Mohtada Sadrzadeh

University of Alberta | UAlberta · Department of Mechanical Engineering

Biobased membranes made with green solvents have numerous advantages in the water purification industry; however, their long-term use is impeded by severe membrane fouling and low structural stability. Herein, we proposed a facile and green approach to fabricate an eco-friendly and biodegradable electrospun membrane by simply blending polycaprolact...

Green Membrane Technology Towards Environmental Sustainability covers experimental and theoretical aspects of greener membranes and processes. The book fills the gap in current literature and offers a platform that introduces and discusses new routes in fabricating green membranes and processes for developing green membranes. Although membranes and...

Greenhouse gas emissions associated with power generation from fossil fuel combustion account for 25% of global emissions and, thus, contribute greatly to climate change. Renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, have reached a mature stage, with costs aligning with those of fossil fuel-derived power but suffer from the challenge of intermitte...

MXenes, two-dimensional transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, have been investigated for diverse applications since their discovery, however, their life cycle analysis (LCA) has not been studied. Here, we perform a "cradle to gate" LCA to assess the cumulative energy demand (CED) and environmental impacts of lab-scale synthesis of...

Cationic methylene blue (MB) and anionic orange G (OG) dyes were adsorbed using the first-ever synthesized nanocomposite of MXene-AgMOF. At 200 mg/L and 0.01 g, GO-AgMOF, MXene-AgMOF, and AgMOF were able to adsorb 99.9%, 99.0%, and 98.0% of cationic MB dye, respectively, from water. The nanocomposites were characterized both before and after adsorp...

The emergence of biomimetic materials developed using nature's inspiration and biological domains can drive a paradigm shift in the design and operation of future‐generation materials in separation applications. In recent years, biomimetic membranes have drawn interest of many researchers for water treatment applications. Among the biomimetic membr...

In this research, the performance of a tubular fuel cell based on a nickel oxide–yttria‐stabilized zirconia (Ni‐YSZ) anode support containing 90 wt% NiO ≈ 82 vol.% of Ni (Ni82) is compared with a cell containing the conventional Ni‐YSZ support with 50 vol.% Ni. A Ni‐YSZ buffer layer with a tailored microstructure was added to the Ni82 support layer...

Here, nitrogen doped molybdenum disulfide quantum dots (N-MoS2 QDs) are fabricated by making use of the pulsed laser ablation (PLA) process in liquid nitrogen (LN2) as a dopant agent. In fact, LN2 contributes the rapid condensation of the plasma plume to form MoS2 QDs, optimizing the conditions for the synthesis of N-doped MoS2 with p-type property...

Biofouling is a pivotal problem for polymeric membranes used in water treatment and reuse. Surface functionalization is a promising practice to improve the resistance of membranes to biofouling. Diverse materials, synthesis methods, and functionalization techniques will be needed to address different applications. Herein, we employed a novel ultras...

Electro-responsive membranes provide a promising strategy to overcome the trade-off between water recovery and water quality in membrane-based wastewater treatment. However, the successful deployment of these membranes is restricted by their low mechanical stability and poor electrochemical reactivity. Herein, we strived to overcome these challenge...

Phosphorus (P) recovery from wastewater is essential for eutrophication control, water reuse initiatives, and recovery of this depleting non-renewable resource. Herein, a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun nanofiber membrane (ENM) was fabricated with akageneite (Ak), and modified with benzyldimethyldodecylammonium chloride (BDDA), a cationic surfa...

Textile wastewater is one of the most challenging streams for wastewater treatment as it is heavily contaminated with solid pollutants such as dyes. Nanofiltration (NF) membranes are a promising method to protect water resources by removing dyes and other organic contaminants from wastewater. In this study, novel NF membranes composed of a thin lay...

The organic solvent-free aqueous phase separation (APS) process is a new and sustainable alternative to the conventional nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) process. However, low water permeability is a primary concern of such APS membranes. Herein, we introduced casting solution temperature and mixing ratio as two key parameters to improve...

Metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes hold the promise for energy-efficient separation processes. These nanocrystalline compounds can effectively separate materials with different sizes and shapes at a molecular level. Furthermore, MOFs are excellent candidates for improving membrane permeability and/or selectivity due to their unique properties,...

Star-shaped block copolymers (SPs), comprising a hydrophobic cross-linked polystyrene (PS) core with extended hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) arms, showed high promise as a class of branched amphiphilic coating material, since the coatability and antifouling properties of the SPs could be tailored simply by tuning the core and/or arm composit...

This paper proposes a novel deep reinforcement learning-accelerated energy management system for a hybrid grid-connected photovoltaic-reverse osmosis-pressure retarded osmosis desalination plant. The energy management problem is formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process by using historical photovoltaic (PV) power data in order to...

Fouling remains one of the key challenges in membrane technology. In pressure-driven membrane separations, the vibrational energy induced by hydraulic pumps often dissipates unexploited. We present an innovative concept, in which the hydraulic pressure vibration is converted to electrical energy in the outlet of a filtration pump through an embedde...

