Multifunctional membrane that can generate electricity while purifying wastewater into drinking water
New membrane that combines water filtration membrane and conductive polymer, water quality improvement and continuous power generation with simple operation method
Purification of various water resources such as rainwater, seawater, groundwater, river water, sewage, and wastewater into potable or usable water is a high-energy process. So what if you could generate electricity in the process of purifying water? In the limelight, a domestic research team has developed a multi-functional membrane that can purify wastewater into drinking water and generate electricity at the same time.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Seok Jin Yoon) announced Dr. Ji-Soo Jang’s team from Electronic Materials Research Center and Prof. Tae-Gwang Yoon’s team from Myongji University Department of Materials Science and Engineering. (President Yoo Byung-jin) We have jointly developed an advanced membrane that can continuously generate electricity while supplying drinking water from various water resources such as sewage/wastewater, seawater, and groundwater.
The developed “sandwich” membrane consists of a porous membrane that filters water at the bottom and a conductive polymer that generates electricity at the top. Membranes are designed to purify wastewater by controlling the direction of water flow. Water flowing perpendicular to the membrane generates a direct current as ions move horizontally. Membranes can remove over 95% of contaminants below 10 nm (100 millionth of a meter) in size. As a result, microplastics and heavy metal particles in wastewater can be removed, and only 10 μl (microliter) of water can be used to generate electricity continuously for more than 3 hours.
Membranes have no size limitation and can be manufactured using a simple printing process, resulting in high commercial viability due to low manufacturing costs and short processing times. The research team is currently conducting follow-up research to generate electricity while improving the water quality of wastewater to the level of drinking water by developing membranes for actual factories. Dr. Ji-Soo Jang of KIST said of the research: ”
Original: Power generation and wastewater filtration at the same time
Than: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
