(140d) Advanced Membranes for Future Separations Requirements

Today membrane based separation processes find numerous applications in a range of industries e.g.  bioseparations, biomedical devices, water treatment, biomedical devices.  Membranes are attractive as often they are cheaper to operate compared to existing technologies; membrane devices are modular and therefore easy to scale up; they often have a much smaller foot print than competing technologies.  In addition for some niche applications membrane based separations are the only viable technology.

In this presentation, the unique advantages of membranes for liquid separations will highlighted. 

Often, in membrane based separation processes, the properties of the membrane surface that contact the feed stream can have a significant effect on membrane performance.  For example, membrane surface properties have been shown to affect the rate of fouling during processes such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis.  Modifying just the membrane surface has the potential to retain the properties of the bulk membrane material but modify the interactions between components of the feed and the membrane surface.  Research being conducted in our group that focuses on advanced membranes for future separations requirements will be discussed.  In addition, the University of Arkansas recently became a site of the Membrane Science, Engineering and technology center, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.  A major focus at the University of Arkansas is the development of advanced membranes for applications in water treatment.   The importance of obtaining industrial input when developing novel membranes for future separations needs will be highlighted.