Membrane Systems Research Group

13/12/2025

Only one day to go before registration is closed. The Webinar link will be emailed to all registered participants.
Certificates of Participation will be issued to all participants.

Registration Link:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/JX6YDH1V8i

12/10/2025

Pakistan Membrane Society (PMS) invites you to a Memorial Webinar
*Honoring the legacy of Dr. Muhammad Aslam for his remarkable contributions to Membrane Science and Technology*

Distinguished Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Jeonghwan Kim
Title: “In Pursuit of Innovative Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Membrane Bioreactor as a Key Technology for Capturing Wastewater Resources: Innovations and Challenges”

Dr. Asim Laeeq Khan
Title: “Membrane-Based Gas Separations: Fundamentals and Case Studies”

📅 Date: Wednesday, 15 October 2025
🕚 Time: 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM (Pakistan Standard Time, GMT +05:00)
📍 Platform: Google Meet
🔗 Join Here: https://meet.google.com/cee-dgjy-hss

Register Now: Scan the QR code on the poster attached.

Let’s come together to pay tribute to the contributions of a great membrane scientist in Membrane Science & Technology.

17/09/2025

🌹 In Loving Memory of Dr. Muhammad Aslam 🌹

It is with deep sorrow that we share the passing of Dr. Muhammad Aslam, a leading and cherished member of our research group. Dr. Aslam was not only a brilliant scientist in membrane science and technology but also an inspiring mentor, colleague, and friend.

With over 100 high-impact publications, international awards, and excellent work in anaerobic membrane biotechnology, he made lasting contributions to the global membrane community. Within our group, he was a driving force. He always led by example, guiding young researchers, and strengthening collaborations. His dedication, humility, and passion for science will continue to inspire us.

Dr. Aslam’s legacy will live on through the knowledge he created, the students he guided, and the community he helped build. The Pakistan Membrane Society and our group will forever remember his efforts to promote membrane research in Pakistan.

May Allah grant him the highest place in Jannah.

“Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.” (Qur’an 2:156)

Please keep him in your prayers.

News In Memoriam: Dr. Muhammad Aslam (Pakistan Membrane Society) Posted by admin On September 17, 2025 0 comments The Pakistan Membrane Society (PMS) deeply mourns the passing of Dr. Muhammad Aslam, a distinguished researcher and dedicated teacher in Membrane Science and Technology. Dr. Aslam earned...

21/07/2025

Many Many Congratulations to Beenish Shahzadi on her successful Masters thesis defense. So proud of her journey in the past two years.

She did exceptional work taking head-on two major Global issues: Waste plastic accumulation and pollution, and emerging pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewater.

Beenish upscaled waste plastic bottles into high value M*F adsorbents and used them for pharmaceutical removal from waste water. I'm so proud of her hardwork and long hours in lab. She had several setbacks. At one point we were thinking of changing here research topic yet she struggled hard and found her way. Well Done Beenish.

Best wishes Beenish Shahzadi for a successful journey ahead.

23/11/2024

It was back in 2018 when our team was actively exploring the potential of ionic liquids in membranes for carbon capture. While the results were promising, we were always mindful of their sustainability issues like high costs and non-biodegradable nature. Then one day, Dr Mazhar Amjad Gilani introduced a game-changing idea: how about replacing ionic liquids with deep eutectic solvents (DES) that were hardly being talked about those days. Extremely cheap, derived from plant origins, and potentially even more effective in separations, this idea sparked a new direction in our research.

Since then, this journey has been transformative. We became one of the pioneers in the field, completing nearly a dozen projects, producing two successful PhDs, and publishing several impactful papers. And last week, we reached what I can only describe as the essence or culmination of this work with a brilliant publication by our PhD student, Palwasha Khan, in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Under the supervision of Dr. Dr-Muhammad Yasin who has been a great contributor and a live wire in broadening our group's applications, this research truly brings the best from our group. It addresses one of the biofuel industry's critical challenges about efficient ethanol-water separation by introducing DES enhanced pervaporation membranes.

