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Mengfang Chen

Mengfang Chen

Position Title Professor
Postal address 71 East Beijing Road, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China
Postal Code 210008 E-mail mfchen@issas.ac.cn

Biography

Prof Chen specializes in soil and groundwater remediation and is currently Director of the Centre for Site Remediation (SiteRem), and Deputy Director of National Engineering Laboratory of Site Remediation Technologies. Prof. Chen has over thirty years’ experience working in contaminated land research and consultancy and has considerable experience in soil and groundwater investigation, human health and environmental risk assessment and in-situ remediation technologies such as nano-iron technology, permeable reactive barrier (PRB), advanced chemical oxidation and reduction and enhanced bioremediation.

While working in UK, Mengfang was a technical advisor for London Development Agency for groundwater and has supervised the development of groundwater model for London 2012 Olympic Park; a key member of the team for Thames Water funded project ‘Hydrogeology and Hydrochemistry of London Basin’ and Severn Trent Water project ‘Cryptosporidium Hydrogeological Risk Assessment’, and BNFL ‘Environmental Assessment Programme for Sellafield site’. In China, Prof. Chen has led over 20 key soil and groundwater remediation projects funded by National Key Research and Development Programme of the Ministry of Science and Technology, general and international collaboration programme of National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Science and Technology Service Network of Chinese Academy of Sciences etc.

Prof. Chen has written over 300 consultant reports related to site investigation, risk assessment and remedial strategies for contaminated sites and has an excellent track record of academic publications with over 60 SCI papers with Journal of Hazardous Materials, Bioresource Technology and Chemical Engineering Journal etc.

Combining multimedia contaminant fate and transport and exposure modelling, Mengfang has developed Chinese-Specific Health and Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA) software which can derive soil and groundwater assessment criteria and site-specific remedial targets and has become a standard tool, widely accepted for soil and groundwater risk assessment of contaminated sites in Chinese Brownfield Regeneration Market. In addition he has systematically and extensively studied remediation mechanism of nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI), biochar, zeolite, persulphate and peroxide based composites of both reactive and sorptive functionalities in treating chlorinated solvents, BTEX and metals in groundwater and successfully completed several pilot tests using permeable reactive barriers (PRB) and in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR) that may be potentially extended to other similar sites. Active research is currently being undertaken by his team on ecological restoration of acid mine drainage released from abandoned coal and metal mines.

Research Areas

[1] Risk Control and Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater

[2] Highly Effective and Multi-Functional Remediation Reagents

[3] Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Reactive Transport Modelling

[4] Low Cost Ecological Restoration of Acid Mine Drainage from Abandoned Mines

Public Duties

[1] Science Advisor, Soil Remediation Committee, Soil Science Society of China (2020 - present)

[2] Chair, Soil Remediation Committee, Soil Science Society of China (2015 - 2020)

[3] Chair, Soil and Groundwater Remediation Committee, Jiangsu Society of Environmental Sciences (2017 - present)

[4] International Project Advisor, European FP7 NANOREM (Taking Nanotechnological Remediation Processes from Lab Scale to End User Application for the Restoration of a Clean Environment (2013 - 2017)

[5] Senior Groundwater Advisor, Regeneration of London 2012 Olympic Park (2004 - 2008)

Awards and Honours

Second Prize of Science and Technology Award of Soil Science Society of China (2017)

Selected Publications

[1] Lei Yang, Yun Chen, Da Ouyang, Jingchun Yan, Linbo Qian, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen, Jing Li, Mingyue Gu. Mechanistic insights into adsorptive and oxidative removal of monochlorobenzene in biochar-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron/persulfate system, Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 400: 125811.

[2] Lu Han, Xiang Nie, Jing Wei, Mingyue Gu, Wenpei Wu. Mengfang Chen*, Effects of feedstock biopolymer compositions on the physiochemical characteristics of dissolved black carbon from lignocellulose-based biochar, Science of the Total Environment, 2020, 751: 141491.

[3] Jingchun Yan, Lei Yang, Linbo Qian, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen*. Nano-magnetite supported by biochar pyrolysed at different temperatures as hydrogen peroxide activator: synthesis mechanism and the effects on ethylbenzene removal, Environmental Pollution, 2020, 261: 114020.

[4] Linbo Qian, Yun Chen, Da Ouyang, Wenying Zhang, Lu Han, Jingchun Yan, Petr Kvapil, Mengfang Chen*. Field demonstration of enhanced removal of chlorinated solvents in groundwater using biochar-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron, Science of the Total Environment, 2020, 698: 134215.

[5] Xiao Shang, Lei Yang, Da Ouyang, Bo Zhang, Wenying Zhang, Mingyue Gu, Jing Li, Mengfang Chen, Lihui Huang, Linbo Qian. Enhanced removal of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene by modified biochar supported nanoscale zero-valent palladium, Chemosphere, 2020, 249: 126518.

[6] Lu Han, Jingchun Yan, Linbo Qian, Wenying Zhang, Mengfang Chen*. Multifunctional Pd/Fe-biochar composites for the complete removal of trichlorobenzene and its degradation products, Journal of Environmental Management, 245: 238-244.

