Toward greener membranes with 3D printing technology

Yanar, Numan; Son, Moon; Park, Hosik; Choi, Heechul

doi:10.4491/eer.2020.027

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…[86] The high price of the existing 3D printers, particularly highresolution ones, like poly-jet type printers, is another drawback of current technology. [34] One issue that serves as a limitation to the adoption of 3D printers at industrial scale is the lack of broad assessments to explain its economic feasibility in terms of the total production cost for water and wastewater treatment applications. For instance, Thomas et al [15] concluded that the commercial-scale application in membrane distillation is limited by the cost of fabricating 3D-printed components.…”

Section: Commercialization Of 3d-printed Membranes and Its Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The implications of 3D‐printed membranes for water and wastewater treatment and resource recovery

et al. 2022

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It is widely acknowledged that three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing will revolutionize many industries. However, the broad implications of 3D printing on water treatment membranes are not appreciated. 3D printing will transform the traditional membrane fabrication methods, reducing costs and industrial waste from manufacturing processes, with substantial benefits to treatment performance. In particular, 3D printing provides a high potential for radical decentralization. Remote communities, hospitality resorts, military bases, and oil and gas extraction operations could significantly benefit from the on-site fabrication of membrane units tunable to their specific wastewater challenges. Acute drinking water contamination events, like those associated with toxic by-products from algal blooms, chemical spills, forest fires, and extreme weather, cause adverse health effects on humans and shutdowns of piped water supply. 3D printing of customized membranes provides an opportunity for a fast response to such disastrous events. These membranes could be ready for installation within hours, with the vendor's role more akin to a software company installing a patch than the traditional approach, with major considerations for hardware availability, timeline, and supply chain. Despite these clear and potentially transformative advantages, 3D printing of membranes is not a panacea; countless aspects need to be taken into consideration for the successful implementation of this emerging technology. The full deployment of 3D-printed membranes in water and wastewater treatment can be achieved by extending the variety of printable materials, improving the speed and resolution of printing, creating nanoscale pores, reducing the fabrication costs, and improving the mechanical properties of the resulting membranes.

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Section: Commercialization Of 3d-printed Membranes and Its Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[9,33] The environmental friendliness of 3D printing as an alternative method to current membrane fabrication techniques was studied as well. [34] In this review paper, we emphasize the recent progress of 3D printing technology for membrane separation, focusing on water and wastewater decentralized systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implications of 3D‐printed membranes for water and wastewater treatment and resource recovery

et al. 2022

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“…Moreover, the thermal performance of BNNTs can be further benefited by employing thermal membrane systems such as for membrane distillation and pervaporation. By also considering the advantages and the recent boost in 3D printed membranes [ 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 ], BNNTs should also be considered for that field.…”

Section: Perspectives On Key Membrane Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boron Nitride Nanotube (BNNT) Membranes for Energy and Environmental Applications

et al. 2020

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Owing to their extraordinary thermal, mechanical, optical, and electrical properties, boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have been attracting considerable attention in various scientific fields, making it more promising as a nanomaterial compared to other nanotubes. Recent studies reported that BNNTs exhibit better properties than carbon nanotubes, which have been extensively investigated for most environment-energy applications. Irrespective of its chirality, BNNT is a constant wide-bandgap insulator, exhibiting thermal oxidation resistance, piezoelectric properties, high hydrogen adsorption, ultraviolet luminescence, cytocompatibility, and stability. These unique properties of BNNT render it an exceptional material for separation applications, e.g., membranes. Recent studies reported that water filtration, gas separation, sensing, and battery separator membranes can considerably benefit from these properties. That is, flux, rejection, anti-fouling, sensing, structural, thermal, electrical, and optical properties of membranes can be enhanced by the contribution of BNNTs. Thus far, a majority of studies have focused on molecular simulation. Hence, the requirement of an extensive review has emerged. In this perspective article, advanced properties of BNNTs are analyzed, followed by a discussion on the advantages of these properties for membrane science with an overview of the current literature. We hope to provide insights into BNNT materials and accelerate research for environment-energy applications.

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“…Previous studies employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate the effect of spacer shapes, including nonwoven, woven, middle layer, and fully woven spacers [ 21 ]; 30°, 45°, 62°, and 90° spacer filaments [ 22 ]; hairy spacers [ 23 ]; saw-tooth spacers [ 24 ]; zigzag spacers [ 25 ]; multi-layer spacers [ 26 ]; and sinusoidal spacers [ 27 ], on the membrane performance. In addition, with the boost of 3D printing, the design of spacers was affected [ 28 , 29 ], i.e., column-type spacers [ 30 ], triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) spacers [ 31 ], symmetric perforated spacers (1-Hole, 2-Hole, and 3-Hole) [ 32 ], and honeycomb spacers [ 33 ], were fabricated by 3D printing. In addition, 3D printing provides material selection for spacer fabrication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically Polarized Graphene-Blended Spacers for Organic Fouling Reduction in Forward Osmosis

et al. 2021

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In membrane processes, a spacer is known to play a key role in the mitigation of membrane fouling. In this study, the effect of electric polarization on a graphene-blended polymer spacer (e.g., poly(lactic acid), PLA) for organic fouling on membrane surfaces was investigated. A pristine PLA spacer (P-S), a graphene-blended spacer (G-S), and an electrically polarized graphene-blended spacer (EG-S) were successfully fabricated by 3D printing. Organic fouling tests were conducted by the 5-h filtration of CaCl2 and a sodium alginate solution through commercially available membranes, which were placed together with the fabricated spacers. Membranes utilizing P-S, G-S, and EG-S were characterized in terms of the fouling amount on the membrane surface and fouling roughness. Electrostatic forces of EG-S provided 70% less and 90% smoother fouling on the membrane surface, leading to an only 14% less water flux reduction after 5 h of fouling. The importance of nanomaterial blending and polarization was successfully demonstrated herein.

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Toward greener membranes with 3D printing technology

Cited by 19 publications

References 53 publications

The implications of 3D‐printed membranes for water and wastewater treatment and resource recovery

The implications of 3D‐printed membranes for water and wastewater treatment and resource recovery

Boron Nitride Nanotube (BNNT) Membranes for Energy and Environmental Applications

Electrically Polarized Graphene-Blended Spacers for Organic Fouling Reduction in Forward Osmosis

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