top of page

ARTICLE

A biomimetic membrane for desalinating seawater on an industrial scale



The treatment of seawater, including its large-scale desalination, is a major challenge for our society. Reverse osmosis is one of the most widely used techniques for the desalination of water. Some of the membranes currently used are artificial channels of water inserted into lipid layers. But their large-scale performance is not satisfactory under real osmotic pressure and salinity conditions.


An international team, involving researchers from KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and Politehnico di Torino (Italy) and coordinated by scientists from the Institut Européen des Membranes (CNRS/ENSC Montpellier/University of Montpellier), has developed a hybrid strategy, which consists of combining a polyamide matrix and artificial water channels into a single structure. Their membranes, which take the form of a sponge superstructure, have been tested under industrial conditions and outperform conventional membranes. Their flow is 75% higher than that observed with current industrial membranes and they require about 12% less energy for desalination. Their work is patented and was published on November 9, 2020 in Nature Nanotechnology.


Reference

Biomimetic artificial water channel membranes for enhanced desalination

Maria Di Vincenzo, Alberto Tiraferri, Valentina-Elena Musteata, Stefan Chisca, Rachid Sougrat, Li-Bo Huang, Suzana P. Nunes & Mihail Barboiu


Contact

Mihail Barboiu

Nanosystems Group

University of Montpellier

Comentários


  • RSS

Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter

Get the nanotech news that matters directly in your inbox.

Thank you registering!

Follow us on social media

  • LinkedIn
  • X
  • Youtube
  • Tumblr
  • Facebook

Oct 2, 2024

Tokyo, Japan

International Conference on Powder Technology and Particle Science (ICPTPS 2024)

Oct 6, 2024

Pittsburgh, PA, USA

MS&T24

Oct 16, 2024

Brno, Czech Republic

Nanocon 2024

bottom of page