Jianhua Zhang

• PhD
• Victoria University

Since the discovery of the turbulence drag reduction phenomenon over 70 years ago, it has been recognized that the addition of small quantities of drag-reducing agents to fluids can significantly decrease wall shear stress, thereby enhancing fluid pumpability. In many applications, the fluids often contain salts, such as those used in fracturing pr...

Since the discovery of the turbulence drag reduction phenomenon over 70 years ago, it has been recognized that the addition of small quantities of drag-reducing agents to fluids can significantly decrease wall shear stress, thereby enhancing fluid pumpability. In many applications, the fluids often contain salts, such as those used in fracturing pr...

In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO)/granular activated carbon (GAC) composites at different ZnO concentrations (0.25M-ZnO@GAC, 0.5M-ZnO@GAC, and 0.75M-ZnO@GAC) were prepared by an in-situ hydrothermal method and demonstrated synergistic photocatalytic degradation and adsorption of rhodamine B (RhB). The thermal stability, morphological structure, elemen...

In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO)/ granular activated carbon (GAC) composites at different ZnO concentration (0.25M-ZnO@GAC, 0.5M-ZnO@GAC, and 0.75M-ZnO@GAC) were prepared by an in-situ hydrothermal method and demonstrated synergistic photocatalytic degradation and ad-sorption of Rhodamine B (RhB). The thermal stability, morphological structure, eleme...

A secure aquatic environment is essential for both aquatic and terrestrial life. However, rising populations and the industrial revolution have had a significant impact on the quality of the water environment. Despite the implementation of strong and adapted environmental policies for water treatment worldwide, the issue of organic dyes in wastewat...

A novel and easy to fabricate graphene doped alginate thin film (Alg/GO) capable of binding with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and working on the principle of a Fabry-Perot interferometry (FPI) type optical fiber sensor (OFS) is presented here. Utilizing a simple dip coating technique, the Alg/GO coating was deposited on the freshly cleaved fiber e...

In recent years, the global population has increased significantly, resulting in elevated levels of pollution in waterways. Organic pollutants are a major source of water pollution in various parts of the world, with phenolic compounds being the most common hazardous pollutant. These compounds are released from industrial effluents, such as palm oi...

Ozonation is an effective barrier for removing a wide spectrum of organic Chemicals of Concern (CoC) in a water treatment process. In this study, bench- and full-scale tests were conducted on a secondary treated effluent at the Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP) of Melbourne Water to probe the performance of ozonation in removing CoC in a wastewater dis...

We demonstrate an effective way to enhance the water flux in VMD; • Gas flow on the vacuum side can effectively enhance mass transfer in VMD; • The key finding is confirmed by both experimentation and CFD simulation; • This study provides mechanistic understanding of condensation and mass transfer in MD. A B S T R A C T Developing cost-effective me...

In this study, zinc terephthalate-metal-organic framework decorated on the surface of poultry manure-derived biochar ([email protected]@C) was successfully fabricated and employed as nano-adsorbent material for Congo Red (CR)-treated aqueous solution. The physical characteristics of the developed [email protected]@C adsorbent were analyzed by the B...

Untreated biomedical wastes discharged into water bodies, primarily by hospitals and health care facilities; release a wide range of contaminants that poses danger to human health and environmental sustainability. Therefore, developing sustainable and dependable treatment methods for biomedical waste is a top priority. Nano-sized graphene is known...

Surfactant containing wastewater widely exists in textile industry, which hardly to be treated by membrane technology due to its high in salinity and wetting potential. In this study, PVDF membrane was modified by constructing a PDMS-SiO2-PDMS "sandwich" structure on top of its surface via coating to achieve resistance to surfactant induced wetting...

Membrane distillation is a promising technology for recovering resources and water from brackish water and wastewater. However, characteristics of current membranes limit the employment of membrane distillation in these areas. In this paper, activated carbon modified membrane has been studied. Agglomeration of activated carbon (AC) particles in the...

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of synthetic organofluorine compounds. Over 4700 PFAS compounds have been produced and used in our daily life since the 1940s. PFAS have received considerable interest because of their toxicity, environmental persistence, bioaccumulation and wide existence in the environment. Various trea...

