After decades of development, thin film composite reverse osmosis membranes sit comfortably atop the world of water purification as the most attractive option for desalination in nearly all sea water and brackish water applications. Advances in polyamide membrane chemistry arguably receive the most credit for the success of reverse osmosis – and why not? An RO element’s separation is only as good as its membrane. Traditionally, the same could be said for water productivity, but with today’s advanced membranes, an element’s productivity is governed as much by its design as it is by polyamide chemistry. Membrane research is expected to continue bearing fruit, but future gains from element and system design are expected to outweigh those of polyamide chemistry in the coming years. This talk will take experts and non-experts alike through the path of commercial reverse osmosis membrane development to date and, considering end-user expectations and thermodynamic limitations, describe what advances are expected to be most important in the coming years.
Dr. Funk received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. He then began working in the Process R&D group at Dow Water & Process Solutions developing mass transport models for reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration membrane manufacturing. Subsequently, he spent several years working on breakthrough RO technologies and development of new hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes. More recently, his role has involved scaling-up new process technologies from lab to pilot to full-scale manufacturing, as well as process advancements for element fabrication and fundamentals of membrane reaction engineering. In his spare time, Dr. Funk serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Membrane Society.