Singapore Membranes Consortium’s Dr. Adil Dhalla to Present on Developing Industrial Membrane-based Solutions

An Enterprise Approach to Developing Industrial Membrane-based Solutions
A Virtual Seminar with Dr. Adil Dhalla
Singapore Membrane Consortium (SG MEM)
Monday, May 23, 2022 at 12:30 pm PT

Join Singapore Membrane Consortium’s (SG MEM) Dr. Adil Dhalla for a seminar presented by the National Alliance for Water Innovation on Monday, May 23, at 12:30 p.m. PT. He will discuss SG MEM’s framework for taking early stage membrane inventions to commercially viable solutions. These solutions help to tackle both water and environmental challenges.

Hybrid Event Highlights Partnerships and Collaborations for Platform Solutions

One of the biggest challenges for commercialization of novel ideas, even if the Intellectual Property is duly protected, is the gap between laboratory processes, results and testing, and the full scale final product. Key risks include scale-up of component materials and equipment, systems level thinking, testing at pilot scale in an actual application setting, and final implementation.

Singapore’s Membrane Consortium, SG MEM, was set up to enable partnerships and collaborations towards developing Platform Solutions across our Membrane Ecosystem.  It brings together early stage research from our universities, Singapore’s unique translational facilities, and industry partners from upstream (materials companies), to membrane manufacturers, solution providers and end-users of separations technologies.  This expanding and varied group of companies ranges from start-ups to SMEs, large local enterprises to multinationals.

One of the key institutional members of this ecosystem is the Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation (START) Centre, Singapore’s national facility for bridging the gap between promising innovations in separations, especially membrane based inventions, at the laboratory scale, and industrial scale products and processes.  Over the past three years, this centre has built up broad capabilities in membrane (both flat-sheet and hollow-fiber) fabrication at industrial scale, the design, construction and testing of elements and modules, and the design of pilot systems for testing in real-life scenarios. 

This talk will showcase two case studies in how we have built the framework to take early stage membrane inventions to commercially viable solutions for key challenges in the fields of Water and Environment.  Examples will include technologies focused on industrial waste-water treatment for re-use, including potential recovery of valuables from the waste stream, and development and piloting of systems for lowering desalination system cost.

One of the biggest challenges for commercialization of novel ideas, even if the Intellectual Property is duly protected, is the gap between laboratory processes, results and testing, and the full scale final product.  Key risks include scale-up of component materials and equipment, systems level thinking, testing at pilot scale in an actual application setting, and final implementation.

Singapore’s Membrane Consortium, SG MEM, was set up to enable partnerships and collaborations towards developing Platform Solutions across our Membrane Ecosystem.  It brings together early stage research from our universities, Singapore’s unique translational facilities, and industry partners from upstream (materials companies), to membrane manufacturers, solution providers and end-users of separations technologies.  This expanding and varied group of companies ranges from start-ups to SMEs, large local enterprises to multinationals.

One of the key institutional members of this ecosystem is the Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation (START) Centre, Singapore’s national facility for bridging the gap between promising innovations in separations, especially membrane based inventions, at the laboratory scale, and industrial scale products and processes.  Over the past three years, this centre has built up broad capabilities in membrane (both flat-sheet and hollow-fiber) fabrication at industrial scale, the design, construction and testing of elements and modules, and the design of pilot systems for testing in real-life scenarios. 

This talk will showcase two case studies in how we have built the framework to take early stage membrane inventions to commercially viable solutions for key challenges in the fields of Water and Environment.  Examples will include technologies focused on industrial waste-water treatment for re-use, including potential recovery of valuables from the waste stream, and development and piloting of systems for lowering desalination system cost. 

Singapore Membrane Consortium and World-class Research, Dedicated Translation and Test-bedding Capabilities

The Singapore Membrane Consortium (SG MEM) was launched in 2018, and serves as an umbrella platform to integrate, coordinate and expand membrane-based technologies and commercial offerings from Singapore to the world. We are funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore, and our mandate includes connecting existing cutting-edge membrane research and innovation activities (which range from fundamental research to applied and translational research) with industry partners. This is aimed at accelerating the commercialization of membrane technologies that meet industry needs in and beyond water e.g. gas separation and purification, concentration and purification of ingredients/mixtures/solvents in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage sectors, controlled drug delivery systems etc.

Our ecosystem encompasses institutes of higher learning (IHLs), national scale-up and translation centres as well as industry members. We currently have 28 industry members on paid membership, spanning from chemical suppliers, to membrane manufacturers, system integrators, solution providers and end users. We also recently signed partnership agreements with international universities and research centres from the US, Europe, Israel and Australia to explore new research areas for potential collaboration.

About Dr. Adil Dhalla 

Dr Adil Dhalla is Managing Director, Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation (START) Centre, funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation, is a national facility for bridging the gap between research innovations and commercial outcomes.  The START Centre’s mandate involves scaling up industrially relevant advanced separation technologies and processes from the various Institutions of Higher Learning and Research Institutes in Singapore, evaluating their efficacy at pilot scale, and commercializing them with industrial partners.  Currently in it’s second phase, the START Centre has also been selected to lead an effort to find cutting-edge technologies with the potential to lower the system cost of seawater desalination, translate as needed to higher Technology Readiness Levels, and set up and operate a demonstration scale Integrated Validation Plant for testing the same at scale.

Dr. Dhalla chairs the steering committee of SG MEM, Singapore’s Membrane Consortium.  SG MEM functions as the umbrella organization coordinating innovation in the field of membranes across Institutions of Higher Learning, Research Institutes, and key Industry players, including polymer companies, membrane manufacturers, integrators, and systems level solution providers, as well as end users from pharma, food and beverage and refining.  

He serves on the Water Technology Advisory Panel for PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and Environment and Resources Standards Committee (ERSC), Singapore.

Dr Dhalla is also concurrently Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Executive Director, Nanyang Environmental and Water Research Institute (NEWRI) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).  Ranked among the world’s top water research organisations, NEWRI operates across the spectrum of Research, Innovation and Enterprise, providing a multi- and trans-disciplinary platform for some 250 researchers in the domains of Water, Waste, Wastewater, and the Energy-Water nexus.  

Prior to his current roles, he was the Director of the GE Singapore Water Technology Center at NUS, from April 2010 to July 2015, where his role included leading GE’s technology efforts in Singapore, and liaising with regional government agencies and universities on collaborative efforts relating to technology development.  He was also an Ombudsperson for GE Power and Water, ASEAN.

Before coming to Singapore, he was the Technical Director of the Polymer Science and Technology team, and earlier the Chemistry and Characterization team, at GE’s John F. Welch Technology Center in Bangalore, India. Since joining GE in 2000, he established and led technical centers of excellence in chemistry, materials and process technologies.

After completing his five-year integrated master’s degree in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, he earned a doctorate in chemistry from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Following a post-doctoral stint at Penn State University, he was a research fellow at the Bristol-Myers Squibb PRI in Princeton, N.J., and a senior manager in the research and technology division of Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Mumbai, India.

With industrial experience spanning twenty nine years, including twenty five years in management roles, his key areas of professional expertise include the leadership and operational management of large, multifunctional teams, strategic planning, R&D in product/process development and commercialization.  He has co-authored more than 20 issued patents (US and EP), more than 30 GE internal reports and several publications in peer-reviewed international journals.