EAPSI: Early, Non-Invasive Detection of Microbial-Induced Degradation in Reverse Osmosis Membranes Using MRI

随着淡水在下个世纪变得更加稀缺，传统的水资源将需要补充以满足需求。这将主要使用反渗透(RO)膜来实现，由于其低能耗，反渗透膜可以从盐水或废水中提取清洁的水。然而，反渗透膜很容易被微生物生长降解，在降解变得不可逆转之前，我们检测细菌诱导的损伤的能力有限。本项目将开创一种新的、非侵入性的方法，利用磁共振成像(MRI)技术识别反渗透膜上的细菌生长。这将首次允许在生长的早期阶段对这些膜上的微生物活动进行非侵入性检测，那时膜损害仍然是可以防止的。为了进行这项研究，首席研究员、使用核磁共振技术测量氧气的专家将与西澳大利亚大学的迈克尔·约翰斯博士合作，后者是将核磁共振技术应用于反渗透膜的专家。下个世纪，由于储量减少、污染、气候变化引起的天气模式变化以及人口增长，淡水供应减少，需要补充传统水源以满足需求。在过去的半个世纪里，反渗透(RO)膜由于相对较低的能源消耗而成为净水和废水或盐水分离的黄金标准。反渗透膜表现出的一个重要问题是对生物污染的敏感性，即细菌生长引起的降解，当问题被发现时，这通常是不可逆转的。在过去的几十年里，医学研究人员设计了一种使用磁共振成像(MRI)测量氧气浓度的新方法，并将其用于组织和肿瘤中的氧气定量。由于细菌的生长与耗氧量有关，本项目的研究人员将重新使用这种氧气测量技术来识别反渗透膜中的生物污染。由于核磁共振是非侵入性的，这将首次在不进行破坏性采样的情况下早期检测微生物生长，使工业膜操作员能够在损害变得不可逆转之前对膜进行处理。该奖项由东亚和太平洋夏季学院项目资助一名美国研究生的暑期研究，由NSF和澳大利亚科学院联合资助。

As fresh water becomes more scarce in the coming century, traditional water sources will need to be supplemented to meet demand. This will primarily be accomplished using reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, which extract clean water from saltwater or wastewater, due to their low energy consumption. However, RO membranes are easily degraded by microbial growth, and we have limited ability to detect bacterial-induced damage before the degradation becomes irreversible. The present project will pioneer a new, non-invasive method for identifying bacterial growth on RO membranes using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology. This will allow for the first time the non-invasive detection of microbial activity on these membranes in the early stages of growth, when membrane damage can still be prevented. To conduct this research, the principal investigator, an expert in oxygen measurement using MRI, will collaborate with Dr. Michael Johns, an expert in applying MRI to RO membranes, at University of Western Australia. As fresh water availability decreases over the next century due to dwindling reserves, pollution, altered weather patterns resulting from climate change, and population growth, traditional water sources will need to be supplemented in order to meet demand. Over the last half century, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, which isolate clean water from wastewater or saltwater, have become the gold standard of water purification due to relatively low energy consumption. A significant problem exhibited by RO membranes is susceptibility to biofouling, or degradation due to bacterial growth, which is often irreversible by the time the problem has been identified. In the last few decades, medical researchers have devised a new method for measuring oxygen concentration using Magnetic Resonance Imagine (MRI), and have used it to quantify oxygen in tissues and tumors. Because bacterial growth is associated with oxygen consumption, the researcher of the present project will repurpose this oxygen measurement technique for the identification of biofouling in RO membranes. Because MRI is non-invasive, this will permit for the first time the early detection of microbial growth without destructive sampling, allowing industrial membrane operators to treat their membranes before damage becomes irreversible. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Australian Academy of Science.