Report on the International
Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes 2005, Seoul,
South Korea
by Messel Bursar Chayaporn
Roengpithya
 With
the help of an SCI Messel Fund bursary I was able to attend
a premier scientific event, the International Congress on
Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM 2005) in Seoul, South
Korea.
Before the main congress started, I attended one of the four
pre-congress workshops on 'Membranes for liquid separations,
including fouling issues (MF, UF, NF, RO)', given by Professor
Andrew Zydney from the Pennsylvania State University, USA
and Dr Pierre Aimar from the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS), France. This workshop gave a very broad
overview of separating liquids using membranes, with a strong
emphasis on the mass transfer rate and fouling as well as
the effect these phenomena have on the membrane selection,
module design and system operation.
At the congress there were 720 participants from 40 countries,
presenting 777 papers. These were split between four plenary
lectures, 12 oral sessions, two poster sessions and student
paper contest. The speakers ranged from PhD students and post
docs to experienced academics like Professor Sun-Tak Hwang
from the faculty of Chemical and Materials Engineering at
the University of Cincinnati, USA. The congress dedicated
two honorary sessions to Prof Hwang, who has worked extensively
in the areas of membrane separations, membrane reactors, flow
through porous media and gas separation.
I had the opportunity to present my work entitled 'Application
of membrane enhanced dynamic kinetic resolution for chiral
separation' in the oral student paper contest session. I received
some positive feedback and won an award in the student oral
paper contest.
The congress encompassed the whole spectrum of membranes
and their applications in industry. Mainly the papers were
focused on fuel cell membranes, wastewater treatment and recycling,
membrane fouling and characterisation and gas and vapour separation.
Although few papers which were directly related to my own
field of novel application of nanofiltration for non-aqueous
systems, there were some interesting papers in related areas
including 'Kinetic resolution of racemic naproxen esters by
lipases form candida immobilised in a new phase transfer biocatalytic
membrane reactor' by Dr Lidietta Giorno from National Research
Council, Italy. Her work showed that by immobilising the lipase
enzyme as oil in a water/oil emulsion with a two phase membrane
reactor, the enantioselectivity of the biocatalytic membrane
and the stability of enzyme improved.
Other interesting works included 'Next generation membranes
for gas & vapour separations: research needs and opportunity'
by Dr William John Koros, Georgia Institute of Technology,
USA. The key hurdles in broadening the application of advanced
membrane materials and process was highlighted, particularly
the control of the complex nanoscale interface which separates
the two phases in a hybrid material.
The final paper I would like to mention was by Prof João
Crespo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal on 'Membranes
and ionic liquids: from nanoscale to applications'. The combination
of room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) and polymeric membranes
can created unique barrier materials that open up the opportunity
for cleaner separation technologies, However, their interactions
with other matrices is still not well understood but is extremely
important when designing integrated membrane separation processes.
Prof Crespo and his research group proved that RTILs behave
exclusively as electrolytes not as organic solvents when interacting
with a membrane polymer.
 As
well as the scientific programmes, 17 companies and organisations
participated in the technical and commercial exhibitions,
held during the congress.
The organising committee also arranged a very colourful social
programme including the Gala Dinner at which there were many
performances including the very energetic and highly skilled
Samulpangut dance and Boo-Chae-Choom folk dance (pictured).
We also had sightseeing tours - when time permitted!
Overall, this congress has been of great benefit to me. I
have gained confidence from my experience in orally presenting
my work to a technically knowledgeable audience. I was able
to discuss my research with a lot of fellow researchers in
this field whom I hope to stay in contact with and hence build
up my network of contacts. I have also broadened my knowledge
in the field of membranes, especially in new developments
in membrane materials, and I hope to share this knowledge
with my group. The experience at ICOM 2005 was incredible
and has enabled me to return to my research at Imperial College
London with renewed vigour.
I am very grateful to SCI for awarding me this bursary, without
which I could not have made the trip.
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