The business for filtration, separation and purification using membranes is currently a 17 billion dollar industry. A variety of mechanisms exist to utilize membranes that are able to filter out hazardous, inorganic, organic and other undesirable particles from a liquid source. However, current porous membranes suffer from low permeability, difficulty removing hazardous organic materials, issues with controlling pore size and a propensity for organic materials to cause degradation of the membrane, commonly referred to as fouling. The current processes of nano-filtration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration and particle filtration fail to overcome these deficiencies in an efficient and cost effective way.
Current processes to fix the shortcomings of porous membranes include applying higher pressure to the process feed, resulting in higher energy costs and increased degradation of the membrane; the introduction of harsh chemical treatments, which result in higher regulatory and material costs as well as an increased risk of health and safety issues; implementation of multi-pass filtration systems, which results in higher costs to purchase the extra filtration materials, increased required space, as well as increased energy costs for each additional pass; and having additional cleaning and maintenance procedures, which results in higher costs for material, labor and time lost in use.