Aquaporin is a protein that is a water channel in cell membranes. One company with the same name is using the protein in artificial membranes to extract the water. In typical reverse osmosis process, the water is pumped at a high pressure on one side of the membrane and that pushes the relatively free water molecules out away from the membrane to the other side. This needs pressure and usually is used on an industrial scale since it needs a lot of water.
Aquaporin is trying to use the aquaporin molecule to transport the water molecule through a membrane, thereby freeing up free water from the pollutants and also with no or very low energy consumption.
This promises to be the next big change in water technology. And this might be important because water technology is going to be there for a long time.
Watch the interview below:
But if you also want to find out more about the molecule and how artificial molecules that duplicate the activity of aquaporin can be a next step in the water purification future then this nature article might be useful. Please read “Artificial water channels—deconvolution of natural Aquaporins through synthetic design” here:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-018-0013-y