In this study, modified loose nanofiltration membranes were prepared by in-situ decoration with Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-7 (ZIF-7) on the surface of porous polyethersulfone substrates functionalized with co-deposited sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) zwitterion (ZW) and polydopamine (PDA). With the aid of ZW/PDA active layer co-deposition unde...

It is widely acknowledged that three‐dimensional (3D) printing, or additive manufacturing, will revolutionize many industries. However, the broad implications of 3D printing on water treatment membranes are not appreciated. 3D printing will transform the traditional membrane fabrication methods, reducing costs and industrial waste from manufacturin...

Molybdenum disulfide nanosheets (MoS2 NSs) are synthesized via pulsed laser ablation of MoS2 target in liquid nitrogen (LN2) using the Q‐switched Nd:YAG laser irradiation at 1064 nm. Not only LN2 facilitates the condensation of the laser‐induced plasma plume to produce MoS2 NSs and the main by‐products (namely MoS2 QDs), but also provides an optimu...

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have drawn a great deal of attention as a desirable strategy for efficient gas separation. In this context, graphene-based nanosheets (GNSs) with exceptional structural specifications and molecular separation properties enjoy the promising application in MMMs fabrication. These features endow polymeric matrices with hi...

Deformation of thin viscous liquid films exposed to a transverse thermal gradient results in Bénard-Marangoni instability, which would lead to the formation of micro and nano-sized features. Linear and nonlinear analyses are performed to investigate the thermally induced pattern formation in shear thinning and shear thickening liquid films. The so-...

The sustainable development of oil–gas and petrochemical industries necessitates the development of cost-effective and eco-friendly technologies to treat mass-produced oily wastewater discharge from these industries. This study applied a simple radical polymerization to enhance the oil adsorption efficiency of agricultural waste biomass wheat straw...

Advanced oxidation processes can remove emerging contaminants from wastewater with complete degradation; however, the slow kinetics of the degradation process and extensive energy input hinder further commercialization. We developed a hybrid process, comprising electro-Fenton and membrane distillation, to simultaneously degrade organic pollutants a...

Membrane fouling is the main bottleneck that restricts the practical applications of membrane processes. In this work, we report an effective and scalable method to reduce the fouling of polyamide thin film composite (TFC) membranes by grafting amine-functionalized nanodiamond (ND) particles. The surface chemistry of ND was modified to improve the...

Modeling mixed-gas sorption has always been associated with computational challenges due to the existence of two or more conflicting objective functions. This study aims to use an artificial intelligence approach toward modeling mixed-gas sorption in PIM-1 and TZ-PIM polymeric membranes. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) has been ap...

Climate change, the rapid growth of the world population, and pollution of water resources have led to increasingly severe water scarcity across the globe. Seawater desalination can significantly address the...

Lignin, the second most plentiful biopolymer, is produced on a large scale as the waste of the pulp and paper industries. Conventionally, lignin is incinerated for energy generation, while less than 2% of the produced mass is converted to value-added products. Herein, we employed hydrophilic sulfonated kraft lignin (SKL) to modify the selective lay...

The sustainable development of oil-gas and petrochemical industries necessitates the development of cost-effective and eco-friendly technologies to treat mass-produced oily wastewater discharge from these industries. This study applied a simple radical polymerization to enhance the oil adsorption efficiency of agricultural waste biomass wheat straw...

Membrane distillation (MD) has been introduced as a water desalination process with high potential. Still, its high energy demand has hindered its progress from becoming a widely used procedure. It has been proposed that the addition of photothermal and Joule heating materials to the membrane structure could improve this method’s energy consumption...

Biofouling is a major challenge for desalination, water treatment, and water reuse applications using polymer-based membranes. Two classes of novel silver-based metal azolate frameworks (MAF) are proposed to decorate polyamide (PA) forward osmosis membranes and to improve numerous aspects of fouling and transport. Membranes functionalized with two...

Previous studies showed that the fouling materials strongly affect the plugging of sand control devices during the oil production, thereby reducing oil productivity index drastically. In this study, we investigate how the compressive and tensile strengths of fouling materials affect the cleaning performance of shock waves generated by an electrohyd...

Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes are the most widely used membranes for low-cost and energy-efficient water desalination processes. Proper control over the three influential surface parameters, namely wettability, roughness, and surface charge, is vital in optimizing the TFC membrane surface and permeation properties. More specifically, the surf...

Transient electrokinetic analysis can provide practical insights on the evolution of dynamic phenomena in micro and nano-capillaries, which are often ignored in a steady-state analysis. In this paper, a numerical model is proposed for the transient electrokinetic analysis of electroosmotic flows in a charged nanocapillary. In addition, the transien...

This study reports a novel layer-by-layer (LbL) strategy for producing a monovalent cation perm-selective membrane with an improved antifouling property. LbL architectures were fabricated by using the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) based heterogeneous cation exchange membrane as the substrate and chitosan (CS) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) as the polycation...