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is one of the few biodegradable synthetic resins from petroleum-based sources that can alleviate white pollution in the environment. PVA film materials have excellent properties, such as high barrier, high transparency, high toughness, biocompatibility, and adjustable water solubility. However, due to the presence of hydroph...

Biopolymer nanoparticles (NPs) produced from poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) are typically formed by first dissolving the polymer in organic solvents. In order to eliminate the use of toxic solvents, an alternative “green” solvent system using glacial acetic acid was used in this study for the preparation of NPs via nanoprecipit...

This study investigated a gas fractionation enhanced soil washing method for poly-and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) removal from contaminated soil. With the assistance of gas fractionation, PFAS removal was increased by a factor of 9, compared to the conventional soil washing method. Pre-extraction (pre-treatment) of the soil with water before g...

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven membrane technology, and its mass transfer is coupled with the heat transfer. Membrane in MD acts as a barrier and only allows gas phase to pass through. The mass transfer is associated with evaporation occurring at the membrane surface and requires latent heat. Hence the efficiency of the thermal en...

Membrane distillation (MD) has been considered as a promising separation technology for desalination due to its ultrahigh rejection towards nonvolatile salts. However, pore wetting is a long-standing problem for the practical deployment of conventional hydrophobic MD membranes. Herein, hydrophilic/hydrophobic dual-layer membrane consisting of a thi...

Although electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) are attractive for membrane distillation (MD), the desalination performance needs further improvement for practical applications. In this work, aluminium fumarate (AlFu) metal organic frameworks (MOFs) were incorporated into polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) nanofiber membranes...

The use of membranes in integrated water systems has garnered increasing attention in paper mills operating with virgin fibres, with documented closed water loops in industry. However, limited research exists on the performance of ultrafiltration (UF) in mills operating with 100% recycled fibres (RCF) and closed water systems, as these result in th...

Water plays several essential roles in paper manufacturing. It serves as a suspending medium and a swelling agent for the fibres, dispersing and forming them into a uniform sheet during the initial stage of the papermaking process. It also serves as the solvent for a variety of chemicals and additives to adjust product quality. Water reclamation ha...

Landfill leachate is a highly polluted and complex wastewater as it contains large amounts of organic matters, ammonia‑nitrogen, heavy metals, and per−/poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which makes its treatment very challenging. In this paper, hydrophilic/hydrophobic dual layer membranes combining advantages of pervaporation and membrane distill...

To clearly understand the environmental impacts of algae-based desalination system, a life cycle assessment is undertaken by comparing four different scenarios: (1) multi-stage microalgae based desalination system without algal biomass reuse; (2) multi-stage microalgae based desalination system with algal biomass reuse; (3) hybrid desalination syst...

PFAS removal by in-situ formed ferric nanoparticles via ozonation was evaluated in this study. The tests were conducted with synthetic contaminated water prepared from the firefighting foam concentrate at PFAS concentrations of 8.33–133 µg/L, pHs of 3–7.5, and ozone bubbling times of 15–45 s. It was found the particle sizes of the in-situ formed fe...

HFP-co-PVDF/N6 hydrophobic/hydrophilic dual-layer membrane was used to study desalination with direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). A one-dimensional (1-D) model was proposed to predict the flux and thermal efficiency. Heat and mass transfer equations were solved numerically for the combined hydrophilic and hydrophobic layers. The membrane...

The application of membrane technologies for wastewater treatment to recover water and nutrients from different types of wastewater can be an effective strategy to mitigate the water shortage and provide resource recovery for sustainable development of industrialisation and urbanisation. Forward osmosis (FO), driven by the osmotic pressure differen...

Biofouling is a common but significant issue in the membrane process as it reduces permeate flux, increases energy costs, and shortens the life span of membranes. As an effective antibacterial agent, a small amount of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) immobilized on membrane surfaces will alleviate the membrane from biofouling. However, loading AgNPs on...

In this paper, the transport phenomena in four common membrane distillation (MD) configurations and three popular modelling approaches are introduced. The mechanism of heat transfer on the feed side of all configurations are the same but are distinctive from each other from the membrane interface to the bulk permeate in each configuration. Based on...

The textile industry is an important contributor to the growth of the global economy. However, a huge quantity of wastewater is generated as a by-product during textile manufacturing, which hinders the ongoing development of textile industry in terms of environmental sustainability. Membrane distillation (MD), which is driven by thermal-induced vap...

