Advanced Membrane and Surface-Cover Materials and Processes for Environmental Resource Recovery, Water Conservation, and Salinity Control
A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 25
Special Issue Editors
Interests: membrane preparation; electrodialysis technology; ionic separation; CO2 capture & utilization; resource recovery
Interests: CO2 capture technology and equipment; development of renewable CO2 absorbents with low phytotoxicity; CO2 emission reduction and enhancement of ecosystem stability
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The global transition toward a circular economy and sustainable development demands a paradigm shift in environmental management, moving from traditional end-of-pipe waste treatment to advanced, closed-loop resource recovery. Environmental matrices, including municipal wastewater, complex industrial effluents, desalination brines, and gaseous emissions, are no longer viewed merely as liabilities but as rich repositories of valuable resources. These include high-purity water, essential nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), critical metals (e.g., lithium, cobalt, magnesium), and valuable chemical or energy commodities. In addition to recovering valuable resources from wastewater, brines, and industrial streams, increasing attention is being paid to membrane and surface-cover materials that reduce evaporation, regulate soil water and heat transfer, mitigate salinity stress, and improve the restoration of degraded or saline soils.
Membrane technology stands at the forefront of this transformation, offering unprecedented molecular/ionic selectivity, high energy efficiency, and compact operational footprints. This Special Issue, titled “Advanced Membrane and Surface-Cover Materials and Processes for Environmental Resource Recovery, Water Conservation, and Salinity Control”, aims to highlight breakthroughs not only in membrane materials science and separation process engineering but also in biologically inspired and biodegradable surface-cover systems.
We welcome high-quality original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and short communications that address fundamental and applied challenges. Contributions may focus on novel membrane synthesis, selective separation and electrochemical membrane processes, as well as multifunctional soil interface materials and field-deployable technologies for water conservation, salinity mitigation, and soil ecological rehabilitation.
Subject areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Design and synthesis of high-performance membranes and multifunctional surface-cover materials.
- Advanced electrochemical membrane processes and selective resource recovery technologies.
- Membrane-based technologies for CO2 capture, utilization, and energy-efficient CO2 regeneration.
- Recovery of critical minerals and strategic metals (e.g., Lithium, Magnesium) from industrial streams and brines.
- Nutrient (N, P) enrichment and selective separation from agricultural and municipal wastewater.
- Membrane- and surface-material-based strategies for evaporation suppression, water conservation, and heat and mass transfer regulation.
- Anti-salinity and salt-regulating membrane materials for saline soils, brines, and soil–water interface management.
- Biological soil crusts, liquid mulch films, and other biodegradable soil-cover systems for dryland restoration and sustainable agriculture
Dr. Te Tu
Dr. Feihong Liang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2200 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.
Keywords
- resource recovery
- ion-exchange membranes
- bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED)
- wastewater reclamation
- critical metal extraction
- carbon capture and regeneration
- biological soil crusts
- evaporation suppression
- salinity control
- liquid mulch films
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