Welcome to the Membrane Laboratory
MBL has started to study on polymer synthesis and its application to membranes and biomaterials for the last 26 years. We have performed various experiments on liquid and gas separation, drug delivery system, polymeric adhesive and tissue engineering. Our research topics have been one of the most important areas in recent development toward advanced materials. Through cross-disciplinary approaches to our specialization on membranes, we aspire to build a diverse research community to meet our mission to advance technology and return values to various fields at the international level.
Our current researches include eco-friendly and energy-saving technologies such as membranes and membrane operation processes for gas separation application and those for water treatment technology. Our other works involve studies on ionic exchange membranes including membranes for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) systems or Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) systems and those for Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO), Membrane Distillation (MD) processes, and battery separator fabrications.
MBL pioneered in developing “Thermally Rearranged (TR) polymers” for gas separation processes, which have 500 times larger CO₂ permeability compared to commercial polymers (published in Science, 2007). We have thereafter transferred our technologies to a global corporation and now in the process of preparing hollow fiber membrane modules in a mass scale for commercialization so that our innovations and intellectual property can be more readily available to a broader audience. We are also actively examining possible other applications with TR polymers on fuel cell system, water treatment technology and battery separator materials.
Furthermore, our team had been seeking ways to share and contribute to the society as engineers for more than a decade and found the solution by organizing “Hanyang Energy Engineering Appropriate Technology Research Team (HEART)” in 2012 with my former graduate students as well as undergraduate students. Our team firstly visited Philippines in June, 2012 and provided over one hundred home-made portable water purifiers based on Ultrafilteration (UF) membranes and delivered information on water quality to locals in Ternate. Moreover, we have been working with Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC) and Good Neighbors to battle local shortage and quality of drinking water in Phnom Penh and Tonle Sap Lake of Cambodia.
Through this website, we aim to build a community where we can elucidate research summaries and provide publications information as well as actively communicate with colleagues to expand our research base.