Tiezheng Tong Research Group at Arizona State University
We are interested in developing novel materials and processes to improve sustainability at the water-energy-climate nexus. We conduct both fundamental and applied research, which require multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations at the interface of environmental engineering, interfacial engineering, material science, and recently, data science. Our current research topics include (1) developing novel materials and processes to achieve circular water economy, (2) understanding and mitigating mineral scaling in membrane desalination, and (3) elucidating mechanisms of solute transport across selective membranes for water purification and resource recovery.
We are interested in developing novel materials and processes to improve sustainability at the water-energy-climate nexus. We conduct both fundamental and applied research, which require multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations at the interface of environmental engineering, interfacial engineering, material science, and recently, data science. Our current research topics include (1) developing novel materials and processes to achieve circular water economy, (2) understanding and mitigating mineral scaling in membrane desalination, and (3) elucidating mechanisms of solute transport across selective membranes for water purification and resource recovery.
Group News and Announcement
2024/11: Dr. Tong received the Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science & Technology. Congratulations!
2024/11: Dr. Tong received the Young Talent Award from Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, Springer Nature. Congratulations!
2024/09: Our research article led by PhD student Shinyun Park, entitled "Protein-decorated reverse osmosis membranes with high gypsum scaling resistance", has been accepted by ACS Environmental Au. Congratulations Shinyun!
2024/08: Our review article written by Dr. Tong and PhD students Yao and Park entitled "A tale of two minerals: Contrasting behaviors and mitigation strategies of gypsum scaling and silica scaling in membrane desalination" has been accepted by Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering!
2024/08: Dr. Tong, PhD students Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park attended Gordon Research Conference - Membranes: Materials and Processes.
2024/07: The Tong Lab is moving to Arizona State University! We are also looking for 1 postdoc and 3 graduate students to join the group.
2024/06: Our research article led by PhD student Yiqun Yao, entitled "Mineral scaling and organic fouling in electrodialytic crystallization", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science. Congratulations Yiqun!
2024/05: Our research article led by MS student Connor Coolidge, entitled "Effects of surfactant properties on pore wetting of membrane distillation", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science Letters. Congratulations Connor!
2024/04: MS student Connor Coolidge successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations Connor and good luck on your PhD study at UT Austin.
2024/03: Dr. Tong received the Super Reviewer Award from Environmental Science & Technology. Congratulations!
2023/12: Our research article led by PhD student Shinyun Park, entitled "A comprehensive study on combined organic fouling and gypsum scaling in reverse osmosis: Decoupling surface and bulk phenomena", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science. Undergraduate student Mayca Saavedra played a key role in this work. Congratulations Shinyun and Mayca!
2023/12: Former undergraduate research assistant Mayca Saavedra was selected as an Outstanding Grad of CSU. Congratulations, Mayca! See the interview of Mayca on how her research experience in our group motivated her to pursue further study on desalination (link).
2023/12: Dr. Tong received the James J. Morgan Early Career Award (honorable mention) from American Chemistry Society. Congratulations!
2023/10: Our research article led by PhD student Yiqun Yao, entitled "Antiscalants for mitigating silica scaling in membrane desalination: Effects of molecular structure and membrane process", has been published in Water Research. Congratulations, Yiqun!
2023/08: Our collaborative article with Dr. Thomas Borch of CSU entitled "Efficacy of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis for the treatment of oil-field produced water intended for beneficial reuse" has been published in ACS ES&T Engineering and selected as ACS Editor's Choice. PhD graduate Nohyeong Jeong is the co-first author. Congratulations, Nohyeong!
2023/07: PhD student Yiqun Yao received Best Oral Presentation Award from the 10th International Water Association Membrane Technology Conference & Exhibition for Water and Wastewater Treatment and Reuse. Congratulations, Yiqun!
2023/07: Dr. Tong has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at CSU. Congratulations!
2023/06: Dr. Tong received the CAPEES/UCEEF Early Career Award from Chinese-American Professors in Environmental Engineering and Science (CAPEES). Congratulations!
