MemClean

Sustainable membrane performance for drinking water preparation and wastewater treatment.

Worldwide population will reach 8.1 billion by 2025 and clean accessible water is essential for all. The grow thin water demand will drive the development of new membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment combined with smart water technologies to secure a sustainable water supply.

In the last decades membrane processes have established themselves worldwide as key separation processes for drinking water preparation and wastewater treatment. A trend which started with reverse osmosis for seawater desalination in the 1970ies and which accelerated with membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment since 2000. Sweden has taken a leading position in this field highlighted by the membrane units for drinking water preparation at Lackarebäck and the membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment under construction at Henriksdal.

The key challenge of membrane technology is to counter-balance the inevitable fouling of the membranes resulting in a decline of membrane performance over time. Current membrane fouling prevention methods are mainly based on operator´s experience.

About the project

The project will combine self-learning automatic control of the membrane performance with sustainable fouling prevention methods, e.g. “green” cleaning protocols. Information gathered from in-line and real-time measurements of fouling will be used to determine the optimal method to maintain/regain membrane performance. This approach will reduce chemical and water consumption of membrane plants and thus improve plant revenues.

The project covers key partners in water processing value chain and its foreseen that the results will not only be used in Swedish water industry but also scaled-down to fit the needs of rural areas of Africa/Asia.

Project Period: 2018

Total funding : 626,000 SEK
Funding agency: VINNOVA