A team of Nebraska Engineering researchers has secured $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in modern water systems: the buildup of unwanted materials on solid surfaces.
Their goal is ambitious and far‑reaching — to design cleaner, greener, and more adaptable technologies that not only reduce fouling but also turn waste into economic opportunity for communities across the Great Plains.
Across municipal and industrial water systems, membrane filtration is the workhorse technology for producing clean, potable water. These membranes act as semi‑permeable barriers, using pressure to push water through while trapping contaminants. Over time, however, the trapped materials — known collectively as fouling — accumulate on the membrane surface. Fouling can include everything from bacteria and biomass to PFAS and other persistent substances.
“Membranes outperform any other separation process, but fouling puts a great burden on the systems. It’s kind of the Achilles’ heel of using a membrane,” said Siamak Nejati, associate professor of chemical engineering and the project’s lead investigator.
Replacing fouled membranes is one of the largest operational costs in water treatment, and disposing of the collected waste adds another layer of expense and environmental concern. Nejati and his collaborators believe the solution lies not only in designing more efficient membranes but also in rethinking what happens to the materials those membranes capture.
“We think there may be opportunities to turn those leftover materials into something more useful — like ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, or other products that can create an economic driver by keeping more of our agricultural dollars in Nebraska,” he said.
A major challenge in membrane design is that fouling is not static. The biological and chemical makeup of wastewater shifts over time and varies from one region to another. Microbial communities evolve, adapting to new surfaces much like viruses adapt to new hosts. A membrane that performs well today may be less effective tomorrow.
To address this, the team is turning to artificial intelligence. In the lab of Mona Bavarian, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, researchers will build advanced models capable of predicting how fouling will change and how membranes should be designed to stay ahead of it.
“If we think about the composition of wastewater, the problem is very dynamic,” Bavarian said. “We will be able to have a digital twin of the system, and AI will help us predict changes by quickly analyzing data from across the Great Plains.”
This digital‑twin approach allows the team to simulate membrane performance under a wide range of conditions, reducing trial‑and‑error and enabling designs that are more resilient, adaptable, and sustainable.
While the engineering challenges are significant, the economic implications are just as important. Bruce Dvorak, Ray Fauss Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will lead the effort to understand how fouling — and potential new uses for fouling byproducts — affects communities, producers, and regional industries.
Dvorak’s work will explore questions such as:
- Which byproducts have the highest potential market value?
- How might dairy farms, pork producers, or food‑processing companies participate in a circular system that reuses waste materials?
- What incentives or policy structures would help agricultural producers adopt new membrane technologies as part of circular systems?
- How can the system be designed so producers can easily quantify and report environmental benefits, such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions or water use?
Large food companies, Dvorak noted, are increasingly interested in sourcing from producers who can demonstrate lower environmental footprints. A system that captures waste, converts it into valuable products, and documents those benefits could give Nebraska producers a competitive edge.
By combining advanced materials science, AI‑driven modeling, and economic analysis, the Nebraska team aims to create a new generation of water‑treatment membranes that are more efficient, more adaptable, and more valuable to the communities that rely on them.
The project’s vision extends beyond cleaner water. It imagines a future where waste becomes a resource, where rural producers benefit from new revenue streams, and where the Great Plains leads in sustainable water‑treatment innovation.
