Explore the Nano World 

 Wen's Research Group​

Wen Zhang, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE

Principal Investigator
Professor

Phone: (973) 596-5520 
Fax: (973) 596-5790
Email: wen.zhang@njit.edu

Office Location: Colton Hall 211

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Currently, my research group is working with New Jersey water conservation agencies, lake commissions and industrial partners to develop microbubble-enabled air-flotation/filtration platforms to replenish water quality and remove harmful algal bloom (HABs) from New Jersey Lakes under funding support from NJDEP (Award number: WM20-040). Specifically, our group is awarded $500,000 from NJDEP to work in partnerships with Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute (MERI) and BRISEA Inc. to design and launch a mobile floating platform to mechanically remove and mitigate harmful algal blooms (HABs) at Branch Brook Lake and Deal Lake, two of the typical NJ lakes that are negatively affected by HAB in New Jersey. The team proposes to apply filtration and air flotation as well as unique engineering technologies on this platform, to mechanically remove HABs from water as illustrated above. The boat, depending on the designed treatment capacity, has flexible and tunable dimensions and functionalities (e.g., water quality monitoring). The purged air micro-nano bubbles in the air flotation process are also aimed to replenish water with dissolved oxygen that may abate anoxia and hypoxia. This 3-year demonstration project will involve three major stages: (1) year 1, designing the boat’s specifications (e.g., size and power) with intensive water quality and algal characterization; (2) building and deploying the boat in two lakes for demonstration testing; (3) verifying performances of algal removal and impacts on lake’s water quality and restoration. Details can be found: https://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2020/20_0009.htm