurface and surface hydrology and integrated water resources management and connected disciplines. From 1993 to1999, he served as an expert for the German Agency of Technical Cooperation (GTZ – now GIZ) and as a long-term professor for the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in Argentina. From 2001 to 2008 he worked within the framework of the German governmental cooperation (Integrated Expert Program of CIM; GTZ/BA) as adviser in mission to Costa Rica at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). Here, he assisted the country in evaluation and development of its huge low-enthalpy geothermal resources for power generation. Since 2005, he has been an affiliate professor of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. In 2006, he was elected Vice-President of the International Society of Groundwater for Sustainable Development ISGSD. From 2009–2011 he was visiting professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.

Since 2012, Dr. Bundschuh has been professor in hydrogeology at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Toowoomba, Australia where he is chair of the USQ Research Program Team (RPT) "Sustainable Water and Integrated Energy Technologies" working in the wide field of water resources and water and wastewater treatment, sustainable and renewable energy resources and the water-energy-food nexus. In November 2012, Prof. Bundschuh was appointed as president of the newly established Australian Chapter of the International Medical Geology Association (IMGA).

Dr. Bundschuh is author of the books "Low-Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power Generation" (2008) (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press) and "Introduction to the Numerical Modeling of Groundwater and Geothermal Systems: Fundamentals of Mass, Energy and Solute Transport in Poroelastic Rocks". He is editor of 16 books and editor of the book series "Multiphysics Modeling", "Arsenic in the Environment", "Sustainable Energy Developments" and "Sustainable Water Developments" (all CRC Press/Taylor & Francis). Since 2015, he has been editor in chief of the Elsevier journal "Groundwater for Sustainable Development".