Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/724419
Water. desalination + reuse xxxx -xxx 20xx subject 35 A plastic that conducts? New polymer has very special properties Bold claims • Polymer product behaves like a ceramic in a water filtration context • Extremely hydrophilic, able to produce large quantities of water at lower levels of energy • The wide pH tolerance is "effec- tively from zero to 14" • Resistant to fouling from oil, organics, and bacteria Behind the hype • Manufacturer has high hopes that it will make a big impact in the membranes market • Wants to bridge the gap between polymer and ceramic membranes • Claims that product is priced like a polymer and behaves like a ceramic Water Planet is positioning its new line of membranes, PolyCera, as bridging the gap between polymer membranes and ceramics. The polymer from which the membranes are made has unique electronic properties: it can be conduct- ing, semi-conducting, or insulating. Water Planet is not exploit- ing the electrical conductivity of the material, but rather its unique electronic properties which make it, in a water filtration context, behave like a ceramic. "It's very hydrophilic. Water just wants to get into this materi- al, and it's easy to push though, even with very small pores. It's incredibly robust, very wide pH tolerance, effectively from zero to 14, very high temperature tolerance. It's a unique combina- tion of material properties for a polymeric membrane, a plastic material where it's both hydro- philic and robust," says Water Planet chief executive Eric Hoek. The combination makes the material more permeable, mean- ing that it requires less energy to generate water through the filter, and it's more fouling-resistant. "Bacteria or oil droplets or natu- ral organic matter or effluence organics from the wastewater, they don't stick to this polymer the way that they stick to other conventional organic materials or polymers," Hoek says. The material behaves more like a metal or a metal oxide, or a ceramic material, compared to a conventional hydrophobic polymer, making it more re- sistant to fouling from bacteria, oil, and organics. The mate- rial's robustness means that it can withstand tough chemical cleaning regimes, whether hot water, caustic substances or acid, without the performance degrading and the membrane having to be replaced. "With commodity poly- mer membranes, you foul them, you clean them, you go through a number of cycles and at some point you start to get holes in them and they need to be replaced," says Hoek. The alternative to conventional polymer membranes, ceramics, "just cost too much, that's their Achilles heel. Ceramics are a high performance niche mem- brane technology," says Hoek. The company believes that PolyCera exists in the space between polymer and ceramic membranes, and "hopes to break through in a really big way. We have a membrane product which is more af- fordable like the commod- ity polymers, but it has that combination of hydrophilicity and robustness like a ceramic. So we have an opportunity to bridge that huge divide in the marketplace right now". 0 CFU Tests over six weeks and in differing operational conditions consistently recorded zero colony- forming units. "We are destroying these water quality standards," says Water Planet chief executive Eric Hoek. Page 36