2023/06: Our collaborative article with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Electrodialytic crystallization to enable zero liquid discharge" has been featured as the cover article by Nature Water.
2023/06 Dr. Tong and PhD students Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park traveled to Boston to attend the 2023 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research & Education Conference. Yiqun presented an oral presentation and Shinyun presented a poster. All of us enjoyed the conference and the beautiful city.
2023/05 Our collaborative article with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Electrodialytic crystallization to enable zero liquid discharge" has been accepted by Nature Water! PhD student Yiqun Yao is the co-first author of this work.
2023/05: PhD student Yiqun Yao did her first presentation entitled "Antiscalants for mitigating silica scaling in membrane desalination: Effects of molecular structure and membrane process" at the North American Membrane Society 2023 Annual Meeting. Good job, Yiqun!
2023/05 Dr. Tong received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University. Congratulations!
2023/05 PhD student Nohyeong Jeong obtained his PhD degree. Congratulations Dr. Jeong and best luck for your postdoc study at Georgia Tech!
2023/05: Our review article collaborating with George Washington University, entitled "A tale of two foulants: The coupling of organic fouling and mineral scaling in membrane desalination" has been published by Environmental Science & Technology! PhD student Shinyun Park plays a major role in this work.
2023/04: Dr. Tong received the George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award from College of Engineering, Colorado State University. Congratulations!
2023/03: Dr. Tong visited Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and gave a seminar entitled "Unraveling the Gordian Knot of Membrane Desalination: Understanding and Mitigating Mineral Scaling in Membrane Desalination".
2023/03: Our research article led by PhD student Nohyeong Jeong, entitled "Exploring the knowledge attained by machine learning on ion transport across polyamide membranes using explainable artificial intelligence" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! We applied explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to evaluate whether the knowledge of machine learning models on ion transport during nanofiltration and reverse osmosis is aligned with domain knowledge of membrane science.
2023/03: Nohyeong Jeong has successfully defended his PhD thesis! He is the fourth PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Jeong, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/11: M.S. student Connor Coolidge joined the group, welcome Connor!
2022/10: Our research article from PhD graduate Yiming Yin, entitled "Which surface is more scaling resistant? A closer look at nucleation theories for heterogeneous gypsum nucleation in aqueous solutions" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! We showed that classical nucleation theory is likely to be not applicable to predict surface scaling propensity in water.
2022/09: Our article collaborating with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Wetting, scaling, and fouling in membrane distillation: State-of-the-art insights on fundamental mechanisms and mitigation strategies", is selected to receive the Best Paper Award from the journal ACS EST Engineering. See here for details .
2022/06: Xijia Ge joined the group as an undergraduate research assistant, welcome Xijia!
2022/06: Dr. Tong received CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, congratulations!
2022/03: Xuewei Du has successfully defended her PhD thesis! She is the third PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Du, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/03: Yiming Yin has successfully defended his PhD thesis! He is the second PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Yin, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/01: Our article from PhD graduate Cristian Robbins, entitled "Mitigating membrane wetting in the treatment of unconventional oil and gas wastewater by membrane distillation: A comparison of pretreatment with omniphobic membrane" has been published by Journal of Membrane Science! This work is Cristian's 4th first-author article, congratulations!
2021/12: Our collaborative article with Prof. Thomas Borch of CSU and Prof. Dionysios Dionysiou from University of Cincinnati entitled "Opportunities for Treatment and Reuse of Agricultural Drainage in the U.S." has been published in ACS EST Engineering! It is a work built upon our work for the National Alliance Water Innovation (NAWI) Agriculture Sector Technology Roadmap.
2021/11: Our article from PhD graduate Cristian Robbins, entitled "Beyond treatment technology: Understanding motivations and barriers for wastewater treatment and reuse in unconventional energy production" has been accepted by Resources, Conservation and Recycling! This work results from our collaboration with researchers with expertise in systems engineering and social science.
