Abstract
Water and energy are crucial resources for humans. Current energy and water demands are on the rise and it is necessary to find new avenues to obtain these resources. Osmotic power is an increasingly well-studied form of energy. Our research is on focused on pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) because it is the most prominent way of generating osmotic energy. Past applications of PRO have largely ended in failure due to limitations of the membrane. Our research is focused on develo** new membranes that can generate commercially viable osmotic power. The power generated from the PRO process can compensate for the high energy consumption in the desalination processes. In this project, we have successfully fabricated membranes that are strong (i.e., high maximum tensile stress and high burst pressure), possess high water permeability as well as high salt rejection of over 95% (i.e., low salt permeability) through direct phase inversion and interfacial polymerization. We have achieved a peak power density of 12 W/m2 which is higher than 3 W/m2. This shows that our membrane can generate commercially viable energy. We have outperformed the early membranes developed for power generation. PRO is especially applicable in Singapore which relies heavily on desalination for potable water. To the best of our knowledge, we have synthesized the strongest inner selective hollow fiber thin film composite PRO membrane.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank of our mentor Dr Wan Chunfeng, Professor Chung Tai-Shung Neal from NUS Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well as our teacher mentor Dr Teh Yun Ling for their continuous support throughout this journey. Additionally, this research study is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Republic of Singapore, under its Environmental and Water Technologies Strategic Research Programme and administered by the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office (EWI) of the PUB. This research work was funded by the projects entitled “Development of 8 inch Novel High Efficiency Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) Membrane Modules towards Potential Pilot Testing and Field Validation” (USS-IF-2018-1) and NUS grant number of R-279-000-555-592. Special thanks would be given to Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation (START) Centre, Singapore for their kind help.
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Yi, C., Sutong, Y., Canzeng, L., Chunfeng, W. (2021). Membrane Synthesis for Commercially Viable Osmotic Power Generation by Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO). In: Guo, H., Ren, H., Kim, N. (eds) IRC-SET 2020. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9472-4_48
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9472-4_48
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