Research Interest :

· Membrane technology for seawater treatment

· Aerobic and anaerobic membrane bioreactors for wastewater reuse

· Biofilm/Biofouling control

· Deep learning (including GenAI) based technologies for membrane and water systems

Featured Funded Projects :

· B Xu, M Ding, KM Tan, RL Tan, TCA Ng, LY Lee, N Hiroshi, N Terutake, S Bae, HY Ng, Sustainable High-Flux Ceramic Membrane Operations for Seawater Pretreatment under Diverse Algal Bloom Intensities, Water Research, 123879, 2025.

· B Xu, N Fan, Z Li, G Xu, Q Su, Z Yuan*, HY Ng*, Making Waves: Beyond Adoption of Foundation Models - Charting Opportunities and Challenges of LLM-Agents for Intelligent Wastewater Treatment Plants, Water Research, In Press, 2025.

· Z Li, B Xu*, A Hao, SK Hong, HY Ng*, Synergistic Fouling Mitigation of Co-contaminants of Ultrafine Microplastics and Organic in Seawater Pretreatment Using Ferrous Iron/Peracetic Acid, Water Research, 286,124227, 2025

· B Xu, Z Li, Y Yang, G Wu, X Tang, Y Li, Z Wu, Q Su, X Shi, Y Yang, T Rui, L Wen, HY Ng, Evaluating and Advancing Large Language Models for Water Knowledge Tasks in Engineering and Research, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2025, 12, 3, 289–296

· B Xu, Q Su, Y Yang, S Huang, Y Yang, X Shi, KH Choo, HY Ng, CH Lee, Quorum Quenching in Membrane Bioreactors for Fouling Retardation: Complexity Provides Opportunities, Environmental Science & Technology, 2024, 58, 30, 13171–13193.

· Q Su, C Domingo-Felez, M Zhi, M Jensen, B Xu*, HY Ng*, B Smets. Formation and Fate of Reactive Nitrogen during Biological Nitrogen Removal from Water: Important Yet Often Ignored Chemical Aspects of the Nitrogen Cycle, Environmental Science & Technology, 2024, 58, 51, 22480–22501

· B Xu, X Lu, Y Fu, L Diao, H Liang, S Bae, HY Ng, J Ma, Novel use of ferrous iron/peroxymonosulfate for high-performance seawater desalination pretreatment under harmful algal blooms, Water Research, 247, 120758, 2023

· B Xu, QAC Cho, TCA Ng, S Huang, HY Ng, Enriched autoinducer-2 (AI-2)-based quorum quenching consortium in a ceramic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) for biofouling retardation, Water Research, 214, 118203, 2022

· B Xu, TCA Ng, S Huang, HY Ng, Effect of quorum quenching on EPS and size-fractioned particles and organics in anaerobic membrane bioreactor for domestic wastewater treatment, Water Research, 179, 115850, 2020

· B Xu, TCA Ng, S Huang, X Shi, HY Ng, Feasibility of isolated novel facultative quorum quenching consortiums for fouling control in an AnMBR, Water Research, 169, 115251, 2020