Project description
Out with the bad and in with good thanks to improved water purification membranes
Wastewater treatment is intended to 'clean' water, removing harmful substances for safe discharge into surface or ground water for reuse. Plants are facing increasing challenges posed by high quantities of man-made chemicals such as antibiotics, hormones, fertilisers and pesticides. These chemicals are difficult to remove and dangerous in high quantities, contributing to public health concerns including antibiotic resistance and early puberty. SMART has developed specialised membranes for water purification that remove such compounds with an efficiency better than 85 %. Now they are transferring the lab membrane technology to a prototype water purification system to be tested in a Swiss hospital. Success in this difficult environment should speed market penetration, providing safer water for people and our ecosystems.
Objective
Due to the many limitations of the conventional water treatment technologies, we are witnessing alarmingly high levels of
micro-pollutants (MPs) such as antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, estrogens, and pharmaceuticals, which enter our surface
and groundwater ecosystems. In SMART project we propose to use novel catalytic membranes that have shown promising
results in removing a variety of highly persistent organic compounds, with a removal efficiency of over 85%. Our
membranes exhibit a unique ability to wirelessly generate surface charges under the influence of magnetic fields, light,
and mechanical vibrations. These surface charges generate highly reactive radicals, which possess an excellent degradation
tendency towards a wide range of problematic industrial pigments, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, estrogen, pesticides,
herbicides, and disinfectants. The goal of this project is to further enhance the water purification performance of our
membranes by optimizing their composition, their shape and pore sizes, as well as the operational parameters, such as
flow-rate and residence time. We plan to integrate these improved membranes within a portable water treatment reactor
and study its performance in eliminating a variety of MPs from contaminated wastewaters. This prototype will then be
used to conduct an extensive pilot-study at a Swiss hospital. Additionally, we plan to use our water purification prototype
to provide demonstrations to our potential customers, and highlight the potential of our technology to remove over 85%
of these problematic MPs, in a cost and energy efficient manner.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistry
- engineering and technologychemical engineeringseparation technologiesdesalinationreverse osmosis
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotHost institution
8092 Zuerich
Switzerland