Conventional reverse osmosis (RO), a novel temperature-swing RO (TSRO), and tailored nanofiltration (NF), were investigated to target the removal of the chlorophenoxy broad-leaf herbicide 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) from saline (HCl-rich) wastewater at pH between 1 and 2. Batch concentration by RO at 17.5 bar using BW30 and SW30 memb...

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) coupled with fractionation or ozonation as a pretreatment method was investigated for the treatment of combined textile effluent. The stand-alone DCMD process has difficulty in directly treating the effluent due to the wetting issue, in particular at higher feed temperatures. Fractionation was conducted t...

Membrane distillation is a potential technology to recover more water from the RO brine concentrate for the purpose of high water recovery and zero liquid discharge. However, since calcium phosphate scaling has been widely reported in RO applications, it could also hinder high feed water recovery in the reclamation of wastewater by membrane distill...

In this study, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the ammonia recovery behaviour in a Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) system. The developed model successfully predicted the binary mass transfer phenomenon (water and ammonia vapour) across the PTFE membrane under different operating conditions, including non-traditional DCMD...

Membrane distillation (MD) traditionally utilizes low-grade thermal energy to drive vapor transport through hydrophobic membrane pores for water treatment. The concurrent enhancement of water flux, thermal efficiency and water productivity to achieve the global optimization of MD is still a challenge. In this work, a new simulation and optimization...

The current situation with the problems associated with the removal of oil from wastewaters by membranes is being explored. Many types of membranes have been investigated—organic polymers, inorganic or ceramic species and hybrids of the two. Polymeric membranes can be designed to facilitate the passage of oil, but the more successful approach is wi...

Membrane distillation (MD) is a membrane-based thermal separation process. Vapor pressure difference between both sides of the membrane is the driving force for mass transfer of volatile compounds via the gas phase. A hydrophobic porous membrane is generally used as a barrier to isolate the feed from the volatiles permeated across the membrane. Alt...

In this study, a set of mathematical models was used to simulate the heat and mass transfers of hollow fibre PGMD module for desalination applications. The developed model was firstly validated, and then utilized to study the impacts of different design parameters and operating conditions on the performance of hollow fibre PGMD. The simulation resu...

In this study, a new simultaneous heat and mass transfer theoretical model of the membrane distillation process operating under direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) mode has been developed for the hydrophobic/hydrophilic dual-layer composite membranes. Using the proposed model, a criterion parameter (β) was derived to determine whether the f...

Per- and poly fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) and their derivatives are persistent organic chemicals, resulting in significant adverse human health and environmental effects. In this paper, UV, ozonated air fractionation,...

The wastewater produced from the oilfield is chemically corrosive due to high salinity in combination with high temperatures. It is also rich in contaminants, such as oil, polyacrylamide, emulsions, suspended solid, etc. The density difference between the oil and water in the wastewater is low, which makes separation via gravity difficult. In this...

Mixed matrix membranes combining the processibility of polymers with the properties of porous nano-additives is an effective method to enhance the performance of membrane distillation (MD) process. In this work, a new type of hydrophobic hybrid PVDF hollow fiber membranes doped with aluminum fumarate metal-organic frameworks (AlFu MOF) was fabricat...

The reuse of water in a range of potable and non-potable applications is an important factor in the augmentation of water supply and in improving water security and productivity worldwide. A key hindrance to the reuse of water is the cost of compliance testing and process validation associated with ensuring that pathogen and chemicals in the feedwa...

Desalination and water reuse are important means to resolve local water scarcity and security issues worldwide where membrane distillation (MD) may be part of a solution. Natural organic matter and in particular, humic acids (HA), are widely present in water supplies to be treated but exhibit little understood behavior to diffuse through MD membran...

In this study, five hollow fibre PGMD modules have been tested to investigate the influence of different module designs on water productivity and energy efficiency in desalination. It is found that modules with low hollow fibre packing density and gap channel density had higher flux and better energy performance in terms of lower Specific Thermal E...

In this paper, volatile organic compound (VOC) removal by vacuum membrane distillation with a dual-layer membrane was studied. The mass transfer mechanism and VOC selectivity of the dual-layer membrane for VOC removal were compared with that of the PTFE membrane, for which the separation relied on the liquid-vapour equilibrium of VOCs in water. The...

