Advanced Electrically Driven Membranes Technology for Clean Energy and Resource Recovery Toward Sustainable Separation

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced membrane technologies have enabled the rapid development of electrically driven membrane processes, which are emerging as powerful tools for sustainable separation, clean energy, and resource recovery. These systems offer precise ion selectivity, low chemical consumption, and excellent compatibility with renewable energy sources. Methods such as electrodialysis, capacitive deionization, electromembrane reactors, fuel cells, and water electrolysis are reshaping the clean energy landscape and transforming the ways we extract, purify, and recycle valuable components from industrial, agricultural, and environmental streams.

This Special Issue focuses on electrically driven membrane technologies, emphasizing advanced materials development and data-driven design for sustainable separation, clean energy, and resource recovery. Contributions covering ion-exchange and electroresponsive membrane synthesis, modification, and characterization; multi-scale transport modeling; electrochemical performance optimization; and machine learning-assisted prediction of structure–property relationships are welcome. Interdisciplinary studies that integrate materials science, electrochemical engineering, and data-driven approaches are particularly encouraged. By highlighting innovations from fundamental mechanisms to system-level applications, this Special Issue aims to accelerate the transition toward green, electrified, and circular separation and energy technologies.

In this Special Issue, both original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following aspects:

• Design, synthesis, characterization, and application of ion-exchange membrane (AEM, CEM, BPM, composite, and nano-structured membranes);
• Advanced characterization techniques;
• Electrodialysis (ED), bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED), and hybrid membrane–electrochemical systems for desalination, metal recovery, nutrient vaporization, and circular economy applications;
• Fuel cells and water electrolysis for green hydrogen applications;
• Modeling, simulation, and transport analysis, including multi-ion coupling, concentration polarization, and scaling control;
• Machine learning and data-driven approaches for material discovery, process optimization, and predictive modeling;
• Life cycle assessment (LCA), technoeconomic analysis (TEA), and process intensification strategies toward sustainability;
• Interdisciplinary perspectives linking membrane materials, system integration, and artificial intelligence in sustainable separations.

We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue, which will help shape the future of clean energy, green separation processes, and sustainable resource recovery.

Dr. Shanshan Zhang
Dr. Zhihao Shang
Dr. Zhicheng Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. ChemEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• membrane synthesis and modification 
• ion-exchange membranes 
• ion transport and interfacial phenomena
• electrodialysis (ED) 
• fuel cells and water electrolysis
• data-driven modeling 
• machine learning optimization
• sustainable separation and resource recovery
• technoeconomic and life cycle assessment (TEA/LCA)
• green and circular process engineering