Innovate UK awards £700,000 self-cleaning graphene membrane grant

Membrane technology could reduce energy costs by up to 90%

Graphene membrane technology could reduce energy costs by up to 90%

G2O Water International, a US-based graphene innovation and application company, has won a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK for the development of low cost, self-cleaning graphene-coated membranes.

The project which was granted under Innovate UK's 'Creating smart products from smart materials' programme aims to develop a low cost, self-cleaning coating technology based on functionalised graphene.

The patented technology applies a graphene coating to membranes, manufactured by third parties, which dramatically increases the performance of the membrane. It also allows membranes to be used in new applications and end markets where fouling currently prevents their use. The technology has the potential to reduce energy costs in the water and environmental industry by up to 90%, said InnovateUK.

The technology has already been demonstrated successfully by G2O in lab-scale tests. The aim of the project is to produce a smart filter membrane for use in environmental remediation which will be evaluated by Sellafield, the company responsible for decommissioning the UK’s nuclear legacy.

The project will translate the lab-scale work into a working, robust, reliable manufacturing process which can be scaled-up to enhance the performance of existing filter membranes. The coating will be formulated and validated by the consortium for deployment in a number of different applications, with the resultant smart product having the ability to be taken to market and readily applied to improve the performance of a broad range of industrial processes.

G2O will be working with AIM-listed Haydale Graphene Industries and the Centre for Process Innovation to investigate the supply of graphene materials and process scale-up, and with Sellafield to evaluate its performance with nuclear effluent.

G20's chief executive, Tim Harper, said: “Graphene has the potential to be a transformative technology in environmental remediation, whether providing low cost drinking water or cleaning up environmentally hazardous substances. After two rounds of independent assessments of the technology, its applications and the business itself, the approval from Innovate UK validates both the game changing nature of G2O’s technology, as well as the strength of our partners who will assist us in scaling up. We look forward to Sellafield being a long term customer.”