Future Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Conventional reverse osmosis membranes are commonly made with a polymer-based material and improvements in the technology have been limited since the late 1990s *1+, especially in permeability. Naturally water will try to go through an osmosis process, this is the opposite of what is required for reverse osmosis desalination, therefore a minimum pressure of 26 Bar is required to overcome the osmotic pressure and push the salt water through the membrane to induce reverse osmosis. The low permeability values for polymeric materials require a high pressure to get the water flux required. A high energy input is required to provide these pressures and in developing countries this energy costs too much to make the process justifiable. Therefore a reduction in cost is required to get this technology into the areas required and the most effective way to do this is to reduce the amount of energy required in the process. There is currently a number of new membrane designs that are being researched that will reduce the amount of energy required, some of the more promising designs are discussed below. The design for the test rig must take these novel designs into account to provide a facility for the future. There are a number of criteria that must be fulfilled for a material to be considered for use as a reverse osmosis membrane. The main factor is the effect on the fluid flow which is altered by the permeability of a material. A higher material permeability reduces the amount of energy required to get the desired flow rate and therefore reduces the cost to produce the desalinated water. Selectivity is the process of allowing molecules to pass through the material, for most membranes the molecule rejection is directed by reducing or increasing the space for specific molecules to pass through. Water molecules are smaller than Sodium Chloride and therefore water will pass through and the salt will be rejected. In the majority of cases this selectivity process requires optimisation to determine the size of the membrane pores to ensure that the salt is rejected whilst also keeping the size large enough to allow water to pass through easily, if the pore size is too small the pressure required will increase. Research has been conducted concerning cases where Zwitterion ions are introduced to increase the selectivity of selected membranes, this will be discussed later. Membranes with better selectivity should show better results for desalination. In the fabrication of membrane devices, the clamping process usually introduces mechanical loading laterally on the membrane and causes its mechanical failure and loss integrity. Even without failure, the resulting tensile deformations (strain) could potentially affect its water purification performance [2]. For this reason future designs must have good mechanical properties to compete with current designs.

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Carbon-nanotube Membranes
Permeability is highly increased compared to conventional reverse osmosis membranes [1]. Reduction in energy required to produce required flow rate. For some systems the energy required could be reduced by 30-50% [1]. Results from different experiments have shown higher flow velocity than expected from the Haagen Poiseuille equation which governs macro scale hydrodynamics [1]. Reasons for these results are not currently known and more research must be carried out to develop the technology further. If this technology is developed it may provide a new method of reverse osmosis desalination that will reduce cost and therefore the overall cost of fresh water production.

Zwitterion Functionalized Carbon Nanotube/Polyamide Nano-composite Membranes

Are essentially the same as carbon nanotube membranes above however include Zwitterion ion bunches. A Zwitterion is a neutral molecule with a positive and negative electrical charge, although many charges may be present. These Zwitterion ions block the NaCl ions and not the water therefore enhancing the selectivity of carbon nanotube membranes [3]. Research has been carried out into this technology that shows promising results for permeability and mechanical stability.

Graphyne Nanoweb Membranes

Recently research has been carried out into the use of 2D nanoweb-like graphyne membranes that provide promising results. Graphyne can be thought of as linking benzene rings by strings made of N-acetylenic linkages, these linkages can vary in length (N = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ) and therefore make the graphyne group very versatile [4]. Varying the length of these linkages increases the space for molecules to pass through therefore these nanowebs are good Figure 1 - Diagram of Graphyne Structure for different applications of water purification, including ultrafiltration. 2|Page

For values of N<3 the geometric area is too small to allow water to pass through. Membranes with larger pore openings (N = 3-6) correspond with pore diameters of 2.8, 5.4, 7.0 and 8.6 , these values show good filtration properties as they reject salt ions [4]. Larger pore openings (N>6) allow for too much space and therefore the salt rejection rate becomes very poor. Computational experiments have shown that graphyne membranes are superior to polymer-based membranes in terms of mechanical stability. Water permeability is found to be higher than standard polymer-based membranes.

Biomimetic RO membranes
The incorporation of aquaporins in membranes is being investigated due to excellent water transport properties of biological membranes. Membranes that include Aquaporin Z proteins have been reported to show superior water transport efficiency relative to conventional reverse osmosis membranes [5] [1]. Initial permeability tests have been carried out testing polymer vesicles by stopped flow light scattering experiments. The results showed at least an order of magnitude improvement in permeability compared to commercial membranes [5] [1]. So far a salt separation test has not been reported, but extremely high salt rejection is expected because the aquaporins functional biological performance is to only allow the passage of water molecules [1]. So far there are a number of problems with identification of support materials, understanding the resistance to membrane fouling, and even identification of an appropriate range of operation conditions. Before these designs can be developed these unknowns must be found. Aquaporin is a Danish company that is developing these membranes for practical use. The company has recently been awarded a patent on the method of fabricating membranes with aquaporins [1]. This patent unfortunately does not disclose any numerical data involving flux or salt rejection properties, but it does report information about concentration polarization and severe fouling.

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Future Reverse Osmosis Membranes and the Industry

As can be seen from the information above there are a number of new membrane designs that could improve the water industry, however none of these are currently in use. The reason for this is that problems arise when trying to scale up the product. Current membranes are designed to include large surface areas by forming cartridges. Currently none of the future designs discussed are at the stage of full scale testing and many have not been tested as single membrane sheets. More testing must be conducted to ensure the materials work as predicted and that the membranes can be adapted into cartridges without substantial deformation. Deformation of the materials is a major challenge facing the industry as the membranes must be adapted into cartridge form without causing tensile deformation that can potentially affect membrane performance. More research must be performed to develop these technologies further to ensure that they operate to full industrial standards and can be adapted into cartridge form.

Future Reverse Osmosis Membranes and Rig Design

As the test facility that is being developed is to be used for future research then it must be designed to facilitate these new membrane designs. All designs that are discussed are assumed to be tested as individual flat sheets as is currently found in industry. The only alteration between current and future membranes is the permeability and therefore the pressure required. For this reason the pump that supplies the membrane must have an adjustable pressure output. The minimum pressure allowed corresponds with the osmotic pressure of typical seawater which is 26 bar, due to practical implications it is more likely that the aim . The maximum pressure should be around 70 bar; this allows for current membranes to be tested and will provide the option of extra pressure if high pressure tests are required.

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