AFFIRM
There is a strong societal need to anticipate threats to the environment that may impact on public health. Consequently there is a need to develop, understand and optimise environmental technologies that will play an important role in protecting the public from future environmental threats. Water quality is threatened by a growing number of contaminants entering water supplies as a result of human activity, including medicines, veterinary drugs, fragrances and cosmetics. A major challenge in water treatment is to improve existing processes and to design new ones to remove a large number of chemically very different contaminants. These contaminants are an emerging threat and membrane separation processes are an important technology in their management. However, biofouling is a key impediment and the tenacious nature of biofilms is at the core of the problem. This five-year programme is investigating the role of biofilms in the fouling of nanofiltration membranes and will develop strategies to enhance the removal of such biofilm. The results of the project will advance the understanding of important mechanisms in biofouling development and consequently increase the effectiveness and reliability of nanofiltration design and operation. Ultimately this will have wider implications for the effective treatment of water treatment processes and biofouling control in general. Previous work on nanofiltration biofouling have highlighted the complexity of the microenvironment in which the biofilm is formed. The challenge of this project is to devise an approach that recognises that multiple overlapping mechanisms contribute to biofilm formation.
The Project is funded by the European Research Council under FP7
