King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Adnan Qamar

Noreddine Ghaffour

TorOve Leiknes

Luca Fortunato

Disclosed herein are spacers having baffle designs and perforations for efficiently and effectively separating one or more membrane layers a membrane filtration system. The spacer includes a body formed at least in part by baffles that are interconnected, and the baffles define boundaries of openings or apertures through a thickness direction of the body of the spacer. Alternatively or additionally, passages or perforations may be present in the spacer layer or baffles for fluid flow there through, with the passages and baffles having a numerous different shapes and sizes.

Fouling resistant membrane spacers

Provided herein is a universally applicable biofouling mitigation technology using acoustically excited encapsulated microbubbles that disrupt biofilm or biofilm formation. For example, a method of reducing biofilm formation or removing biofilm in a membrane filtration system is provided in which a feed solution comprising encapsulated microbubbles is provided to the membrane under conditions that allow the encapsulated microbubbles to embed in a biofilm. Sonication of the embedded, encapsulated microbubbles disrupts the biofilm. Thus, provided herein is a membrane filtration system for performing the methods and encapsulated microbubbles specifically selected for binding to extracellular polymeric substances (EFS) in a biofilm.

Growing community of inventors

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Adnan Qamar