2021/10: Prof. Tong receives funding from the Department of Energy via the National Alliance of Water Innovation to develop energy-efficient, electrified technology for hypersaline brine treatment!
2021/09: Prof. Tong and PhD student Yiming Yin attended the 30th the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Meeting. Yiming presented his work "Contrast behaviors and mitigation strategies of gypsum and silica scaling in membrane distillation".
2021/09: Prof. Tong is co-authored in the National Alliance Water Innovation (NAWI) Agriculture Sector Technology Roadmap (link), which is sponsored by the Department of Energy.
2021/09: Prof. Tong presented orally at the ACS 2021 Fall National Meeting. His presentation is entitled "Understanding the Feasibility of Membrane Distillation Powered by Waste Heat for the Treatment of Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewater".
2021/08: Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park joined the group as PhD students, welcome!
2021/08: Our article from PhD student Nohyeong Jong, entitled "Predicting Micropollutant Removal by Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membranes: Is Machine Learning Viable?" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! Congratulations Nohyeong!
2021/05: Cristian Robbins has successfully defended his PhD thesis and graduated from CSU! He is the first PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Robbins and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2021/01: Brandi Grauberger joined the group as an InTERFEWS fellow, co-advised by Todd Bandhauer of Mechanical Engineering. Brandi will work on improving the efficiencies of thermal desalination at the food-energy-water nexus.
2020/11: Congratulations to PhD student Cristian Robbins on his two leading-author articles: (1) On-site treatment capacity of membrane distillation powered by waste heat or natural gas for unconventional oil and gas production in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, on Environmental International; (2) Spatial Analysis of Membrane Distillation Powered by Waste Heat from Natural Gas Compressor Stations for Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewater Treatment in Weld County, Colorado, on ACS ES&T Engineering!
2020/07: Our collaborative article with University of British Columbia, Canada, entitled "Elucidating the Trade-off between Membrane Wetting Resistance and Water Vapor Flux in Membrane Distillation", has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology!
2020/07: Our collaborative article with Prof. Baicang Liu from Sichuan University, entitled "On-site Treatment of Shale Gas Flowback and Produced Water in Sichuan Basin by Fertilizer Drawn Forward Osmosis for Irrigation", is accepted by Environmental Science & Technology!
2020/07: Our article from PhD students Yiming Yin and Nohyeong Jong, entitled "The effects of membrane surface wettability on pore wetting and scaling reversibility associated with mineral scaling in membrane distillation", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science! Congratulations Yiming and Nohyeong!
2020/06: Dr. Tong gave an invited talk at the 2020 North American Membrane Society (NAMS) conference (online) to accept the Young Membrane Scientist Award!
2020/05: PhD students Cristian Robbins has successfully defended his preliminary exam and become a PhD candidate :) Congratulations Cristian!
2020/05: PhD students Yiming Yin has successfully defended his preliminary exam and become a PhD candidate :) Congratulations Yiming!
2019/12: Our collaborative article entitled "Distinct behaviors between gypsum and silica scaling in membrane distillation", with Vanderbilt University, has been accepted on Environmental Science & Technology. Graduate student Yiming Yin is the co-first author. Congratulations Yiming!
2019/08: Our Nature Communications paper on trade-off in membrane distillation is featured in College news of Engineering Colledge at Colorado State University! See the article.
2019/06: Our research article entitled "Trade-off in Membrane Distillation with Monolithic Omniphobic Membranes" has been accepted on Nature Communications!
2019/05: Our review article entitled "Membrane-based treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater: The current state of knowledge" has been accepted on Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering!
2019/05: Our collaborative article entitled "Antiwetting and antifouling Janus membrane for desalination of saline oily wastewater by membrane distillation", with University of British Columbia and Colorado School of Mines, has been accepted on ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!
2019/03: Our review article entitled "Mineral scaling in membrane desalination: Mechanisms, mitigation strategies, and feasibility of scaling-resistant membranes" has been published on Journal of Membrane Science!
