Awards

Faster, cleaner, better: revolutionary water treatment

Jeff Zehnder — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:15:28 +0000

Faster, cleaner, better: revolutionary water treatment Jeff Zehnder Thu, 07/17/2025 - 13:15

Jeff Zehnder

Anthony Straub (r) with PhD student Kian Lopez in a lab.

Anthony Straub is making revolutionary advances in water purification for life on Earth and in space.

Using nanoscale membranes—thinner than 1/100th the width of a human hair—Straub has developed a technology that could significantly improve conventional water treatment, microchip production, and desalination.

His efforts are receiving major recognition from the National Science Foundation, which is honoring Straub with a CAREER Award, a five-year, $550,000 grant to advance his research.

“We’re excited about this work,” said Straub, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the ��ϳԹ�. “For desalination, switching to these membranes could produce 50 times cleaner water while lasting much longer. It’s really a big deal.”

Membrane technology has been in use for water purification for over five decades. It works well for many applications, but filter degradation is a problem, and even at peak conditions, some contaminants can still pass through the membranes.

“Current membranes are very hard to clean,” Straub said. “A major advance of this new membrane is you can expose it to concentrated bleach and cleaning chemicals. It also removes almost every impurity from water – salts, dissolved metals, and organic contaminants like hormones, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals.”

In the new process, Straub traps a tiny layer of air inside a porous membrane. Using pressure, water is forced against the membrane until it evaporates and recondenses on the other side of the air layer. The technology requires no additional electricity or heat and operates with pumps already used in water systems.

“It’s reimagining distillation. Thermal distillation – essentially boiling water – has been used to purify water for centuries, but it is really energy intensive. We’re laying the groundwork for distillation with pressure as the driving force, and it is 10 times more energy efficient,” Straub said.

The technology has advanced beyond the initial research phase. Straub has conducted successful small-scale tests and has two provisional patents on the design. Last year, he co-founded a spinoff company and received a grant from NASA for a prototype purification system for astronauts to use on a future Moon base.

Design of ultrathin air-trapping membranes for pressure-driven vapor transport. For more details, read "Pressure-driven distillation using air-trapping membranes for fast and selective water purification" in the journal Science Advances.

“There were papers discussing this process; the theoretical foundations were there. Our major advance was demonstrating it successfully. We had to understand how to develop materials with really small pore sizes that can trap air,” Straub said.

A major focus of the future work will be better analysis and modeling of the process.

“This technology is transitioning to applied use, but some aspects of the process aren’t as well understood. That’s very important for end users, to know how this design works, how the transport happens. We have some models, but they’re for very idealized systems, which isn’t how things work in the real world,” he said.

Beyond traditional water treatment, the process has drawn significant interest from microchip producers. Semiconductor wafers are manufactured in clean rooms, and ultrapure water is needed to rinse wafers and wash away residue produced during chip etching.

Even the tiniest water impurities can damage the chips, so water must be purified to levels far beyond what is needed for regular drinking water, requiring an expensive, elaborate system. Straub’s technology would dramatically simplify the process and lower costs.

“This is a huge potential market. Companies currently use a treatment process involving at least 14 different steps, and they avoid shutting down the machines because they’re worried that particles could enter the production line,” he said.

In addition to advancing research, Straub is also developing an education and outreach component as part of the CAREER award. Collaborating with a faculty colleague in the mechanical engineering department, Daniel Knight, the pair are developing a project-based water treatment course that will be used in rural K-12 schools across Colorado.

“Lots of these schools are in areas where they don’t have enough water, so this is really important,” Straub said.

He hopes the outreach will be both educational and promote career opportunities for the next generation of water engineers.

“My parents grew up in Latin America in underserved areas,” he said. “In undergrad, I was drawn to improve water treatment in low resource settings, and I caught the research bug. I want to encourage other people, too. It’s about making the world a better place.”

Anthony Straub is making revolutionary advances in water purification for life on Earth and in space. Using nanoscale membranes—thinner than 1/100th the width of a human hair—Straub has developed a...

Off

Traditional

White

Gregor Henze honored as IBPSA fellow for building simulation research

Susan Glairon — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 21:56:21 +0000

Gregor Henze honored as IBPSA fellow for building simulation research Susan Glairon Tue, 07/08/2025 - 15:56

Henze was selected for his pioneering work in model predictive control, simulation model development and building-to-grid integration. He is also recognized for his international leadership in research and education.

Off

Traditional

White

Wil Srubar named American Ceramic Society fellow

Susan Glairon — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 21:17:13 +0000

Wil Srubar named American Ceramic Society fellow Susan Glairon Thu, 07/03/2025 - 15:17

Susan Glairon

Professor Wil Srubar is the principal director of the Living Materials Laboratory, where an interdisciplinary team develops nature-inspired concrete alternatives that can be produced without fossil fuels or significant carbon emissions.

Off

Traditional

White

Eleven engineering students earn prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:37:47 +0000

Eleven engineering students earn prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships Jeff Zehnder Tue, 07/01/2025 - 09:37

The National Science Foundation has bestowed 11 prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards to ��ϳԹ� engineering students.

The national awards recognize and support outstanding grad students from across the country in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees.

Awardees receive a $37,000 annual stipend and cost of education allowance for the next three years as well as professional development opportunities.

Off

Traditional

White

��ϳԹ� students win big at collegiate hydropower competition

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 23:11:36 +0000

��ϳԹ� students win big at collegiate hydropower competition Alexander Jame… Wed, 06/18/2025 - 17:11

The CU Hydropower Team had a strong showing in this year's Hydropower Collegiate Competition, bringing home multiple awards including the best design award, the cybersecurity award, the best quick pitch award and the highly coveted first-place honor in the overall competition.

Off

Traditional

White

Ankur Gupta named to C&EN’s prestigious "Talented 12" list

Susan Glairon — Fri, 23 May 2025 14:56:13 +0000

Ankur Gupta named to C&EN’s prestigious "Talented 12" list Susan Glairon Fri, 05/23/2025 - 08:56

Assistant Professor Ankur Gupta was named to Chemical & Engineering News' prestigious Talented 12 list, which honors early-career scientists who use their chemistry know-how to make a real-world impact.

Off

Traditional

White

Chemical engineering grad honored as department's Alumni Mentor of the Year

Susan Glairon — Fri, 09 May 2025 17:26:44 +0000

Chemical engineering grad honored as department's Alumni Mentor of the Year Susan Glairon Fri, 05/09/2025 - 11:26

Susan Glairon

Bart Carpenter (ChemEng’81) was named the Chemical and Biological Engineering 2025 Distinguished Alumni Mentor of the Year for his dedicated mentorship of first-year student Sam Wiesenauer. A longtime advisory board member and mentor, Carpenter shares decades of industry insight to help students navigate careers in energy and engineering.

Off

Traditional

White

Awards

Faster, cleaner, better: revolutionary water treatment

Off

Gregor Henze honored as IBPSA fellow for building simulation research

Off

Wil Srubar named American Ceramic Society fellow

Off

Eleven engineering students earn prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships

Off

���ϳԹ� students win big at collegiate hydropower competition

Off

Ankur Gupta named to C&EN’s prestigious "Talented 12" list

Off

Chemical engineering grad honored as department's Alumni Mentor of the Year

Off

��ϳԹ� students win big at collegiate hydropower competition