Imperial College of Technology: Breakthrough discovery of ultra-thin polyamide nano-films

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Researchers at Livingston Group have published new insights into membrane technology, paving the way for future research and industrial applications.

Imperial College of Technology: Breakthrough discovery of ultra-thin polyamide nano-films

The ultra-thin polyamide nanofilter, also known as the membrane, is a very thin filter consisting of a polyamide film and its supporting layer.

Nanoscale filters are an important part of the water purification process, such as desalination, filtering impurities and making clean drinking water. Although they have been used in industry for decades, few have studied their nature and function. The Livingston Group of Imperial College London recently published an article on Advanced Materials, focusing on this issue.

Improve industrial desalination process

A new study funded by BP International Advanced Materials Center (BP-ICAM) (funded $100 million) is studying the basic science of membranes to improve the efficiency of the desalination process in offshore areas and reduce energy use in oil extraction. Thereby improving the efficiency of the entire process.

Typically, the oil and gas industry uses nanofilters to remove salt from seawater on offshore drilling platforms, so low salinity water can be pumped into the reservoir to extract oil reserves. Related studies have shown that the use of low-salinity seawater can increase production compared to saltwater, and the oil and gas industry is also turning to improve desalination.

Dale Williams, senior process engineer at BP, explained: “For our upstream business, we need to use a lot of water to ensure the production of oil and natural gas. The water used is usually seawater, so we must process the seawater before we can inject it. In a well, if you remove most of the salt from the solution, you can wash away more oil from the rock surface."

Sheeteal Handa, BP's deputy director of BP-ICAM, added: "This membrane gives us the opportunity to access seawater and get the low salinity water we need, not only to recover more oil, but also to maximize our operational efficiency. However, the premise is that we must really understand the basic composition and working principle of the polyamide membrane. The BP-ICAM research taught by the Livingston Group is aimed at this problem and timely transmit the information to BP.

The article is from the azom website, the original title is Chemical Engineers Reveal Ground-Breaking Insightinto Ultrathin Membranes, compiled by technology online.

Editor in charge: Yao Chunlin

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