STTR Phase I: Active Fouling Resistant Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes

小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)第一阶段项目将开发活性好、耐污染的纳滤(NF)和反渗透(RO)膜。用于微咸水淡化的商用纳滤膜和反渗透膜将通过纳米层的接枝聚合进行表面改性。因此，改性膜将具有优异的防污染性能，并且无需使用苛刻的化学物质即可轻松清洗。膜的改性对渗透通量和盐截留率的影响很小。因此，提出的技术为克服膜污染提供了一种新的方法，膜污染是许多水处理过程中最大的问题之一。拟议的创新是基于商业上可用的产品的膜改进。膜的改性不会显著增加膜的加工成本或最终产品成本。同时，膜制造商可以使用他们现有的膜浇注设备，只需很少的修改，如果有的话。随着美国西部和世界范围内水资源短缺的加剧，以及废水处理要求的提高，拟议的表面改性、耐污染膜将产生广泛的经济和社会影响。

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project will develop active, fouling resistant nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Commercially available NF and RO membranes for desalination of brackish water will be surface modified by graft polymerization of nanolayers. Thus, the modified membranes will possess excellent antifouling properties, and will be easily cleanable, without the use of harsh chemicals. The modification of membranes will have minimal impacts on permeate flux and salt rejection. Thus, the proposed technology presents a new way to overcome membrane fouling, one of the biggest problems in many water treatment processes. The proposed innovation is a membrane improvement based upon commercially available products. The membrane modification will not add significantly to the membrane processing cost or to the final product cost. Meanwhile, membrane manufacturers can use their current membrane casting equipment with little, if any, modification. As water shortages grow worse in the Western US and worldwide, and wastewater treatment requirements increasing, the proposed surface-modified, fouling-resistant membranes will have broad economic and social impacts.