February
27 - March 2, 2011Asilomar Conference Grounds
Pacific Grove, California USA
CO-CHAIRS
| Benny Freeman University of Texas Center for Energy & Env. Res. 10100 Burnet Rd., Bldg. 133 Austin, TX 78758-4445 Phone 512-232-2803 E-mail: freeman@che.utexas.edu |
James E. McGrath Macromolecules & Interfaces Institute Virginia Tech 2108 Hahn Hall (MC 0344) Blacksburg, VA 24061 Phone 540-231-5976 E-mail: jmcgrath@vt.edu |
Judy Riffle Department of Chemistry Virginia Tech 2018 Hahn Hall (MC 0212) Blacksburg, VA 24061 Phone 540-231-8214 E-mail: judyriffle@aol.com |
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INVITATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION
The Division of Polymer Chemistry of the American Chemical Society is sponsoring the second of what we believe will now be a biennial meeting on "Advances in Materials and Processes for Polymeric Membrane Mediated Water Purification", at the Asilomar Conference Center from February 27 - March 2, 2011. Relatively little basic research has been recorded since the development of the interfacially produced polyimide membranes and composite reverse osmosis nanofiltration (RO/NF), perhaps 30 years ago. New chemistries and processing techniques to provide more durable membranes and enhanced processing methodologies are beginning to be reported.
Energy efficient water purification is one
of the grand challenges of this century, offering high impact opportunities
to improve the lives of billions of people around the world, facilitate
economic development in many sectors, and contribute to the manufacture of
critical materials ranging from pharmaceuticals to microelectronics.
Polymer membranes are widely used in water purification applications such as
microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis.
The accelerating demand for purified water for a wide range of applications
is spurring increasing use of membranes for these applications. A key issue
in improving the performance of membranes is the design, fabrication, and
deployment of next generation membrane materials for a variety of
separations.
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together a broad range of
stakeholders in the area of membranes for water purification. One
objective is to establish a constructive dialogue between government,
academic and industry representatives so that a robust, shared vision of the
opportunities and challenges facing this field can be formulated.
Another objective is to bring together leading research scientists and
engineers in this field from all over the world to foster networking that
can stimulate collaborative research to solve the most challenging problems
in the field today. The final objective of this workshop is to provide
a series of state-of-the-art presentations outlining the status of membrane
materials for various separations critical for the purification of water and
to set forth the challenges that must be resolved to reduce next generation
water purification systems based on membranes to practice.
