Recently, a research team led by Professor Wan Liguo from CIT's School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering published a paper titled "Stable carbon capture and membrane fouling control in a high load bioflocculation membrane reactor (HLB-MR) via low-intensity ex situ ultrasound: synergistic regulation of extracellular polymeric substances, metal ions, and microorganisms" in Water Research, a leading international journal in the water environment field. Professor Wan Liguo is the first author, and Associate Professor Zhang Lijun is the corresponding author. Water Research is a top-tier international academic journal in the field of environmental science and ecology, with an impact factor of 12.4.
Under sustained high-load operation, membrane fouling in bioflocculation membrane reactors severely constrains the long-term stability of the reaction system. To address this technical bottleneck, the research team proposed a low-intensity, intermittent ex situ ultrasound regulation strategy. By applying ultrasound treatment to the membrane-retained concentrate, the strategy achieves synergistic regulation of the system's bioflocculation behavior and membrane fouling characteristics. The results demonstrate that this strategy effectively enhances bioflocculation performance, achieves efficient and stable capture of organic matter, and significantly mitigates membrane fouling, thereby improving the operational stability and carbon resource recovery efficiency of the high-load bioflocculation membrane reactor (HLB-MR) system.
This study provides a novel, efficient, and low-energy system-level regulation approach for carbon capture-oriented wastewater treatment processes, and opens a new pathway for the synergistic optimization of resource recovery, energy production, and low-carbon operation in wastewater treatment.
(Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2026.126189)
First Review by Zhao Lingzhi
Second Review by Zhang Jian
Final Review by Wang Rouhua
