The Biomimetic Watermembrane Research project will develop a new membrane technology based on bionanotechnology and material technology for the production of ultra pure water. The technology copies Nature´s methods where water channels in living cells filtrate and transport water.
The project will establish the membranes to be passed by the water and the openings in the membranes constituting channels for the water. The membranes will be constructed by various membrane materials, and the openings are made from natural proteins. Passing the openings is a selective process as only pure H2O can pass - and ions and particles can not. Pressure difference forces the water through the membranes and the openings.
The membrane system can be used for any clean water treatment, but the project aims at professional users of ultra clean water, e.g. manufacturers of chip and flat screen panels and pharmaceutical companies. The worldwide theoretical value of the market is approximately 300 bill USD. The system is new and can potentially replace some of the existing methods for production of ultra pure water, which are more expensive and complicated.
The project will develop the methods and processes which enable large scale production of the membrane technology. Target is to produce a functioning 20x20 cm membrane, and this will form the future basis of Aquaporin's marketing of the up-scaled industrial product.
The industrial Biomimetic Watermembrane project partners are:
- Aquaporin A/S, Peter Holme Jensen
- DTU - Technical University of Denmark, Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Gunnar Jonsson
- DTU - Technical University of Denmark, Dept. of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Niels Freese and Oliver Geschke
- DTU - Technical University of Denmark, Department of Physics, Claus Hélix Nielsen
- Novozymes, Thomas Schäfer
- University of Southern Denmark, MEMPHYS Center for Biomembrane Physics, Ole G. Mouritsen