AsianScientist (Sep. 15, 2014) – A young startup at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has developed a multi-functional water filtration membrane. Its inventors hope it will render current membranes in the water industry obsolete.
Traditional polymer-based water filtration membranes tend to end up clogged up with what they have filtered out. As a result, biofouling and organic compounds are a huge problem for the $200 billion global water industry.
With the membranes developed by NTU’s Nano Sun, biofouling is greatly reduced as organic material and bacteria are killed and destroyed when they come into contact with the membranes. Any organic material that does not decompose can also be quickly burnt by putting the membrane in an oven heated to 700 degrees celsius, since it is able to withstand high heat unlike traditional polymer membranes.
Additionally, the new membranes allow for an flow rate of at least ten times faster than current water filtration membranes.
Underlying this new invention is a titanium dioxide nanotechnology patented by Nano Sun. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are proven to kill bacteria and to break down organic compounds in waste water with the help of sunlight or ultra violet (UV) rays.
“With more of the world’s population moving into urban cities and generating more waste water, there is a real need for cost-effective technology,” said associate professor Darren Sun, from NTU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who invented the new membrane.
“Traditional polymer-based water filtration membranes are faced with issues such as fouling and high breakage, while the developing countries with high industrial output are generating wastewater which is increasingly harder to treat.”
“What the world needs—and what we have developed—is a breakthrough technology which can turn large volumes of polluted or untreated water into drinking water quickly, safely and at a fraction of the cost,” said Prof. Sun, who has developed various systems that are used in water treatment plants all over the world.
Co-founder and managing director of Nano Sun, adjunct professor Wong Ann Chai, said the applications and implications for their new technology are wide-ranging.
“Apart from our capabilities to improve waste water treatment and desalination plants, multinational companies in the food and beverage industry have also expressed interest in using our technologies in their production processes,” said Prof. Wong, who teaches finance at NTU.
“The scope for our membranes is of benefit to companies in the chemicals, food and biomedical industries.”
Several water agencies in the region and multinational corporations have already indicated interest in the NTU invention, which is now ready for sale in the market.
Nano Sun recently signed deals with PT Pelaksana Jaya Mulia, a large Indonesian company, to provide 10,000 cubic meters of clean water per day. In China, Nano Sun is working with an industrial paper mill in Guangzhou to optimize their wastewater treatment processes, which will lead to savings of S$3 million (~US$2.37 million) over the next five years.
In Singapore, Nano Sun is in discussion with local water agencies and companies which own and operate large-scale energy-efficient integrated power and water reclamation plants, to test bed its innovative technologies.
Nano Sun is also investing heavily into miniaturizing the membranes into products which can be used for household needs as well as humanitarian aid and disaster relief, said Prof. Wong. This could be through a a low-cost water purification water bottle. It also aims to explore other product possibilities such as air filtration, disinfection (bandages) and solar cell industries.
The company is now working to scale up its production of membranes from seven meters per day to 100 meters per day. According to NTU, the two year-old Nano Sun has a valuation of US$80 million.
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Copyright: Nanyang Technological University
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