New Membranes Improve Brackish Water Desalination
California-based company Active Membranes has developed a new membrane technology that enhances the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the desalination process. Designed to effectively remove salts and other contaminants from brackish water, this novel membrane addresses two common problems associated with current desalination methods—scaling and fouling on reverse osmosis (RO) membranes..
RO membranes are commonly used to desalinate brackish water or seawater. However, these membranes require frequent backwashing and cleaning due to the buildup of salts and other contaminants, making the process more time-consuming and costly.
With the new membrane from Active Membranes, scaling and fouling will be significantly reduced, and this is made possible by the usage of an electrically conductive coating and low voltage.
Peter Fiske, Executive Director, National Alliance for Water Innovation, explained how their electrically active membranes are better compared to conventional RO membranes:
“The active membrane is coated with a conductive material. Once the membrane is rolled into a spiral-wound module, the membrane itself is electrically activated. Not only does the electric charge on the membrane surface improve the flow characteristics of water through the membrane, but it also helps reduce the accumulation of materials that can block the surface. And the electrical signal itself gives information about the health of the membrane. Conventional RO membranes are completely passive; this one is active and informative.”
A recent field pilot held in Ventura County tested these new membranes against conventional ones. Results showed that the active membranes registered a 20% to 30% improvement in water production.
With the positive results and growing demand for cost-effective and efficient desalination and water treatment, Active Membranes aims to improve the treatment processes not just in the United States but also across the world.
Arian Edalat, Co-Founder and CEO, Active Membranes, said:
“Our goal is to make desalination cost-effective, less complex, and easier to adopt so that every community, big or small, can afford and sustainably benefit from it.”
He added:
“The demand we’re seeing has prompted us to start yet another round of investment to scale up our production capacity and overall bandwidth to expand our initial commercial install-base.”
This work was initially performed at UCLA and was federally funded. It later gained momentum with the inclusion of the Active Membranes team.
Read the full article here to learn more about the new electrically active membranes.
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