Design and Build of Low-Rate Initial Production Line for Energy-Efficient Wastewater Processing

Water is a critical resource in drought-prone California. Treating industrial streams (such as wastewater and food and beverage water processing) has historically been a hurdle because traditional methods such as thermal evaporation or high-pressure systems consume massive amounts of energy, carry high operating costs, and require large footprints. Porifera’s proprietary forward osmosis technology addresses this gap. Instead of relying on heat or pressure, Porifera’s systems harness the power of osmosis, a natural process that gently extracts clean water across a specialized, semi-permeable membrane. To process these challenging streams at a commercial scale, Porifera packages several membrane packets together to form a series of compact membrane modules, which are then assembled into full water treatment systems. Although several pilot tests of these systems were successful, widespread commercial adoption of this technology was previously hindered by large footprints and prohibitive costs associated with small membrane modules.

This project scaled up Porifera’s manufacturing capabilities by designing and building an automated low-rate initial production line for its large-format membrane modules. These larger modules provided identical processing capabilities as previous models but in a smaller footprint, while also reducing membrane module costs. The project successfully met its goals and objectives in building an automated manufacturing line capable of producing reliable membrane packets daily. By optimizing supply chains, obtaining quality-controlled injection molds, and customizing the robotic equipment assembly line, the team achieved high manufacturing yields under strict quality control standards.

The expedited production and deployment of this technology will directly benefit California investor-owned utility ratepayers by decreasing peak electricity demands associated with water reuse, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the industrial sector.