Connecticut Technology Medals to Be Awarded to Yale Professor Danbury Technology Business — Connecticut in the Numbers
“Dr. Elimelech’s pioneering research has not only enriched the academic community’s understanding of a highly complex topic, but has also led to innovative approaches to addressing critical environmental issues and generated the growth of an industry,” he said. “ARKA’s unparalleled technological expertise is contributing to our nation’s success across a variety of sectors and creating highly skilled jobs that will attract investment to our state and improve our economy,” Lamont added.
Elimelech’s research and development is in the application of membrane processes, including forward osmosis or FO (for water desalination and reuse), high pressure reverse osmosis or HPRO (for brine concentration and management), and reverse osmosis with low water rejection. salt or LSRRO (for brine management and minimum and zero liquid discharge applications).
HPRO and LSRRO are expected to revolutionize low-energy, low-cost brine management. Gradiant, a North American company specializing in brine management (minimum and zero liquid discharge, MLD/ZLD), is commercializing a variant of LSRRO and FO technologies, called Counter Flow RO (CFRO). The current brine management market is estimated at $11.5 billion.
Elimelech’s innovative work in forward osmosis (FO) has profoundly impacted the desalination and water industry. He co-founded Oasys Water, a company that commercialized ammonia-carbon dioxide FO desalination technology. More than 13 new FO start-up companies have been formed following his pioneering FO research.
In a recent discovery, Elimelech showed that the solution diffusion model, which has been used to describe water transport in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for over 50 years, is fundamentally flawed and proposed an alternative mechanism and theory consistent for water transport. with experimental observations. This discovery has direct implications for the design of high-performance desalination membranes.
In 2021, Elimelech was named Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, the university’s highest academic rank; the first engineering professor at Yale to receive this distinction.
ARKA is a world leader in the design, development, manufacturing, integration and testing of precision optics, telescopes and electro-optical payload systems for defense, aerospace and scientific applications. ARKA’s mission has grown to include innovative communications, software development and data processing capabilities, expanding its reach into new areas of innovation.
