State of the art - Aquaporins
Aquaporins are crucial for life in any form and they are found in all organisms e.g. bacteria, plants and higher animals including humans. Aquaporins facilitate rapid, highly selective water transport, thus allowing the cell to regulate its volume and internal osmotic pressure according to hydrostatic and/or osmotic pressure differences across the cell membrane. (Agre et al., 1998, Borgnia et al., 1999). Since the late 1990’ties, research in aquaporins have intensified. Studies of water transport in various organisms and tissues suggests that aquaporins have a narrow pore preventing any large molecule, ions (salts) and even proton (H3O+) and hydroxyl ion (OH-) flow while maintaining an extremely high water permeation rate; ~ 106 - 109 molecules H2O per channel per second (Agre et al., 1998, Borgnia et al., 1999, Tajkhorshid et al., 2002). Hence, the high permeation rate of aquaporin suggests 1 g of aquaporin is capable of transporting from around 0.7 to 700 litre of water/second!, depending on the hydrostatic and/or osmotic pressure applied as the driving force.
State of the art – Industrial Membranes
Membrane technology is a rapidly developing technology. Filtration and separation can represent as much as 80% of the operating costs for many industries, and membrane separations are gaining acceptance as a cost effective option in many production settings. The performance of membranes is determined by two parameters, the selectivity and the flow (permeation rate) through the membrane. Although technologies become increasingly efficient, there is no water membrane technology today with a 100% selectivity efficiency, i.e. which can filter and purify water completely. Today membrane processes are used in a wide (and increasing) range of applications. Substantial research and technology development is therefore carried out within preparation, characterization, evaluation and modelling of different types of membranes and membrane separation processes (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, electro dialysis etc.). This includes the design and manufacture of new types of synthetic membranes as well as their use in a variety of applications to biological membranes and the transport of materials through these membranes.