1. Title, Journal and Authors
Title: Materials for Next-Generation Desalination and Water Purification Membranes
Journal: Nature Reviews
Authors: Jay R. Werber, Chinedum O. Osuji and Menachem Elimelech
a Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520–8286, USA.
2. Summary
Jay R. Werver et al. review technologies and studies about limitation for current membrane and research direction for next-generation membrane in desalination and water purification system. They summarized state-of-art membranes and inherent limitation for membrane. Trade-off relationship between water permeability and salt permeability of polymer membrane is analyzed. They claim that selectivity is more important when researcher develop the membranes for desalination and water purification system. Although water permeability increases from 3 to 10 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, energy consumption decreases only 2%. By increasing selectivity in membrane, we can reduce additional steps after single pass RO. This can reduce energy consumption more effectively than the advance in water permeability. They proposed that aquaporin, carbon nanotubes, and synthetically designed nano-channels could be candidates for next-generation membranes. However, it is still impossible to fabricate membranes consistently with greater water permeability and selectivity than current membranes.
3. Originality & Creativity
- Water permeability and selectivity for commercialized membranes are compared.
- Research directions for next-generation membrane are proposed.
4. Application to research
- To make a model for water purification system based on membrane technology, we need to know about the state-of-art of membrane technology. Knowing the limitation for membrane technology can give an insight to research directions.
5. Contact
SeungJi Lim (Integrated Ph.D. program)
Environmental Systems Engineering Lab.
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu Gwangju, 500-712, Korea
Phone : +82-10-7935-8845
E-mail : fblsj90@gist.ac.kr