Professor Lee Sang-ho of the Department of Construction Systems Engineering, College of Creative Engineering, Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung-ryul) has been selected as the head of the research team for the project “Digital Conversion of Seawater Desalination Plants and Development of Concentrated Water Resource Technology” supported by the Ministry of Environment and organized by the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute.

The research team aims to develop digital transformation of desalination plants and technology for the resource utilization of concentrated water, focusing on the following areas: ▲ development of ultra-low energy seawater desalination processes, ▲ securing high-efficiency recovery technology for useful resources such as bromine, calcium, and magnesium in concentrated water, and more. In addition, this research includes ▲digital twin-based operation optimization, ▲failure prediction algorithms, and ▲integrated operation technology for high-recovery membrane processes, among others. It is a large-scale R&D project that will be carried out from May 2025 to December 2029 for five years, with a total government funding of approximately 35 billion won.

Kookmin University is the lead research institution, and the consortium consists of a total of 23 industry-academia-research institutions, including CJK Co., Ltd. and Sungkyunkwan University. Participating institutions will collaborate on tasks such as ▲design and construction of demonstration plants, ▲demonstration of resource recovery processes, ▲development of digital platforms, ▲water quality and energy evaluation, and ▲regional technology dissemination, each specializing in their respective fields.

Professor Lee Sang-ho of the Department of Construction Systems Engineering at Kookmin University's College of Creative Engineering was selected as the research team leader for the Ministry of Environment's R&D project, following his work on the “Development of Technology for a Mobile Seawater Desalination Plant” project from 2018 to 2023. The preceding project was included in the Ministry of Environment's “Top 20 Excellent Environmental R&D Achievements” in 2023, among other recognitions, highlighting its technological achievements and feasibility.

Professor Lee stated, “Through this research, we aim to present practical solutions to water issues in the era of climate crisis and take the lead in securing global competitiveness in the domestic seawater desalination and resource recovery fields.” Meanwhile, this project will be carried out with the goal of establishing a foundation for commercialization and overseas expansion of the technology through the construction of a demonstration plant and integrated operation verification, and realizing world-class digital water treatment-based seawater desalination–resource recovery fusion technology.