[7] Jingchun Yan, Yun Chen, Weiguo Gao, Linbo Qian, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen*. Catalysis of hydrogen peroxide with Cu layered double hydrotalcite for the degradation of ethylbenzene, Chemosphere, 2019, 225: 157-165.

[8] Da Ouyang, Yun Chen, Jingchun Yan, Linbo Qian, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen*. Activation mechanism of peroxymonosulfate by biochar for catalytic degradation of 1,4-dioxane: Important role of biochar defect structures. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2019, 15: 614-624.

[9] Wenying Zhang, Linbo Qian, Da Ouyang, Yun Chen, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen*. Effective removal of Cr(VI) by attapulgite-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron from aqueous solution: Enhanced adsorption and crystallization. Chemosphere, 2019, 221: 683-692.

[10] Linbo Qian, Sining Liu, Wenying Zhang, Yun Chen, Ouyang, Da, Lu Han, Jingchun Yan, Mengfang Chen*. Enhanced reduction and adsorption of hexavalent chromium by palladium and silicon rich biochar supported nanoscale zero-valent iron. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2019, 533: 428-436.

[11] Jingchun Yan, Yun Chen, Linbo Qian, Weiguo Gao, Da Ouyang, Mengfang Chen*. Heterogeneously catalyzed persulfate with a cumgfe layered double hydroxide for the degradation of ethylbenzene. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2017, 338: 372-380.

[12] Yun Chen, Jingchun Yan, Da Ouyang, Linbo Qian, Lu Han, Mengfang Chen*. Heterogeneously catalyzed persulfate by CuMgFe layered doubleoxide for the degradation of phenol. Applied Catalysis A: General, 2017, 538: 19-26.

[13] Da Ouyang, Jingchun Yan, Linbo Qian, Yun Chen, Lu Han, Anqi Su, Wenying Zhang, Hao Ni, Mengfang Chen*. Degradation of 1,4-dioxane by biochar supported nano magnetite particles activating persulfate. Chemosphere, 2017, 184: 609-617.

[14] Linbo Qian, Wengying Zhang, Jingchun Yan, Lu Han, Yun Chen, Da Ouyang, Mengfang Chen*. Nanoscale zero-valent iron supported by biochars produced at different temperatures: Synthesis mechanism and effect on Cr(VI) removal. Environmental Pollution, 2017, 223: 153-160.

[15] Linbo Qian, Wenying Zhang, Jingchun Yan, Lu Han, Weiguo Gao, Rongqin Liu, Mengfang Chen*. Effective removal of heavy metal by biochar colloids under different pyrolysis temperatures. Bioresource Technology, 2016, 206: 217-224.

[16] Jingchun Yan, Weiguo Gao, Mingang Dong, Lu Han, Linbo Qian, Paul Nathanail, Mengfang Chen*. Degradation of trichloroethylene by activated persulfate using a reduced graphene oxide supported magnetite nanoparticle. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2016, 295: 309-316.

[17] Jingchun Yan, Lu Han, Weiguo Gao, Song Xue, Mengfang Chen*. Biochar supported nanoscale zerovalent iron composite used as persulfate activator for removing trichloroethylene. Bioresource Technology, 2015, 175: 269-274.

[18] Mengfang Chen, Linbo Qian and Jingchun Yan. Groundwater permeable reactive barrier: theories, design and applications. Series of Contaminated Land Remediation, Science Publisher. 2017.

[19] Mengfang Chen, Lu Han and Fei Luo. Soil and groundwater risk assessment methodologies for contaminated land. Series of Contaminated Land Remediation, Science Publisher. 2017.

Representive Projetcs

[1] Research and Integrated Demonstration of Pollution Remediation and Redevelopment Technologies for Gas Works in Beijing, Tianjing and Hebei Province and Surrounding Areas. National Key Research and Development Programme (No. 2018YFC1803000), 2019/01-2022/12.

[2] Optimized iron-biochar composites for degrading halogenated compounds in environmental media: synthesis strategies and reaction mechanisms. International Cooperation and Exchanges of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41761134091). 2018/01-2020/12.

[3] Migration, dispersion and Safety Assessment Modelling of Soil Nanomaterials. National Key Research and Development Programme (No. 2017YFA0207003). 2017/01-2021/12.

[4] Remediation Mechanism of Advanced Oxidation Processes Using Nano-Magnetite/Biochar Activated Persulphate for Degrading 1,4-Dioxane in Groundwater. General Programme of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41471404). 2014/01-2018/12.

[5] Groundwater Remediation Technologies and Demonstration Using Nanoscale Zero Valent Iron Composites. Science and Technology Service Network of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KFJ-EW-STS-091). 2015/01-2017/12.

[6] Ecological Risk Assessment and Control of Groundwater Contamination from Leakage of a Rare Earth Tailing Dam. Public Welfare Programme of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (No. 201309005). 2014/01-2016/12

[7] Equipment and Demonstration of Physio-Chemical and Biological Remediation of Readily Mobile Organic Solvents of Contaminated Sites. The National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2013AA06A208). 2013/01-2016/12.