Jeff St. John 10 15 09, 2:23 PM

• 0
• Email
  • Recipient's Email Your Email Send me a copy

  • Thank you!
    Your article has been sent.

  • Error
    There was a problem sending your article.

• Share

Mussel Mucus Leads to Membrane De-Fouling Breakthrough?

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to Michael Wedlake as CEO of Advanced Hydro Inc.; his title is strategic project manager. Dileep Agnihotri is CEO of the company.

Taking a lesson from mucus-producing shellfish, University of Texas at Austin researchers have developed a coating made from dopamine – yes, the same chemical that makes our brains happy – that keeps membrane-based filters clean and running longer.

It sounds too weird to be true, but Advanced Hydro Inc. says it works, and they're hoping to take it to the $4 billion-a-year membrane filtration chemical cleaning market.

Michael Wedlake, the company's strategic project manager, described the polydopamine technology Wednesday at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin, Texas. The technology was spun out of UT Austin in 2008, after researchers there found that mussels excrete a mucus that's very good at coating the membrane filtration systems increasingly common in desalination, food and beverage plants and other places where filtration is needed.

Cleaning out membrane filter systems can take up to 9 percent of the overall costs of the systems, and often, they can get so fouled that they must be replaced, he said.

But the polydopamine mixture that Advanced Hydro has developed "creates a very nice, non-stick surface" that can prevent much of that fouling, he said. While the researchers who have developed it haven't pinpointed why it works the way it does, it has led to reduced fouling in lab tests, he said.

The company has raised a $500,000 seed round from the Quercus Trust and 21Ventures (see Green Light post). It's also involved in two pilot projects – a desalination project in South Padre Island, Texas and a refinery waste water project in Houston - and has two more planned, one with the Navy to test its ability to keep shipboard filters clean, Wedlake said.

Anything that can bring down the price of desalination could see some popularity in an industry that's expected to triple in the next 10 years, according to Lux Research (see Green Light post). IBM is among the companies looking into new membrane technologies to help manage the world's water resources, which are increasingly under pressure from growing populations and pollution (see IBM Dives Into Smart Water Management).

And no, Wedlake said – putting polydopamine in filters that treat drinking water won't lead to a massive rise in "Awakenings" events among the populace.