Research Update: Liquid gated membrane filtration performance with inorganic particle suspensions

Membrane filtration technology is widely used across several industries. But its efficiency is plagued by fouling, which ultimately deteriorates the membrane’s performance. This paper provides a research update on the biologically inspired liquid-enabled gating mechanism that acts as a novel filtration and separation approach offering reduction in transmembrane pressure (TMP), improved throughput, and reduced fouling. We study the performance of such Liquid Gated Membranes (LGMs) and present their benefits for filtration in the presence of model inorganic (nanoclay particles) fouling. We show over twofold higher throughput, nearly threefold longer time to foul, more than 60% reduction in irreversible fouling, ability to return to baseline pressures after backwashing along with reduction in use of backwash water, and 10%-15% reduction in TMP for filtration of nanoclay particles. Fouling models exhibit not only delayed onset of fouling for LGMs compared to the control but also different fouling characteristics. These results demonstrate the potential of the liquid gating mechanism, which can lead to breakthroughs in membrane technology applications in particle filtration, microfiltration, and ultrafiltration.