A groundbreaking membrane material developed by Eric Hoek, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Richard Kaner, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of materials science and engineering, has received an international award for innovation. The technology received a Distinction Award for Technology Innovation of the Year at the Global Water Awards, one of the water industry’s largest global conferences, held last month in Seville, Spain.
The new technology holds great promise for cleaning up municipal and industrial wastewaters, in particular, the water that is co-produced during oil and gas extraction. The technology cleans water to a high level of purity so that it can be safely discharged or reused for beneficial purposes. UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property is in discussions on licensing the technology to Water Planet Engineering, a Los Angeles-based water technology startup.
Hoek and Kaner are also members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.
Learn more about their new technology in this story from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
