Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are using grants from the NATO Science for Peace program and the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) to scale up a method to achieve high recoveries in desalination by reverse osmosis (RO). Jack Gilron, senior scientist and adjunct professor in the environmental engineering unit of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR), and Eli Korin, professor in the department of chemical engineering, have developed a method to exploit the finite kinetics of membrane fouling processes by periodically changing the conditions leading to membrane fouling before it can occur. In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Colorado and the Hashemite University of Jordan, the group will develop the technology and set up pilot facilities to produce approximately 120 m3/day each at desalination sites in Israel and in Jordan. “The process will be tuned to reduce brine volumes to 50% to 33% of those generated in conventional RO,” Gilron explains. “This greatly reduces the environmental burden and improves the economics of the inland desalination process.” BGN Technologies, Ben-Gurion University’s tech transfer company, and the Ashkelon Technology Incubator (ATI) Cleantech Group have formed a start-up company, Reverse Osmosis Technologies, to commercialize the technology, which has already attracted an initial investor.

Source: Chemie.De

Posted August 26th, 2009 under Tech Transfer

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