Masdar Institute, South Korea’s Global MVP host IDW 2016 in Abu Dhabi

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Global MVP, the R&D group supported by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MoLIT) and the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA), hosted the 9th International Desalination Workshop (IDW2016) in Abu Dhabi.

The IDW 2016, which ran from 13th-15th November, brought together water technology research scientists and engineers from around the world. . Focusing on all aspects of water desalination, water treatment and reuse, the gathering gave attendees the opportunity to share ideas and hold discussions about their various research projects. South Korea’s Forward Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis Hybrid Centre (FOHC) and the Global Desalination Research Centre (GDRC) were co-organisers for the event.

Dr. Hassan Arafat, Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Masdar Institute, and Prof. Seung-Hyun Kim, Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Kyungnam University in South Korea, were the conference chairs.

In addition to six keynote speeches by global leaders in the desalination field, 67 scientific papers focusing on desalination-related subjects were accepted from across the global academic and research community.

Dr. Behjat Al Yousuf, Interim Provost, Masdar Institute, said, "We are privileged to collaborate with our partners to bring the 9th edition of the IDW to Abu Dhabi. Desalination remains relevant to the UAE and all arid regions across the world."

Prof. Seung-Hyun Kim of Global MVP said, "I am very pleased to host the International Desalination Workshop in Abu Dhabi. The IDW has been successful for the past eight years attracting desalination researchers around the world to South Korea. This year, we’ve decided to move this event to the GCC region at which desalination efficiency is required more than any other regions. I hope this event leads to fruitful collaboration among researchers in the GCC and other regions."

Among the keynote addresses, Prof. J. Lienhard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), spoke about ‘Water scarcity, desalination, and climate change: how can we respond?’, while Prof. E. Drioli, University of Calabria, Italy, discussed ‘A process intensification strategy in desalination and water reuse’. Prof. R. Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, delivered a speech on ‘Development of Aquaporin-based Biomimetic Membranes for Water Reuse and Desalination’ and Prof. I. S. Kim, from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, spoke on the topic of ‘Economic feasibility of pressure-assisted forward osmosis as a pretreatment for reverse osmosis’. Prof. Hans Vrouwenvelder, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, also gave a keynote address.

The conference also featured a special plenary session on ‘Low Energy Desalination’ to address the most recent developments aiming to reduce the energy footprint of desalination.

In addition, a two-day intensive professional training course on membrane-based desalination processes (Desal-Pro) was held on 12th-13th November at Masdar Institute as part of the workshop. The course delivered a comprehensive understanding of membrane-based desalination technologies from theory to applications, and will cover reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO), pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), membrane distillation (MD), and its integrated processes. It was co-organized with Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

The partner organisations for the 9th IDW 2016 include Masdar, the International Desalination Association (IDA), European Desalination Society (EDS), Texas A&M University-Qatar , K-Water of Korea, Korea Desalination Plant Association (KDPA), Saudi Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), and the Middle East Desalination Research Center.