Research Area
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◆Membrane processes for water and wastewater treatment
Membrane technology is widely used in water and wastewater treatment processes. Currently, we focus on understanding the biological or physico-chemical phenomena occurring in various membrane water treatment systems, including membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment, ultrafiltration for the pretreatment of seawater desalination, reverse osmosis (RO) for wastewater reuse, etc.
 ◆Biofouling (biofilm) control by microbial signaling
- Quorum sensing (QS) and quorum quenching (QQ)
Recently, a novel molecular biological method has been reported that effectively mitigates the attachment and growth of microorganisms on the membrane surfaces in MBRs. In 2009, Yeon et al. demonstrated a positive correlation between microbial quorum sensing (QS) and membrane biofouling in an MBR for wastewater treatment. Since then, a number of studies have noted the correlation between QS and membrane biofouling, and provided development of various quorum quenching (QQ) techniques for the elucidation and control of biofouling in MBRs. We focus on applying QQ strategy to various membrane water treatment processes as well as improving the efficiency of QQ-based biofouling mitigation in MBRs.
- Nitric oxide (NO)-mediated biofilm dispersal
Recent discoveries regarding the regulation of the biofilm life cycle by bacterial signaling systems have identified novel strategies for manipulation of biofilm development to control the biofouling of membrane-based water purification systems. Nitric oxide (NO) signaling has been shown to induce dispersal of a wide range of single- and multi-species biofilms. We focus on applying NO-mediated biofilm dispersal in membrane water treatment process to mitigate the biofouling.
◆Biological wastewater treatment processes
- Internal circulation-sequencing batch reactor (IC-SBR)
IC-SBR introduces the internal–circulated supernatant and raw water into the lower part of the condensed sludge bed under anoxic condition. It provides improved treatment efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus compared to the conventional SBR because it is more efficient in controlling the concentration of dissolved oxygen. We focus on improving nitrogen and phosphorus removal by introducing multi-stage inflows to supplement insufficient carbon source during denitrification and enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR).
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