Video: Getting Off The Water Grid, With Membranes

By Kevin Westerling,
@KevinOnWater

Membranes have long been proven effective for a variety of applications, but certain other applications pose difficulties for the technology, mostly due to O&M concerns. Next-generation membranes, however, have the ability to overcome traditional challenges — just in time to meet requirements for greater contaminant removal and sustainability.

On the heels of the announcement of a collaboration to bring novel, robust membranes to the industrial market for the treatment of difficult wastewaters, I interviewed the CEO of membrane manufacturer ZwitterCo, Alex Rappaport, to gather more details.

Because of their non-clogging design, the ‘superfiltration’ membranes are ideally suited for tough-to-treat contaminants common within agriculture, food, landfills, and bioprocessing. But the real win could be for the overall environment, as these membranes have the potential to foster greater adoption of reuse, nutrient recovery, and bioenergy production via anaerobic digestion, which produces digestate that can be expensive to dispose of or treat.

Furthermore, new regulations and environmental factors demand more sustainable solutions. Below, Alex describes the multitude of drivers — both internal and external — affecting the wastewater treatment market.