STTR Phase I: Increasing the Efficiency of Membrane Filtration for Drinking Water Purification through the Incorporation of Novel Anti-Biofilm Small Molecules

STTR 第一阶段：通过掺入新型抗生物膜小分子提高饮用水净化膜过滤的效率

• 批准号: 0930480
• 负责人: Eva Garland
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Agile Sciences Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0930480&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Increasing; Efficiency; Membrane

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I Project tests the feasibility of applying Agile Sciences' technology to decreasing or eliminating biofouling on filtration membranes used for drinking water purification. The main obstacle in efficiently applying membrane filtration to provide safe drinking water is the buildup of biofilms on the membrane, or "biofouling". Biofouling not only causes a reduction in throughput, but can also result in uneven flow conditions such that spurts of water carrying contaminants may pass through the membrane, thus introducing these contaminants into the drinking water. The research group of Dr. Christian Melander at NC State University has recently identified a series of small organic molecules that can both inhibit and disperse biofilms of bacteria across bacterial order, class, and phylum. Incorporation of these molecules into filtration membranes has the potential to significantly reduce biofilm buildup, thus greatly improving the efficiency and efficacy of the filtration process. Agile Sciences has licensed the technology developed in the Melander Laboratory, and the scope of this Phase I STTR Project is to develop the methodology necessary to incorporate Agile Sciences' anti-biofilm molecules into filtration membranes while retaining their antifouling properties. Although the availability of safe drinking water is a fundamental human need, exponential population growth as well as the effects of climate change have made drinking water scarce for large portions of the global population. Over 20% of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, and millions of people die each year from diseases attributed to contaminated water. A promising technology for delivering clean drinking water is membrane filtration. However, large-scale application of membrane filtration is hampered by the effects of biofouling. The market size for filtration membranes in the United States alone is estimated to be between $2 billion and $4 billion per year. In addition to providing safe drinking water, filtration membranes are used in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to provide ultra-high-purity water and in treating wastewater. In all these applications, the efficiency of filtration membranes is limited by biofouling. In addition to the aforementioned industrial and health applications, development of a hydrophobic polymer that is resistant to biofouling would represent a substantial contribution to the field of polymer science.

该奖项由 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）资助。该小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目测试了应用敏捷科学技术来减少或消除饮用水净化过滤膜上生物污垢的可行性。 有效应用膜过滤提供安全饮用水的主要障碍是膜上生物膜的堆积，或“生物污垢”。 生物污垢不仅会导致吞吐量降低，还会导致不均匀的流动条件，使得携带污染物的水喷射可能穿过膜，从而将这些污染物引入饮用水中。 北卡罗来纳州立大学 Christian Melander 博士的研究小组最近发现了一系列有机小分子，它们可以抑制和分散跨细菌目、纲和门的细菌生物膜。 将这些分子纳入过滤膜有可能显着减少生物膜的形成，从而大大提高过滤过程的效率和功效。 Agile Sciences 已获得 Melander 实验室开发的技术许可，第一阶段 STTR 项目的范围是开发必要的方法，将 Agile Sciences 的抗生物膜分子纳入过滤膜，同时保留其防污性能。 尽管获得安全饮用水是人类的基本需求，但人口指数增长以及气候变化的影响导致全球大部分人口缺乏饮用水。 世界上超过 20% 的人口无法获得安全饮用水，每年有数百万人死于水污染引起的疾病。 膜过滤是一种有前途的提供清洁饮用水的技术。 然而，生物污垢的影响阻碍了膜过滤的大规模应用。 仅在美国，过滤膜的市场规模估计每年就在 20 亿至 40 亿美元之间。 除了提供安全饮用水外，过滤膜还用于半导体和制药行业，以提供超高纯水和处理废水。 在所有这些应用中，过滤膜的效率受到生物污垢的限制。 除了上述工业和健康应用之外，开发抗生物污垢的疏水性聚合物将对聚合物科学领域做出重大贡献。