Claus Helix-Nielsen, the Vice President of Public-Private Partnerships for Aquaporin A/S, joins The Water Values Podcast to discuss the state of membrane technology and the Aquaporin A/S forward osmosis membrane. Claus’ depth and breadth of experience will impress you as he provides the history of how these membranes are deployed to provide commercial benefits. Claus also provides unique insight into the research and development process and how funding is such a critical element of technology development.

In this session, you’ll learn about:

The history and uses of reverse osmosis filtration
How desalination is accomplished using membrane technology
The energy required to desalinate seawater using reverse osmosis
Why membrane operators are always concerned about the feed water
What forward osmosis is
The many commercial applications for forward osmosis
How forward osmosis can act as pretreatment for reverse osmosis desalination
How forward osmosis can filter pharmaceuticals and other nano-pollutants
What an aquaporin is
The membrane technology developed by Aquaporin A/S
How technology companies deal with venture capital and funding from an R&D perspective

Resources and links mentioned in or relevant to this session include:

Claus’ bio page on the Technical University of Denmark website
Aquaporin A/S website
Aquaporin A/S management team webpage
YouTube - 99 Seconds for the Future video of Claus and his Aquaporin A/S colleague, Peter Holme Jensen
Wikipedia page for Peter Agre
YouTube video of Peter Agre’s presentation “Aquaporin Water Channels from Atomic Structure to Malaria”
Wikipedia webpage on aquaporins
International Forward Osmosis Association explanation of forward osmosis
HowStuffWorks webpage for reverse osmosis
TWV #040 with American Water’s Dr. Mark LeChevallier where he discusses desalination
TWV #20 with Stewart Environmental’s Forbes Guthrie where he discusses ceramic filters used in industrial applications
Paper titled “Desalination by biometric aquaporin membranes: Review of status and prospects” in the journal Desalination to which Claus contributed as an author

Transcript                                                           

Click here to download the Transcript for Session 71 of The Water Values Podcast.

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