Novel Sustainable Forward-Osmosis Seawater Desalination Process - deSalSea

Project summary

The deSalSea project addresses urgent global needs for sustainable freshwater, focusing on advancing forward osmosis (FO) desalination to overcome energy inefficiencies in conventional methods. Key objectives include: developing novel polyzwitterionic draw solutions from sustainable resources, enhancing osmotic pressure, reducing viscosity, and enabling low-energy regeneration. The project also aims to design biomimetic membranes with Artificial Water Channels, targeting a threefold increase in desalination efficiency and 99.5-99.9% salt rejection. By raising the TRLs of DS to 3 and membranes to 6 and integrating them into a lab-scale FO device (TRL 4), the project seeks to demonstrate improved FO performance. The evaluation of energetic, economic and environmental impact will align with SDG 6. deSalSea aims to reduce carbon footprint, enhance sustainability, and ensure clean water access through biobased, recyclable materials and circularity.