Desalination by pervaporation is a membrane process that is yet to be realized for commercial application. To investigate the feasibility and viability of scaling up, a process engineering model was developed to evaluate the energy requirement based on the experimental study of a hybrid polyvinyl alcohol/maleic acid/tetraethyl orthosilicate (PVA/MA...

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) operates Australia's Davis Station in the Antarctic. In 2005, Davis Station's wastewater treatment plant failed and since then untreated, macerated effluent has been discharged to the ocean. The objectives of this study were to determine whether an advanced water treatment plant (AWTP) commissioned by the AAD...

Treating wastewater from textile plants using membrane distillation (MD) has great potential due to the high-salinity wastes and availability of waste heat. However, textile wastewaters also contain surfactants, which compromise the essential hydrophobic feature of the membrane, causing membrane wetting. To address this wetting issue, a custom-made...

Water productivity and thermal efficiency in membrane distillation (MD) have been the main research targets, for the aims of commercial application in desalination. The comprehensive understanding of the influence of module configuration parameters, operating conditions and their interaction on MD performance is the key for MD commercialization. In...

Water productivity and thermal efficiency in membrane distillation (MD) have been the main research targets for the aims of commercial application in desalination. The comprehensive understanding of the influence of module configuration parameters, operating conditions and their interaction on MD performance is the key for MD commercialization. In...

Membranes with outstanding anti-wetting properties are essential for commercialization of membrane distillation (MD) process in treating wastewater that often contains organic solvent and/or surfactant. In this work, anti-wetting behavior of a novel composite PTFE membrane coating with a dense hydrophilic polyurethane layer was investigated in dire...

Colloidal silica involved fouling behaviors in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD), vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) and sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) were studied. Three foulants were used in the experiments, including colloidal silica as representative of particulate foulants, calcium bicarbonate as dissolved inorganic foula...

This study aimed to develop an effective method to fabricate super-hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). Hydroxyl rich silica particle was prepared and added into PVDF dope solution, which was used to prepare super-hydrophobic PVDF membrane via phase inversion method. The influence of t...

A hollow fiber Permeate Gap Membrane Distillation (PGMD) module was tested and compared with that operated in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) and Sweeping Gas Membrane Distillation (SGMD) modes. The results showed that the flux increased with increasing feed velocity and feed temperature. The global mass transfer coefficient of PGMD inc...

Traditional aerobic processes used for deammonification in waste water treatment plants consume the majority of electrical energy. Ammonia can instead be recovered by membrane distillation but research to date proposes chemically intensive pH adjustment to release free ammonia from bulk solutions. Here we propose the novel application of membrane d...

This work reports outcomes of a pilot trial and practical assessment of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) towards achieving zero liquid discharge at a textile manufacturing plant. Treatment of textile wastewater is difficult due primarily to the complexity of textile processing and the wastewater produced. Combined effluent from the site,...

An Advanced Water Treatment Plant (AWTP) for potable water recycling in Davis Station Antarctica was trialed using secondary effluent at Selfs Point in Hobart, Tasmania, for nine months. The trials demonstrated the reliability of performance of a seven barrier treatment process consisting of ozonation, ceramic microfiltration (MF), biologically act...

The energy requirement of vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) with or without recirculation was modelled using both experimental results and theoretical data. The trends are generally consistent between the theoretical and experimental data. Thermal energy contributes the most to the total energy required for the VMD process. To lower the thermal en...

To meet water reuse and discharge requirements in Davis Station, Antarctica, an advanced water treatment plant (AWTP) had been designed and tested for nine months. The key design factors for operating in small communities in remote areas included low maintenance requirement (low chemical inventory, minimal onsite labour), high LRVs for pathogens, r...

State-of-the-art nanofiltration (NF) membranes generally positively or negatively charged could not remove both multivalent cations and anions once and for all according to the Donnan Exclusion. Designing NF membranes with facile approach for effective removal of multivalent-salt without compromising the permeation is still a tough challenge. In th...

Essential requirements for remote potable water reuse in small communities include highly automated processes, remote monitoring and control, and high pathogen removal values that can be easily validated. A plant for advanced tertiary water treatment for remote operations using six pathogen barriers has been tested. It can achieve a credible Log Re...

