About the Authors

Name and title(s):

Prof. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail and Prof. Takeshi Matsuura.

Areas of expertise:

Membrane Processes, Membrane Fabrication, Nanostructured Materials.

Prof. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail and Prof. Takeshi Matsuura are authors of key textbook on membrane science and technology, Membrane Technology for Water and Wastewater Treatment, Energy and Environment.

Questions

This year will be the 14th Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies (LET 2017). Why is this event important?

Today water scarcity is one of the most serious global challenges and needs to be urgently solved, as it is exacerbated by population growth, industrialization, and climate change.

The fact that only around 0.8% of water on the earth is fresh water drives numerous researches towards development of sustainable technological solutions to meet increasing water consumption.

This year, LET 2017 is dedicated to technology solutions in the water-energy-food interface. What do you think/hope this will achieve?

Water, energy and food are the three pillars to sustain the growth of human population in the future. Membrane technology can contribute to each one of these challenges in the following ways:

• Water production by sea and brackish water desalination.
• Water reuse by wastewater treatment.
• Reduction in energy requirement in various industrial sectors by implementing membrane separation processes.
• Energy production by various membrane related processes such as pressure retarded osmosis, fuel cell etc.
• Applications of membrane separations in various food processing and biochemical industries. 

What, for you, have been the most significant or exciting developments in water and wastewater technologies in recent years?

• Currently more than 60 % of available desalination plants are based on reverse osmosis.
• The desalination plant by reverse osmosis is approaching one megaton/day with significant reduction in water production cost.
• Strong R & D activities for novel membrane development to increase membrane performance and to mitigate membrane fouling in the Asian regions.
• Attempts to couple desalination and energy generation by various hybrid membrane processes.

Find out more about LET 2017 here.