Membranes in Poland

The second academic center involved into the membrane research in Poland was created in the 60’ties in Szczecin. There Prof. Józef Kępiński initiated research on water desalination and wastewater treatment by dialysis, RO and UF techniques. To spread the knowledge on membrane processes he initiated the series of “Desalination of water” symposia. His co-worker, Prof. Nikodem Chlubek, transferred the work on a membrane distillation and constructed the first system for preparation of flat and capillary porous membranes. Profs Maria Tomaszewska, Antoni W. Morawski, Marek Gryta, Krzysztof Karakulski and Sylwia Mozia have completed and supplemented these ideas.

Research area (Prof. Maria TOMASZEWSKA, Prof. Marek GRYTA, Prof. Sylwia MOZIA, Prof. Krzysztof KARAKULSKI):

• various applications of membrane distillation: deionization of water for power generation, treatment and regeneration of spent solutions from ion exchangers, recovery of hydrochloric acid from post - etching - liquors, production of fresh water from brines, concentration of organic solutions, desalination of geothermal water, separation of effluents from wire productions, concentration of acids (e.g. H₂SO₄, H₃PO₄), etc.

• water and wastewater treatment using microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD), including hybrid membrane systems (e.g. UF-NF, UF-MD),

• recovery of valuable components from water and wastewater using MF, UF, NF, RO and MD,

• oil separation from bilge water using UF,

• water desalination using RO and MD,

• membrane bioreactors: fermentation efficiency improvement, production of 1,3-propanediol, ethanol production from whey in a bioreactor coupled with MD,

• membrane reactors: conversion of KCl into KHSO₄ using MD membrane contactor,

• hybrid systems coupling Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) with membrane separation (e.g. photocatalytic membrane reactors, UV-UF, UV/O₃-UF/NF, UV/H₂O₂-UF, etc.) for water and wastewater treatment (including removal of persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals, etc.),

• hybrid process coupling UF with adsorption on powdered activated carbon for natural water treatment,

• preparation of polymeric flat sheet membranes.

Contact: maria.tomaszewska(AT)zut.edu.pl

marek.gryta(AT)zut.edu.pl

sylwia.mozia(AT)zut.edu.pl

krzysztof.karakulski(AT)zut.edu.pl