Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWSMagdalena Jablonska from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS was honored with the Best Poster Award in the field of water desalination at the third International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology on April 5th, 2017, in Gran Canaria, Spain. There, 200 experts and manufacturers of reverse osmosis membranes and water cleansing technologies met to present their latest research findings in talks and poster sessions.
The chemical engineer and doctoral candidate Magdalena Jablonska presented her research findings on ‘Antifouling Modification of Reverse Osmosis Membrane Modules by Functional Coatings on Feed Spacers’ on a poster.
The extraction of drinking water from seawater or brackish water by reverse osmosis is very energy efficient compared with other desalination procedures. However, the polymer membranes used for this are susceptible to deposits of soluble suspended solids and microorganisms – called biofouling. This impairs the efficiency of reverse osmosis. Magdalena Jablonska is working together with researchers from Fraunhofer IMWS in cooperation with Lanxess GmbH on methods to reduce membrane fouling: Several plasma- and wet-chemical technologies are combined with each other to separate a thin, hydrophilic, and charge-neutral layer on the surface of the membrane feed spacer – a spacer in the osmosis module.
The surface is first treated with a plasma and functionalized with oxygen atoms. This plasma treatment enables the formation of a polymer barrier layer, to which the macromolecules and microorganisms have difficulty adhering due to the suppression of physical and chemical interactions. An antifouling effect is achieved.