Using the COSMO-RS, we identified a menthol/thymol based DES with exceptional hydrogen bonding and selectivity properties. Incorporating this DES into PDMS membranes achieved remarkable improvements in separation efficiency. The DES-PDMS membranes demonstrated outstanding performance achieving excellent separation factors with significant flux rates, aligning perfectly with our COSMO-RS predictions.

This publication brought a feeling of great accomplishment to this amazing journey of last 6 years that is still continuing. We will keep on moving ahead on our path to Sustainability and green engineering.

A huge thanks to Palwasha, Dr. Muhammad Yasin, Dr. Mazhar Gilani, Dr. Asim Khan and everyone who contributed to making this vision a reality.

Efficient separation of ethanol from water is a critical challenge in the biofuel industry, where traditional methods often fall short in terms of energy efficiency and selectivity. To address this, we explore the potential of novel deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to enhance the performance of pervapo...

22/09/2024

This is an excellent guide for anyone working on preparing defect free thin film composite membranes with very basic facilities. No matter which application, you will find excellent recipes, and will be able to mould accordingly. It's a multi year effort by Tooba Sahar to come up with such a comprehensive document. Thank you Tooba once again for excellent efforts and this publication for the community.

Thin Film Composite nanofiltration membranes for effective removal of heavy metals from water.

03/08/2024

Our stars keep shinning and bringing glory through their valuable contributions. Really pleased to share the amazing work by our MPhil student, Tayyaba Ishaq, recently published in CCST Journal. This work was supervised by Dr. Rahma Tamime from LSE Lahore. Great contributions by Dr. Faheem Akhtar and Dr. Sadia without whom this outcome wouldn't be possible. Many thanks to Babar Saeed for help in graphical representation of the results making it easy for the readers to comprehend.

21/05/2024

The 'Membrane Systems Research Group' at the Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS University Lahore is offering limited scholarships that will include 100% tuition fee reimbursement for the admissions in PhD Chemical Engineering. The admissions are open in the program. We are looking for candidates passionate for membrane technology with a desire to excel in this field. Prior experience in the field during their Masters thesis is preferred.

09/05/2024

Finally we did it :-)
We are pleased to share that our Master's thesis student, Aysha Komal's thesis work has been published in the Chemical Engineering Research and Design Journal. Aysha's embedded a porous liquid in mixed matrix membranes and, for the very time, used a M*F into it's porous liquid form for pervaporation application. It was a long and challenging journey but so pleased to finally reach the target.

Special thanks to Amna Kasuri who really helped Aysha in finalizing the shape of this manuscript. Super work by Dr-Muhammad Yasin and Dr. Asim Laeeq Khan for their guidance and supervision.

Our success would not have been possible without our collaborators: Dr. Hamad Almohamadi, Dr. Faheem Akhtar, Dr. Mazhar Gilani, Dr. Abdul Razzaq, Dr. Arslan, Dr. Nawaz, and Dr. Emilia.

here is the link to the article. Happy reading and please do give feedback

Separating butanol/water mixtures via distillation is notably energy-intensive and costly, highlighting the urgent need for more efficient alternative…

15/01/2024

12/01/2024

Extremely pleased and proud to share our latest study on Sustainable and Green Membranes for Chemical Separations. Here we tried to address the pressing need for sustainable materials and green manufacturing techniques for membranes. While the overall application of membrane technology is considered sustainable, it's the manufacturing materials and the fabrication techniques that need a revisit.

Congratulations to Abeera Naeem who took this role as the first author of this study. It was a big ask from a Master Thesis student. Congratulations also to Babar Saeed for his outstanding contributions and to Muhammad Yasin for his exceptional supervision. Many thanks to co-authors mazhar Gilani and Dr. Hamad Almohamadi for their invaluable insights. We truly hope that this work marks a significant step forward in our field, offering new directions for researchers dedicated to sustainability.

Chemical separation technologies such as water purification, gas separation, and solvent recovery have increasingly adopted membrane-based methods for…

03/01/2024

Some snapshots from the Masters Thesis Defense today