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) supplied with waste heat was demonstrated for water recovery from saline demineralisation regeneration waste. The pilot plant was located at a gas fired power station which provided the < 40 °C waste heat and wastewater to the DCMD system with 0.67 m2 of membrane area. The trial was operated over three mo...

We examined the synergistic effect of combined fouling in MD process with three organic foulants – alginate, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and humic acid – in the presence of colloidal silica particles. Membrane fouling profiles were quantified by water flux decline and permeate conductivity. Mechanisms of the synergistic effect of combined fouling w...

Air-bubbling vacuum membrane distillation (AVMD) process was designed to boost the heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation (MD). Both effect of flow pattern on the performance of AVMD process and the heat and mass transfer mechanism in this process were studied in this paper. The results showed that the performance of VMD was improved obvio...

This project has assessed the performance of treatment barriers in an Advanced Water Treatment Plant in removing trace organic chemicals and the quality of the brine concentrate (waste stream) using simplified but extensive multi-residue GC-MS and LC-MS methods capable of determining more than 1200 chemicals in extracted water samples. It was found...

This project is assessing the performance of an advanced water treatment plant (AWTP) for producing water suitable for drinking and for producing a waste brine stream of low environmental concern. The plant is being trialed in Tasmania before relocation to Davis Station, Antarctica. The remote location dictates that the energy and chemical volumes...

Vapor transport through membranes is very important in many industrial processes such as membrane distillation (MD), membrane condensation and flue gas dehydration. In this study, we explore the condensation, re-evaporation and associated heat transfer in membrane evaporation and sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) at low gas flow rates. It i...

An innovative concept is proposed to recover ammonia from industrial wastewater using a molecular sieve silica membrane in pervaporation (PV), benchmarked against vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Cobalt and iron doped molecular sieve silica-based ceramic membranes were evaluated based on the ammonia concentration factor downstream and long-term...

Six modules with different packing densities and lengths were fabricated for conducting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) experiments. The performances of the modules with different packing densities showed similar results for flux at different temperatures and feed velocities. However, shorter modules show both higher flux and global mass transfe...

Membrane distillation (MD) is a hybrid of thermal distillation and membrane separation. As a thermal distillation process, MD is an energy intensive technique. Therefore, it is important to select optimum operation parameters to maximise both the flux and energy efficiency, even though low grade or waste heat maybe employed in the process. In this...

A new method of measuring the properties of hollow fibre membranes for modelling purposes was developed. Measuring the gas permeability as a function of membrane length and extrapolating to zero length provided enough membrane material information for modelling the flux. These values resulted in the predicted Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) flux...

Membrane distillation is a process that utilizes differences in vapor pressure to permeate water through a macro-porous membrane and reject other non-volatile constituents present in the influent water. This review considers the fundamental heat and mass transfer processes in membrane distillation, recent advances in membrane technology, module con...

A model for predicting the flux and evaporation ratio in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) using a compressible membrane is presented. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes, one of the most common types of membranes employed in MD, are characterised with high porosity (∼90%) and high hydrophobicity, and therefore have high water vapour...

Membrane distillation has great advantages in treating high-concentration brine water, and desalinating salty water in areas where low grade heat is available. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to predict the effect of process design (eg. temperature, flowrates, module length) on flux for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). As...

Membrane distillation (MD) is an alternative technology for the separation of mixtures through porous hydrophobic membranes. A commercially available PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) membrane was used in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to investigate the effect of module dimensions on performance. Membrane properties, such as liquid entry...

In membrane distillation (MD), mass and heat transfer occurs simultaneously through the membrane. According to the theory for mass and heat balance, if the membrane is compressible, total pressure in the pore and the thermal resistance of the membrane will change and affect the performance of the membrane. To verify this theory, direct contact memb...

Hollow fibre membrane distillation (MD) modules have a more compact structure than flat sheet membrane modules, providing potentially greater advantage in commercial applications. In this paper, a high-flux asymmetrically structured hollow fibre MD module was tested under various conditions. The results show that increasing velocity and temperature...

In this paper, the performances of various membranes were assessed in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) under different feed velocities and inlet temperatures. The membranes studied included a polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membrane with a non-woven support layer, a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) microfiltration membrane wi...