Functionalized capsules for water and seawater treatment

Maintaining water quality is important in aquaculture business. Dissolved oxygen concentration is one of the most important factors that is reported to have a relation with fish growth and death rate. This project targets to develop novel functionaliz ed capsules through collaboration with one of the world leading groups in Japan in the field of modification of porous materials. The functionalized capsules are unique as it can contain various chemicals inside and release them to water by the change of environment. Functionalized capsules can be applied in various ways to maintain the water quality, such as to enrich the dissolved oxygen concentration in deep water, to add chemicals when necessary and to oxidize organics. The advantage of functionali zed capsules over current technologies such as circulating the water is the potential in much less running cost and energy for the water treatment. During the project period, a visit of a researcher from AIST, Japan to SINTEF is planned. The visit is pla nned in July - August in 2010. During the visit, following issues are planned: 1) Preliminary tests will be performed at the laboratory in SINTEF Oslo to prove one of the key concepts of the functionalized capsules. 2) Meetings with key groups and perso ns in Norway will be held. 3) Project plan will be revised based on the preliminary test results Contact with industries in Norway and Japan will also be made to invite them to a new project and to get more information on the needs. An appropriate pr ogram will be selected for the collaboration: e.g. JSPS call expected in November 2010, HAVBRUK or other programme at NFR.