Bath seeks cleaner, greener water option
15 Feb 2025
Chemical engineers at the University of Bath have claimed a world first with the creation of a sustainable plant-based nanofiltration membrane that contains no fossil fuel-derived materials or toxic solvents.
Made from cellulose and lignin, their polyelectrolyte membrane (PEM) design is reported in ACS Sustainable Chemical Engineering to filter water dyes of varying molecular weights to represent different pollutants.
They argue the technology could be used in fields including water purification and wastewater treatment, replacing methods that use fossil fuels in their production.
Royal Society Newton Fellow in Bath’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and co-author of the paper, Dr Olawumi Sadare, said: “The potential of this technology to reduce environmental impacts is particularly crucial, especially in light of upcoming EU legislation to curb the use of toxic solvents, and the proposed bans on fluorinated polymers in membrane manufacturing.
“Another desirable aspect of the membrane we have created is that you can control its thickness as you wish to tune the permeance characteristics, or how selective it is.”
The growing focus on sustainability and water quality has boosted investment in membrane science in the UK.
Recently Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence, based at Aston University, received more than £13 million for its MEMetic water filtration project.
Pic: Shutterstock (Vink Fan)