2019/02: PhD students Xuewei, Yiming, and Cristian have successfully passed the qualifying exam, congratulations to all the students!
2019/01 Our research article "Effective treatment of shale oil and gas produced water by membrane distillation coupled with precipitative softening and walnut shell filtration" has been published on Desalination!
2018/09 Our research paper collaborating with University of British Columbia, entitled "Membrane Fouling and Reusability in Membrane Distillation of Shale Oil and Gas Produced Water: Effects of Membrane Surface Wettability" has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science!
2018/08 Dr. Tong received funding from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to study on membrane scaling and develop scaling-resistant membranes in desalination process!
2018/08 Yiming Yin and Cristian Robbins joined the group as a PhD student, welcome Yiming and Cristian!
2018/07 Our collaborative paper with Yale University and Tianjin University, entitled "Combined organic fouling and inorganic scaling in reverse osmosis: Role of protein-silica interactions" has been published on Environmental Science & Technology!
2018/04 Our collaborative paper with Yale University and Harbin Institute of Technology, entitled "Selective removal of divalent cations by multilayer polyelectrolyte nanofiltration membrane: Role of ion size, polyelectrolyte charge, and ionic strength" has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science! Look at using nanofiltration membrane as a novel approach for scaling mitigation.
2018/03 Our collaborative paper with Yale University, MIT, and Vanderbilt University, entitled "Membrane Distillation at the Water-Energy Nexus: Limits, Opportunities, and Challenges" has been published on Environmental & Energy Science! Enjoyed the collaboration very much!
2018/02 Graduate student Xuewei received the Walter Scott Jr. Graduate Fellowship Award. Congratulations Xuewei!
2018/02 DeeAnn Turpin joined our group as a graduate research assistant. Welcome, DeeAnn!
2018/01 Our collaborative paper with Shandong University, China (Dr. Yunkun Wang), entitled "The fate of antibiotic resistance genes and their potential hosts during bio-electrochemical treatment of high-salinity pharmaceutical wastewater", has been accepted by Water Research today! 1+1 > 2!
2018/01 Xuewei Du joined the group as a graduate research assistant. Welcome, Xuewei!
2017/12 Custom-built reverse osmosis and membrane distillation systems are ready to use!
2017/10 Zuoyou Zhang joined the group as a Plan A master student. Welcome, Zuoyou!
2017/08 Dr. Tong started as an assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CSU.
2024/11: Dr. Tong received the Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science & Technology. Congratulations!
2024/11: Dr. Tong received the Young Talent Award from Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, Springer Nature. Congratulations!
2024/09: Our research article led by PhD student Shinyun Park, entitled "Protein-decorated reverse osmosis membranes with high gypsum scaling resistance", has been accepted by ACS Environmental Au. Congratulations Shinyun!
2024/08: Our review article written by Dr. Tong and PhD students Yao and Park entitled "A tale of two minerals: Contrasting behaviors and mitigation strategies of gypsum scaling and silica scaling in membrane desalination" has been accepted by Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering!
2024/08: Dr. Tong, PhD students Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park attended Gordon Research Conference - Membranes: Materials and Processes.
2024/07: The Tong Lab is moving to Arizona State University! We are also looking for 1 postdoc and 3 graduate students to join the group.
2024/06: Our research article led by PhD student Yiqun Yao, entitled "Mineral scaling and organic fouling in electrodialytic crystallization", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science. Congratulations Yiqun!
2024/05: Our research article led by MS student Connor Coolidge, entitled "Effects of surfactant properties on pore wetting of membrane distillation", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science Letters. Congratulations Connor!
2024/04: MS student Connor Coolidge successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations Connor and good luck on your PhD study at UT Austin.
2024/03: Dr. Tong received the Super Reviewer Award from Environmental Science & Technology. Congratulations!
2023/12: Our research article led by PhD student Shinyun Park, entitled "A comprehensive study on combined organic fouling and gypsum scaling in reverse osmosis: Decoupling surface and bulk phenomena", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science. Undergraduate student Mayca Saavedra played a key role in this work. Congratulations Shinyun and Mayca!
