SBIR Phase I: Low-cost Ceramic Membranes for Drinking Water Treatment

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将展示一种新的陶瓷膜制造方法的可行性，这种方法可以使膜制造成本降低80%。膜过滤正成为去除饮用水中颗粒物和污染物的一个重要方面。陶瓷膜组件的最新发展抵消了高制造成本，使陶瓷在某些市场上与聚合物竞争。通过开发新的制造技术，陶瓷膜组件的成本将显着降低，使陶瓷比目前使用的聚合物膜的优势。在水处理中增加膜的使用将为90%从社区供水系统获得水的美国人带来更安全的饮用水。对于采用陶瓷膜的水系统，将有更少的成本，更少的维护和更少的系统完整性故障的关注。此外，该计划开发的技术将适用于所有食品，饮料，化学品，制药，能源，废水和水应用的所有陶瓷微滤和超滤膜。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibilty of a novel approach to the fabrication of ceramic membranes that could result in an 80% reduction in membrane fabrication costs. Membrane filtration is becoming an important aspect in the removal of particulates and contaminates from drinking water. Recent developments in ceramic membrane modules that offset the high manufacturing costs have allowed ceramics to be competitive with polymerics in some markets. By developing the novel fabrication technique, the cost of ceramic membranes modules will be significantly reduced, giving ceramics an advantage over the currently employed polymeric membranes. Increased membrane usage in water treatment will lead to safer drinking water for the 90% of Americans that receive their water from community water systems. For the water systems that employ ceramic membranes, there will be less cost, less maintenance and fewer concerns of system integrity failures. In addition, the technology developed in this program would be applicable to potentially all ceramic microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes for all food, beverage, chemicals, pharmaceutical, energy, wastewater, and water applications.