Frost & Sullivan has awarded the 2012 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation to Aquaporin, the developer of first-of-its-kind biomimetic water filtration membrane under the trademark name, Aquaporin Inside.
Aquaporin Inside allows the filtration of water from different sources such as brackish water, sea, waste, ground and surface to produce water with the required quality for a variety of applications. The Aquaporin Inside membrane features a robust biological protein dubbed ‘Aquaporin’ that is integrated into the pores of a uniquely designed bilayer membrane. This protein is capable of restricting the passage of pollutants such as detergents, salts, dissolved gases, DNA, proteins, minerals, virus, bacteria and even protons, while allowing water to pass freely.
Aquaporin Inside membranes consume 70% lesser energy when compared to competitive membrane filtration technologies for filtering the same quantity of water. They are ideal for use in seawater desalination applications as they can work at very low pressures. Besides filtering water, Aquaporin Inside membranes are capable of collecting particular chemicals, in accurate concentrations, from water, enabling them to fulfill the growing requirements for ultra pure water.
Aquaporin intends to establish a manufacturing facility to produce the membranes using a roll-to-roll industrial process. Until today, the company is the only one successfully manufacturing commercially feasible biomimetic membranes for filtering water. It is possible to considerably reduce the production costs of these membranes by manufacturing them on a large scale. The company has a strong intellectual property portfolio with over 28 granted patents and numerous patent applications. At present, it has teamed up with key partners from different industry sectors to develop tailored solutions for their specific needs.
Abhisek Ghosh, a Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, stated that with better energy efficiency, water flux and high filtration effectiveness, Aquaporin Inside membranes are much better than competitive reverse and forward osmosis membranes. Moreover, Aquaporin Inside membranes offer a 10% saving in operation and maintenance costs, making them the ideal filtration membrane for industrial users.
Source: http://www.frost.com