This paper investigates the energy management of a hybrid grid-connected reverse osmosis (RO) desalination process consisting of photovoltaic (PV), pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), and energy storage system. The developed intelligent energy management system (IEMS) aims to maximize the total water production and contaminant removal efficiency while...

The development of nanocomposite membranes for desalination and wastewater treatment has attracted significant interest in recent years. This exceptional growth is owed to the enhanced multi functionalities of the nanocomposite membranes in terms of permselectivity, thermal stability, electrical conductivity, and antifouling propensities. In the pr...

Ultrafiltration membranes with antifouling and antibacterial properties are greatly beneficial for all industrial applications and to supply safe water worldwide. Improving these properties while maintaining both high productivity and high product water quality remains a challenge. This work proposes the surface functionalization of an ultrafiltrat...

Chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol)/amino-functionalized montmorillonite nanocomposite electrospun membranes with enhanced adsorption capacity and thermomechanical properties were fabricated and utilized for the removal of a model cationic dye (Basic Blue 41). Effects of nanofiller concentrations (up to 3.0 wt %) on the morphology and size of the nanofibe...

Microporous membranes are permeable substrates primarily used for wastewater treatment and desalination. The lab-fabricated and commercial polyethersulfone (PES) microporous membranes are characterized for permeability by filtration test, cross-section thickness by SEM images, surface roughness by AFM data, and hydrophilicity by dynamic contact ang...

The sustainable expansion of steam-assisted gravity drainage, as one of the most popular enhanced oil recovery methods, strongly depends on the proper management of the produced water. The strict environmental regulations have forced the oil sands industry to treat and reuse the produced water for oil extraction. Membrane separation as a single-ste...

This study focuses on a detailed analysis of thermally induced Bénard convection, thermocapillary instability, and interfacial deformation of a nanofilm. The dynamics, instability, and morphological evolution of a thin liquid film investigated using a volume of fluid (VOF) numerical scheme that incorporates the Marangoni stress to model the gas–liq...

The historical challenges and high failure rate of using standalone screen in cased and perforated wellbores pushed several operators to consider cased-hole gravel packing or frac packing as the preferred completion. Despite the reliability of these options, they are more expensive than a standalone screen completion. In this paper, we employ a com...

In this paper, comprehensive experimental and theoretical studies on the performance of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) are presented. Although extensive research has been carried out on the modeling of the DCMD process, they mostly relied on some experimentally-determined parameters. In this study, inspired by the ∈-NTU method, a new a...

Star-shaped block copolymers (SPs) have shown promise as antifouling coating materials on water purification membranes. The unique architectural design of these SPs, composed of covalently linked hydrophobic core and hydrophilic arms, offers the flexibility of tailoring the core and/or arm compositions to achieve properties on demand. Here, variabl...

Oil/water separation is a critical global challenge due to the ever-increasing generation of oily wastewaters from industrial activities and daily life. Membrane separation processes can effectively remove oil from water; however, synthesizing energy-efficient and anti-oil fouling membranes remains a huge enigma among researchers. In this work, we...

Previous studies showed that different parameters influence the plugging of completion tools. These parameters include rock mineralogy, reservoir-fluid properties, and type of completion tools. Although different methods have been used for unplugging these tools, there is still debate regarding the performance of these methods on damage removal. In...

Despite growing demands for high-temperature wastewater treatment, most available polymeric membranes are limited to mild operating temperatures (<50 °C) and become less efficient at high temperatures. Herein we show how to make thermally stable reverse osmosis thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes by embedding nanodiamond (ND) particles. Polyami...

Investigating the flow behavior in microfluidic systems has become of interest due to the need for precise control of the mass and momentum transport in microfluidic devices. In multilayered-flows, precise control of the flow behavior requires a more thorough understanding as it depends on multiple parameters. The following paper proposes a microfl...

The historical challenges and high failure rate of using standalone screen in cased and perforated wellbores pushed several operators to consider cased hole gravel packing or frac-packing as the completion of the choice. Despite the reliability of these options, they are more expensive than standalone screen completion. Since several developments a...

Contact angle titration has recently been introduced as a feasible alternative to the streaming potential technique for the determination of the surface isoelectric point, as well as the surface zeta potential. In this context, a few theoretical models have been developed. However, each model was discretely developed for a specific surface for t...

Scale deposition and its treatment are crucial part of any thermal recovery method. High temperature variation, phase change associated with steam condensation and flashing, and complex flow dynamics of the wells make the thermal wells more susceptible to scale deposition. Several studies evaluated the type of scales collected from plugged sand scr...

The wetting of a solid surface by a liquid droplet under a liquid medium not only includes the solid-droplet molecular interactions but also involves the interfacial interaction with the surrounding medium. Such wettability adaptation evolves either due to the formation of a thin film of the surrounding medium over the solid surface, or the molecul...

Surface Characterization of Nano-Sized Star Block Copolymers for Antifouling Coatings on Water Purification Membranes - Jae-Young Cho, Muhammad Amirul Islama, Khalid Azyat, Young-Hye La, Mohtada Sadrzadeh, Andrew Myles