IWA MTC 2009 BEIJING, CHINA
5th IWA Specialized Membrane Technology Conference for Water and Wastewater Treatment, jointly organized by IWA and Tsinghua University, was successfully held in Beijing from September 1 to 3, 2009. The topics of the conference covered almost all the areas of membrane technology, such as novel membrane materials, MF, UF, NF, RO and electro dialysis membrane processes, hybrid membrane processes, fouling mechanisms and control, desalination, drinking water and wastewater treatment, and some special case studies.
This conference attracted around 350 delegates from 35 countries and regions from all over the world. 539 extended abstracts were finally received; 164 oral presentations and 253 poster presentations were selected, respectively. In the opening ceremony, three plenary lectures were given by Prof. Menachem Elimelech (Yale University, USA: Recent advances in membrane technology), Prof. Yoshimasa Watanabe (Hokkaido University, Japan: Recent advances in membrane fouling research), Prof. Gary Amy (KAUST, Saudi Arabia: Is nanofiltration (NF) a robust barrier for organic micropollutants?). There were four parallel technical sessions. Eighteen keynote speakers gave opening presentation in different parallel sessions. All the wonderful lectures together with many vivid posters refreshed our mind and presented us the development trend of membrane technology in following years. During the Gala Dinner following the meeting, the first membrane technology prize was awarded to Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto (The University of Tokyo, Japan) to honor his innovation of submerged MBR for 20 years and contribution to the membrane bioreactor field. In the course of the conference, the organizing committee also arranged selection of "Best poster awards" and "Best student poster awards" for poster presenters and announced the winners in the closing ceremony.
Additionally an exhibition was held during the conference, attracting many commercial companies to show their latest products. After the conference followed a technical tour visiting three full-scale membrane plants, including: A: Wenyu water purification treatment plant, MBR plant for river water purification (100,000 m /d); B: Qinghe wastewater treatment plant, advanced membrane filtration plant (80,000 m /d); and C: Beixiaohe wastewater treatment plant, MBR plant for removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewater (60,000 m3/d).
The conference provided an excellent platform for experts to share the state of the art of the membrane technologies and to enhance collaboration with each other. It also refreshed our minds about the application of membrane technology.
