Membrane Water Filtration System Development

NCMS Project #: 140912

Problem: Reliable supplies of potable water may be the most pressing international issue facing the world today. Since only 1% of the world’s water is available for human use, efforts to increase water availability must include both reuse and generation of new potable water sources.

Benefit: Whether the situation is a global, humanitarian problem or a DoD-specific mission, portable water treatment technology helps preserve life and decrease the logistical difficulties and costs of missions.

Solution/Approach: The DoD in particular has significant force projection costs, depot maintenance, and operational expenses associated with potable water. That makes the DoD the ideal testbed for developing new water treatment technologies. The objective of this project is to develop an easy to use, robust filtration system. In support of the filtration system, the thermoplastic filtration membrane performance will be characterized for treatment of low salinity fresh waters for potable use. The project will identify mechanisms of membrane fouling and optimize filter and system design for surface and ground water applications.

Impact on Warfighter:

• Reduced maintenance costs
• Simpler, quicker, and easier to deploy and set-up units or systems
• Large volumes of safe potable water for deployed or remote fleets
• Enhanced readiness
• Maintenance sustainment in forward operating bases, natural disasters, or infrastructural failures

DOD Participation:

• U.S. Army TARDEC

Industry Participation:

• PPG Industries, Inc.
• NCMS

Benefit Area(s):

• Cost savings
• Repair turn-around time
• Positive environmental impact
• Improved readiness
• Reliability improvement

Focus Area:

• Reliability improvement