2023/12: Former undergraduate research assistant Mayca Saavedra was selected as an Outstanding Grad of CSU. Congratulations, Mayca! See the interview of Mayca on how her research experience in our group motivated her to pursue further study on desalination (link).
2023/12: Dr. Tong received the James J. Morgan Early Career Award (honorable mention) from American Chemistry Society. Congratulations!
2023/10: Our research article led by PhD student Yiqun Yao, entitled "Antiscalants for mitigating silica scaling in membrane desalination: Effects of molecular structure and membrane process", has been published in Water Research. Congratulations, Yiqun!
2023/08: Our collaborative article with Dr. Thomas Borch of CSU entitled "Efficacy of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis for the treatment of oil-field produced water intended for beneficial reuse" has been published in ACS ES&T Engineering and selected as ACS Editor's Choice. PhD graduate Nohyeong Jeong is the co-first author. Congratulations, Nohyeong!
2023/07: PhD student Yiqun Yao received Best Oral Presentation Award from the 10th International Water Association Membrane Technology Conference & Exhibition for Water and Wastewater Treatment and Reuse. Congratulations, Yiqun!
2023/07: Dr. Tong has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at CSU. Congratulations!
2023/06: Dr. Tong received the CAPEES/UCEEF Early Career Award from Chinese-American Professors in Environmental Engineering and Science (CAPEES). Congratulations!
2023/06: Our collaborative article with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Electrodialytic crystallization to enable zero liquid discharge" has been featured as the cover article by Nature Water.
2023/06 Dr. Tong and PhD students Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park traveled to Boston to attend the 2023 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research & Education Conference. Yiqun presented an oral presentation and Shinyun presented a poster. All of us enjoyed the conference and the beautiful city.
2023/05 Our collaborative article with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Electrodialytic crystallization to enable zero liquid discharge" has been accepted by Nature Water! PhD student Yiqun Yao is the co-first author of this work.
2023/05: PhD student Yiqun Yao did her first presentation entitled "Antiscalants for mitigating silica scaling in membrane desalination: Effects of molecular structure and membrane process" at the North American Membrane Society 2023 Annual Meeting. Good job, Yiqun!
2023/05 Dr. Tong received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University. Congratulations!
2023/05 PhD student Nohyeong Jeong obtained his PhD degree. Congratulations Dr. Jeong and best luck for your postdoc study at Georgia Tech!
2023/05: Our review article collaborating with George Washington University, entitled "A tale of two foulants: The coupling of organic fouling and mineral scaling in membrane desalination" has been published by Environmental Science & Technology! PhD student Shinyun Park plays a major role in this work.
2023/04: Dr. Tong received the George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award from College of Engineering, Colorado State University. Congratulations!
2023/03: Dr. Tong visited Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and gave a seminar entitled "Unraveling the Gordian Knot of Membrane Desalination: Understanding and Mitigating Mineral Scaling in Membrane Desalination".
2023/03: Our research article led by PhD student Nohyeong Jeong, entitled "Exploring the knowledge attained by machine learning on ion transport across polyamide membranes using explainable artificial intelligence" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! We applied explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to evaluate whether the knowledge of machine learning models on ion transport during nanofiltration and reverse osmosis is aligned with domain knowledge of membrane science.
2023/03: Nohyeong Jeong has successfully defended his PhD thesis! He is the fourth PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Jeong, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/11: M.S. student Connor Coolidge joined the group, welcome Connor!
2022/10: Our research article from PhD graduate Yiming Yin, entitled "Which surface is more scaling resistant? A closer look at nucleation theories for heterogeneous gypsum nucleation in aqueous solutions" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! We showed that classical nucleation theory is likely to be not applicable to predict surface scaling propensity in water.
2022/09: Our article collaborating with Vanderbilt University, entitled "Wetting, scaling, and fouling in membrane distillation: State-of-the-art insights on fundamental mechanisms and mitigation strategies", is selected to receive the Best Paper Award from the journal ACS EST Engineering. See here for details .
