2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Reverse osmosis membranes for resource recovery from seawater

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20H02449
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 26030:Composite materials and interfaces-related
Research Institution	Shinshu University
Principal Investigator	Endo Morinobu 信州大学, 先鋭領域融合研究群先鋭材料研究所, 特別栄誉教授 (10021015)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	藤澤一範信州大学, 先鋭領域融合研究群先鋭材料研究所, 准教授(特定雇用) (00724634) モレロス・ゴメスアーロン信州大学, 先鋭領域融合研究群先鋭材料研究所, 特任教授 (00793746) 手島正吾信州大学, 先鋭領域融合研究群先鋭材料研究所, 特任教授 (10502015) 竹内健司信州大学, 学術研究院工学系, 准教授 (20504658) Cruz Rodolfo 信州大学, 先鋭領域融合研究群先鋭材料研究所, 特任教授 (30597878) 林卓哉信州大学, 学術研究院工学系, 教授 (80313831)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	逆浸透膜 / 資源回収 / カーボンナノチューブ / 海水淡水化
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The use of concentrated wastewater (brine) from desalination plants to recover scarce resources from it and return them to desalination costs is promising. Robust reverse osmosis (RO) membranes capable of concentrating brine more than three times as much as raw water through high-pressure reverse osmosis are needed. Therefore, we aimed to develop an efficient concentration system using a nano-composite RO membrane of carbon nanotubes and polyamide, which is expected to have high pressure resistance, for the purpose of high concentration of seawater and recovery of valuable resources. Using the high-pressure resistant RO membrane, circulation concentration experiments were conducted under ultrahigh pressure (up to 12 MPa). As a result of circulation concentration tests using brine as raw water, the salt concentration could be concentrated up to 13%, and the concentration ratio of Li was confirmed to be 3.7. This result will also contribute to the conservation of the marine environment.
Free Research Field	工学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	海水淡水化時に排出されるブライン処理は大きな問題となっており、RO膜を用いた濃縮による資源回収は環境的視点でも社会的に意義がある。また、本研究によってCNTを複合したロバスト性ナノ複合RO膜による有価物回収の可能性を示したことは、学術的にも大変有意義である。