BIOMIMETIC MEMBRANES AND USES THEREOF
A liquid membrane system is disclosed in the form of a biochannel containing bulk liquid membrane (BLM), biochannel containing emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), and biochannel containing supported (immobilised) liquid membrane (SLM), or a combination thereof, wherein said liquid membrane system is based on vesicles formed from amphiphilic compounds such as lipids forming a bilayer wherein biochannels have been incorporated and wherein said vesicles further contain a stabilising oil phase. The uses of the membrane system include water extraction from liquid aqueous media by forward osmosis, e.g. for desalination of salt water.
1 . A liquid membrane system in the form of a bulk liquid membrane (BLM) containing a biochannel, an emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) containing a biochannel, or a supported (immobilised) liquid membrane (SLM), containing a biochannel,
wherein the liquid membrane system comprises vesicles, said vesicles being formed from one or more amphiphilic compounds, said amphiphilic compounds forming a bilayer into which the biochannels have been incorporated,
and wherein said liquid membrane system further comprises a stabilising oil phase that comprises squalene, squalane or a mixture thereof.
2 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 1 , wherein said biochannel is an aquaporin water channel.
3 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 1 , wherein the biochannel is selected from the group consisting of boron nitride nanotubes, carbon nanotubes, amphiphilic pore forming molecules including the transmembrane channel molecules beta-barrel pores such as alpha-hemolysin and OmpG, FomA, and VDAC; the transmembrane peptide pores alamethicin, valinomycin, and gramicidin A including derivatives thereof and synthetic peptides; ion channels, and ion-selective ionophores.
4 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 1 , wherein the amphiphilic compounds are lipids.
5 . The liquid membrane system according claim 1 , wherein the biochannels are present in a ratio of 1% to about 70% relative to the vesicle surface area.
6 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 1 which is contained or immobilised in a contactor module.
7 . The liquid membrane system of claim 6 , wherein the contactor module is selected from the group consisting of a flat sheet module, a hollow fibers separation module and a spiral wound separation module.
8 . The liquid membrane system of claim 6 , wherein the contactor module is a two module hollow fiber supported liquid membrane contactor module or a liquid cell extra-flow membrane contactor module.
9 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 1 which is contained or immobilised in a porous support layer.
10 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 2 which is capable of extracting water from liquid aqueous media by forward osmosis.
11 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 10 , wherein the liquid medium is salt water and the membrane system is used for desalination of salt water.
12 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 10 , wherein said forward osmosis process utilizes salt water as the feed solution and a CO 2 /NH 3 aqueous solution as the draw solution, and where elimination of the dissolved CO 2 and NH 3 gases is effected through heating to about 58° C.
13 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 10 , wherein the water is pure water.
14 . The liquid membrane system according to claim 2 , wherein the liquid medium is a dialysate resulting from haemodialysis and the membrane system is used in re-extracting water from the dialysate resulting from haemodialysis.
15 . A method for extracting pure water from an aqueous liquid media comprising contacting one or more liquid membranes according to claim 2 with an aqueous liquid medium thereby extracting pure water by forward osmosis.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the aqueous liquid medium is salt water and the membrane system is used for desalination.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said forward osmosis process utilizes salt water as the feed solution and a CO 2 /NH 3 aqueous solution as the draw solution, and where elimination of the dissolved CO 2 and NH 3 gases is effected through heating to about 58° C.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the liquid medium is a dialysate resulting from haemodialysis and the membrane system is used in re-extracting water from the dialysate resulting from haemodialysis.