2022/06: Xijia Ge joined the group as an undergraduate research assistant, welcome Xijia!
2022/06: Dr. Tong received CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, congratulations!
2022/03: Xuewei Du has successfully defended her PhD thesis! She is the third PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Du, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/03: Yiming Yin has successfully defended his PhD thesis! He is the second PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Yin, and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2022/01: Our article from PhD graduate Cristian Robbins, entitled "Mitigating membrane wetting in the treatment of unconventional oil and gas wastewater by membrane distillation: A comparison of pretreatment with omniphobic membrane" has been published by Journal of Membrane Science! This work is Cristian's 4th first-author article, congratulations!
2021/12: Our collaborative article with Prof. Thomas Borch of CSU and Prof. Dionysios Dionysiou from University of Cincinnati entitled "Opportunities for Treatment and Reuse of Agricultural Drainage in the U.S." has been published in ACS EST Engineering! It is a work built upon our work for the National Alliance Water Innovation (NAWI) Agriculture Sector Technology Roadmap.
2021/11: Our article from PhD graduate Cristian Robbins, entitled "Beyond treatment technology: Understanding motivations and barriers for wastewater treatment and reuse in unconventional energy production" has been accepted by Resources, Conservation and Recycling! This work results from our collaboration with researchers with expertise in systems engineering and social science.
2021/10: Prof. Tong receives funding from the Department of Energy via the National Alliance of Water Innovation to develop energy-efficient, electrified technology for hypersaline brine treatment!
2021/09: Prof. Tong and PhD student Yiming Yin attended the 30th the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Meeting. Yiming presented his work "Contrast behaviors and mitigation strategies of gypsum and silica scaling in membrane distillation".
2021/09: Prof. Tong is co-authored in the National Alliance Water Innovation (NAWI) Agriculture Sector Technology Roadmap (link), which is sponsored by the Department of Energy.
2021/09: Prof. Tong presented orally at the ACS 2021 Fall National Meeting. His presentation is entitled "Understanding the Feasibility of Membrane Distillation Powered by Waste Heat for the Treatment of Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewater".
2021/08: Yiqun Yao and Shinyun Park joined the group as PhD students, welcome!
2021/08: Our article from PhD student Nohyeong Jong, entitled "Predicting Micropollutant Removal by Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membranes: Is Machine Learning Viable?" has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology! Congratulations Nohyeong!
2021/05: Cristian Robbins has successfully defended his PhD thesis and graduated from CSU! He is the first PhD student graduated from the Tong lab. Congratulations Dr. Robbins and wish you the best of luck for your future career!
2021/01: Brandi Grauberger joined the group as an InTERFEWS fellow, co-advised by Todd Bandhauer of Mechanical Engineering. Brandi will work on improving the efficiencies of thermal desalination at the food-energy-water nexus.
2020/11: Congratulations to PhD student Cristian Robbins on his two leading-author articles: (1) On-site treatment capacity of membrane distillation powered by waste heat or natural gas for unconventional oil and gas production in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, on Environmental International; (2) Spatial Analysis of Membrane Distillation Powered by Waste Heat from Natural Gas Compressor Stations for Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewater Treatment in Weld County, Colorado, on ACS ES&T Engineering!
2020/07: Our collaborative article with University of British Columbia, Canada, entitled "Elucidating the Trade-off between Membrane Wetting Resistance and Water Vapor Flux in Membrane Distillation", has been accepted by Environmental Science & Technology!
2020/07: Our collaborative article with Prof. Baicang Liu from Sichuan University, entitled "On-site Treatment of Shale Gas Flowback and Produced Water in Sichuan Basin by Fertilizer Drawn Forward Osmosis for Irrigation", is accepted by Environmental Science & Technology!
2020/07: Our article from PhD students Yiming Yin and Nohyeong Jong, entitled "The effects of membrane surface wettability on pore wetting and scaling reversibility associated with mineral scaling in membrane distillation", has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science! Congratulations Yiming and Nohyeong!
