Bioinspired separation systems mimicking plant membrane functions 

Isolation of clean water from industrial waste liquids can be achieved using current commercially available protein-embedded membrane separation technologies. There is potential to build on these types of separation technologies by incorporating additional separation modules with novel separation functions. This type of technological advance is expected to enable these systems to be used to isolate valuable target molecules, in addition to pure water, from industrial wastewater. Examples of molecules relevant to battery and storage grid applications that could potentially be separated from liquid wastes in the future might include borate, cobalt, copper, nickel, phosphorus, lithium, potassium, sodium and zinc. The challenge is bioengineering of components with structural features that can distinguish and selectively separate one type of metal-containing molecule from another. Molecular mechanisms that plants use to achieve these types of separation functions are being tested and reengineered towards creating optimised components for separation of target metal molecules as part of a long-term goal of advancing membrane separation biotechnologies that can support sustainable resource management in the future.  

Format:

• 5 min welcome and introduction by Alix Ziebell, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, ANU 
• 30 min presentation by Caitlin Byrt, Associate Professor, Research School of Biology, ANU
• 15 min Q&A facilitated by Alix Ziebell, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, ANU

About the speaker

Caitlin Byrt is co-Director of Membrane Transporter Engineers (MTE) Pty Ltd and an Associate Professor with the ANU Research School of Biology. Caitlin and Team’s discoveries from studying the function of plant membrane separation proteins are being translated into strategies to build components for precision membrane separation technology advances. The research leading to these discoveries was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and the technology development activities are progressing with support from ANU, CSIRO and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT) through an Agri-Food Collaboration Program grant, and with support from Rio Tinto through a Mining Impacted Water project grant.