Speaker:Prof.LIN Shihong,Vanderbilt University

Sponsor:Prof.JIN Jian

Time: 10:00a.m.Thursday,December 30th

Place：A429,SINANO

Abstract:Desalination has been under rapid development in the past few decades to augment fresh water supply in the context of growing water scarcity due to population growth and climate change. Recent innovations on materials and processes aim to make desalination more efficient, affordable, and sustainable. This presentation will first discuss the fundamental principles of several membrane-based desalination processes including reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, and membrane distillation. I will then discuss their energy efficiency, recent developments, technological advantages, limitations, and challenges. I will also present some research activities in my lab including (1) the development of anti-fouling and anti-wetting composite membranes for desalinating highly challenging brine water using membrane distillation and (2) system scale modeling of desalination system for understanding and enhancing the overall performance full scale desalination. The final part of the presentation will shed light on the potential areas in which future innovations in materials and system design can further move membrane-based desalination forward.

Bio:Dr. LIN Shihong is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Lin received his Ph.D. (2012) in environmental engineering from Duke University where, under the direction of Prof. Mark Wiesner, he worked on elucidating the fundamental aspects of colloidal interaction between nanoparticles and environmental surfaces. Before joining Vanderbilt, Dr. Lin worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Menachem Elimelech’s research group at Yale University, with his research effort focused on membrane system at the water-energy nexus. Dr. Lin obtained his B.S. (2006), also in environmental engineering, from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Being broadly interested in environmental physiochemical processes, his current research areas include membrane processes at water-energy nexus, environmental applications and implications of nanotechnology, and environmental surface phenomena. Dr. Lin has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals in environmental science and engineering. Major awards Dr. Lin has received include ACS Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award (2012) and ORAU Ralph Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2016). He was also invited to the 2016 Frontiers of Engineering Symposium by the National Academy of Engineering.