GE Audio & Video: Podcasts, Stream GE, On Demand
skip to main contentskip to secondary navigationClick on any phrase to jump to that point in the video.
[[GE Global Research Developments in Water Separations Technology]]
[Hi. I'm Joe Suriano, and I manage the Membrane and Separation Technology team]
[here at the Research Center.]
[We work closely with teams in the Healthcare, Water,]
[and Energy business across the entire filtration spectrum]
[developing advanced membrane separation technologies]
[and applications, from water purification to biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes]
[to gas separations, cell therapy, and military apparel.]
[Today with me I've got Hua Wang and Dave Moore,]
[who are leading the development of two different technologies that we're working on.]
[Now they'd like to share with you some of those important developments]
[that we're doing in these areas. Hua?]
[Hi. My name is Hua Wang. [Hua Wang - Chemical Engineer]]
[I'm leading the effort on the next generation reverse osmosis membranes,]
[[Reverse Osmosis] so my team works closely with GE Water business.]
[The objective is to develop a high performance membrane]
[with higher salt rejection and also higher flux.]
[So simply put, it's high productivity and lower cost.]
[One gallon of sea water, and for typical ocean water,]
[there's 335,000 ppm of salt.]
[So one gallon of ocean water has that much salt.]
[And by using our membrane process, we can essentially remove all the salt from the water]
[so it has a trace amount of salt.]
[This is for drinking water quality.]
[For home application, we use small elements.]
[In a household you use two or three of these elements]
[to meet the typical household demand.]
[And in commercial production you use these large-scale elements.]
[In a larger scale production plant you can have thousands of these elements produce]
[over a hundred million gallons per day of drinking water.]
[Over here is a pilot coating facility.]
[[Membrane Pilot Coater in the Pilot Coater Facility] This is a great tool.]
[It will allow us to look for different membrane chemistry, ]
[different process, and different materials for the next generation membrane material.]
[And now, Dave. >>Thanks, Hua.]
[Hi. My name is David Moore. [David Moore - Chemist] ]
[I've been working on an energy program of functionalizing expanded PTFE.]
[[PTFE - Polytetrafluoroethylene] And our team is taking expanded PTFE]
[which is essentially teflon--teflon like on your pots and pans that makes something nonstick.]
[It's extremely hydrophobic-based material that is chemically inert]
[and also mechanically robust.]
[This is a tape of expanded PTFE which is mechanically expanded]
[in order to make this type of material, an expanded PTFE]
[which can be used in the filtration of different types of aqueous streams. [Water Filtration]]
[However, in order to do that you need to use some type of alcohol]
[in order to pre-wet the material and then flow water through afterwards.]
[So what we've been trying to do is functionalize expanded PTFE]
[such that you don't have to use that isopropanol or a different type of alcohol]
[in order to wet our material.]
[I can show you here with our expanded PTFE some of the properties]
[of expanded PTFE being hydrophobic.]
[I spray this with water, and you can see that the water beads up]
[on top of the expanded PTFE material.]
[So what we've done is develop a chemistry treatment]
[as well as a treatment technology that both, when used in unison,]
[create a permanently hydrophilic expanded PTFE.]
[I'm going to do a little demonstration in order to show the power of both of these--]
[the chemistry as well as the treatment technology.]
[If I spray this with water, ]
[you can see the formation of our GE meatball. [water spraying]]
[Without using both the expanded PTFE coated with the hydrophilic chemistry]
[as well as using the treatment technology, we are not able to get to that final product.]
[We've been able to take this material and convert it into PEEK packs]
[And with this I conclude and say that]
[that gives you a little summary of some of the different types of technologies]
[that we've been working on in the Membrane and Separation Technologies Lab.]
[[Filmed in the Water Membrane & Separation Technology Lab]]
[[GE Global Research - Niskayuna, NY] ]
