Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Prof. How Yong Ng is a Provost Chair’s Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He also currently serves as the Director of the NUS Environmental Research Institute and the Director of the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Laboratory. His research focuses on biological treatment processes including modelling, membrane bioreactor and microbial fuel cell for water reuse and energy recovery. He had contributed to more than 350 publications in referred international journals and conference papers. Dr. Ng is an Associate Editor of Water Research and an Editor of the Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination. He is a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA) and is currently the Vice-Chair of the IWA Membrane Technology Specialist Group (MTSG) and the President of the Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore (EESS). Dr. Tze Chiang Albert Ng is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research focuses on biological treatment processes including membrane bioreactors, anaerobic processes, and energy and resource recovery. He has contributed to publications related to membrane development, membrane fouling, microbial fuel cells and biotechnology in international peer-reviewed journals. He developed a comprehensive research and development program to generate students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and has been a judge for various STEM related science fairs in Singapore. Prof. Ngo is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering and serving as Deputy Director of Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, Co-Director of Joint Research Centre for Protective Infrastructure Technology and Environmental Green Bioprocess, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney. He has been duly elected as Fellow of International Water Association (FIWA) and Fellow and Lead Researcher of the International Bioprocessing Association (FIBA and LRIBA) while serving as IBA Council Member. Prof. Ngo is internationally well-known for his activities in the areas of advanced biological waste treatment technologies (e.g. membrane bioreactor, specific attached and/or suspended growth bioreactors, anaerobic digesters, wetland and bio-sorption) and membrane technologies. His expertise and practical experience also covers the areas of alternative resources, management and impacts assessment, and solid waste management. Currently, he is very active to work on the development of specific green bioprocessing technologies: resource recovery, water-waste- bioenergy nexus and greenhouse gas emission control. Prof. Ngo has been listed as Highly Cited Researcher 2019 in Cross Field Category, Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science; Elsevier - World Top 3 ranking researcher 2019 in Environmental Engineering; Lead Researcher in the field of Biotechnology in Australia. He ranks #2 in the world for number of scholarly outputs in the SciVal topic ‘membrane fouling; bioreactors; membrane bioreactors (SciVal, Feb 2020). He ranks #1 in Australia for number of scholarly outputs in the SciVal topic ‘biosorption; aqueous solution; bisorption capacity; ‘antibiotics; oxytetracycline; veterinary antibiotics’, (SciVal, Feb 2020). Prof. Ngo has published more than 500 SCI/ISI journal papers (citations >20,000), 7 books and 35 book chapters, a number of patents while receiving several highly recognized honours/awards. He has been invited to give numerous plenary/keynotes and invited talks, seminars and lecturers in the international conferences as well as the universities/research institutions. Prof. Ngo has appointed as Editor of Bioresource Technology, Elsevier, Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier, Associate Editor of Water Process Engineering and Associate Editor of Heliyon Journal, Elsevier. He is also an editorial board member/guest editor of numerous international journals such as Bioresource Technology Reports, Elsevier; Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring and Management, Elsevier; Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability, IJSEES, Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, EHIT, Journal of Bioengineered, Taylor & Francis. Dr. Giorgio Mannina is Professor of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at the Engineering Department of Palermo University, Italy. His research interest and focus is on resource recovery from wastewater, advanced wastewater treatments (MBR, MBBR, hybrid processes, IFAS, granular systems, etc.), BNR processes, mathematical modeling, and water quality issues related to integrated urban drainage systems. Prof. Ashok Pandey is currently Executive Director, Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability-India, Lucknow. His major research and technological development interests are industrial and environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences, focusing on biomass to biofuels and chemicals, waste to wealth and energy, etc.

• 1. Introduction to current status and recent developments in aerobic membrane bioreactors2. Conventional process design, operation and microbiology of aerobic membrane bioreactors3. Current challenges in aerobic membrane bioreactors4. Role of soluble microbial products and extracellular polymeric substances in membrane fouling5. Techniques for understand membrane fouling mechanisms6. Advanced membrane materials and designs7. Advanced MBR and hybrid MBR reactor configurations8. Hybrid membrane separation processes for drinking water treatment9. Aerobic membrane bioreactors for municipal wastewater treatment10. Aerobic membrane bioreactors for industrial wastewater treatment11. Osmotic membrane technologies12. Advanced fouling control strategies13. Quorum sensing and quorum quenching in membrane bioreactors