This paper makes a statistical analysis of the membrane separation projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) from 2000 to 2019, including the types of the projects funded, the project names, the leading scholars of the projects, the amounts of funds, the supporting entities, and the regions of the related research groups. It is shown that during these 20 years:(1) the NSFC has funded 920 projects in the field of the membrane separation, with a total funding of 54,684 million yuan, and the number and the funding of the projects have shown an increasing trend year by year. (2) Beijing, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Liaoning are the five major membrane separation research areas in China. (3) The number of projects and the funding for the membrane water treatment technologies, such as the ultrafiltration, the nanofiltration, the reverse osmosis and the forward osmosis, have increased rapidly after 2010, while the growth of the membrane reactors is relatively slow. (4) From the perspective of the key projects and the major projects, the research directions in recent years have mainly focused on the hydrogen membrane separation technology and the carbon dioxide membrane separation technology in the gas separation field, and on the drinking water treatment and the wastewater regeneration technology in the water treatment field.

membrane separation  /  project funding  /  funding status  /  research hotspot  /  National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)