2W ITech LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 20e

Description

Water management is not only crucial to meet the needs of growing population and expanding industrialization, it also significantly affects the future of the water-energy nexus- Large volumes of water produced from the oil and gas operations through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing present both localized management challenges and potential opportunities for beneficial reuse- Hence, efficient water treatment technologies that can potentially save energy, cost and most importantly handle chemical laden high saline water mixed with organics and biologics is critical for sustainable industrial growth of petroleum industry- This program will utilize forward osmosis, an emerging membrane based technology that uses natural osmosis as driving force to treat the highly contaminated produced water- Next generation high flux thin film nanocomposite membrane, fabricated via a proprietary molecular layer-by-layer fabrication method, will be utilized in combination with an award winning switchable polarity solvent draw solute to create a forward osmosis (FO) platform technology that is capable of easily transported and installed at remote sites-