Worldwide, we are facing a water crisis with 17 countries, home to 1/4 of the global population, facing extremely high water stress. Demand for water is increasing and water resources are becoming scarce as a result of climate change, population growth, demographic changes and urbanisation. To meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for water (SDG 6), rate of progress needs to double.

Nanofiltration membranes play an important role in the production of safe drinking water, with the ability to filter out several trace organic compounds, heavy metals and pollutants at a lower energy demand than reverse osmosis. Selectivity and resilience of nanofiltration membranes are critical metrics in drinking water production as they directly relate to customer risk, while water productivity and technology robustness are important to water utilities as they define capital cost, asset lifetime, and maintenance frequency.

Polymeric nanofiltration membranes are widely used however, surface fouling, constraints on cleaning methods, mechanical breakage, and low membrane permeabilities make this an expensive solution, that can risk resilience in water supply putting customers and the operating water utility at risk. An increase in organics levels in raw water linked to climate change, population growth and tighter regulations on water quality, has also increased the strain on drinking water production by nanofiltration.

This project seeks to develop and test a 2D advanced nanomaterial coating to create a resilient and more sustainable ceramic membrane nanofiltration technology for low-carbon drinking water treatment with a lower total cost of ownership. It leverages the expertise of Molymem Limited (University of Manchester spin out, developing a novel nanomaterial coating to be applied as a 2D advanced material structure for membrane filtration), specialists in ceramic filtration systems from Xtract Filtration Systems Limited, and academic experts in in the science, engineering and management of water at Cranfield University's Water Science Institute.

The advanced ceramic nanofiltration technology will have major USPs in preventing/minimising fouling, decreasing the cleaning cycle, the ability to cope with fluctuations (temperature and pH) and lowering flux (pressure drop across the medium) for water treatment. All of these are important factors when it comes to increasing lifetime, improving sustainability and most importantly building an improved total cost of ownership model for users in the water industry.