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GENERAL INFORMATION

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.