High Performance Forward Osmosis Membrane Element

Forward Osmosis (FO) is a promising technology for wastewater treatment applications. FO-based treatment does not require external pressure, can use lightweight components, and has low propensity to foul. Yet, the biggest obstacle to the use of FO processes is the low level of performance of the current commercial FO membranes. This project will use the novel high-flux and high-rejection FO membrane developed by Porifera, scaling up the membrane area, and incorporating it into a membrane module. The project will benchmark the membrane performance in the module, and deliver a module to NASA for further testing in NASA-specific applications.

FO-based treatment processes have direct relevance to NASA's efforts to create technologies for long-term sustainability in space missions, specifically for treating grey water and even black water generated by the crew during space flight. Moreover, NASA's Sustainability Base program incorporates the forward-osmosis based greywater recycling effort (run by Dr. M. Flynn at ARC) that would benefit directly and immediately from the results of this project.

FO-based water treatment could have important applications in the marketplace. Currently, there is an enormous unfilled need (more than 2 Billion gallons/year) in the produced water market from oil and gas drilling, and FO could fill that niche with a simple, economical, and sustainable solution. Other industrial applications of FO range from food and beverage industry use to auxiliary power generation from Pressure-retarded osmosis processes.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.