2020/06: Dr. Tong gave an invited talk at the 2020 North American Membrane Society (NAMS) conference (online) to accept the Young Membrane Scientist Award!
2020/05: PhD students Cristian Robbins has successfully defended his preliminary exam and become a PhD candidate :) Congratulations Cristian!
2020/05: PhD students Yiming Yin has successfully defended his preliminary exam and become a PhD candidate :) Congratulations Yiming!
2019/12: Our collaborative article entitled "Distinct behaviors between gypsum and silica scaling in membrane distillation", with Vanderbilt University, has been accepted on Environmental Science & Technology. Graduate student Yiming Yin is the co-first author. Congratulations Yiming!
2019/08: Our Nature Communications paper on trade-off in membrane distillation is featured in College news of Engineering Colledge at Colorado State University! See the article.
2019/06: Our research article entitled "Trade-off in Membrane Distillation with Monolithic Omniphobic Membranes" has been accepted on Nature Communications!
2019/05: Our review article entitled "Membrane-based treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater: The current state of knowledge" has been accepted on Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering!
2019/05: Our collaborative article entitled "Antiwetting and antifouling Janus membrane for desalination of saline oily wastewater by membrane distillation", with University of British Columbia and Colorado School of Mines, has been accepted on ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces!
2019/03: Our review article entitled "Mineral scaling in membrane desalination: Mechanisms, mitigation strategies, and feasibility of scaling-resistant membranes" has been published on Journal of Membrane Science!
2019/02: PhD students Xuewei, Yiming, and Cristian have successfully passed the qualifying exam, congratulations to all the students!
2019/01 Our research article "Effective treatment of shale oil and gas produced water by membrane distillation coupled with precipitative softening and walnut shell filtration" has been published on Desalination!
2018/09 Our research paper collaborating with University of British Columbia, entitled "Membrane Fouling and Reusability in Membrane Distillation of Shale Oil and Gas Produced Water: Effects of Membrane Surface Wettability" has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science!
2018/08 Dr. Tong received funding from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to study on membrane scaling and develop scaling-resistant membranes in desalination process!
2018/08 Yiming Yin and Cristian Robbins joined the group as a PhD student, welcome Yiming and Cristian!
2018/07 Our collaborative paper with Yale University and Tianjin University, entitled "Combined organic fouling and inorganic scaling in reverse osmosis: Role of protein-silica interactions" has been published on Environmental Science & Technology!
2018/04 Our collaborative paper with Yale University and Harbin Institute of Technology, entitled "Selective removal of divalent cations by multilayer polyelectrolyte nanofiltration membrane: Role of ion size, polyelectrolyte charge, and ionic strength" has been accepted by Journal of Membrane Science! Look at using nanofiltration membrane as a novel approach for scaling mitigation.
2018/03 Our collaborative paper with Yale University, MIT, and Vanderbilt University, entitled "Membrane Distillation at the Water-Energy Nexus: Limits, Opportunities, and Challenges" has been published on Environmental & Energy Science! Enjoyed the collaboration very much!
2018/02 Graduate student Xuewei received the Walter Scott Jr. Graduate Fellowship Award. Congratulations Xuewei!
2018/02 DeeAnn Turpin joined our group as a graduate research assistant. Welcome, DeeAnn!
2018/01 Our collaborative paper with Shandong University, China (Dr. Yunkun Wang), entitled "The fate of antibiotic resistance genes and their potential hosts during bio-electrochemical treatment of high-salinity pharmaceutical wastewater", has been accepted by Water Research today! 1+1 > 2!
2018/01 Xuewei Du joined the group as a graduate research assistant. Welcome, Xuewei!
2017/12 Custom-built reverse osmosis and membrane distillation systems are ready to use!
2017/10 Zuoyou Zhang joined the group as a Plan A master student. Welcome, Zuoyou!
2017/08 Dr. Tong started as an assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CSU.