Discovery to Impact at The University of Texas at Austin has announced a $250,000 investment in NALA Membranes. This UT-affiliated startup is pioneering advancements in water purification through the development of a new class of chlorine-tolerant membranes for reverse osmosis industrial and municipal wastewater systems. This marks the fifth investment by UT's $10 million Seed Fund, which supports promising startups built on University-owned intellectual property emerging from UT Austin’s extensive $845 million research enterprise.
Mark Arnold, assistant vice president for Discovery to Impact and managing director of the UT Seed Fund, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership with NALA Membranes. "Their visionary approach to sustainability aligns perfectly with our investment philosophy," he said. "We are confident that their innovative technology will have a profound impact on global water management."
Founded in 2018 by Judy Riffle and Sue Mecham, NALA Membranes is headquartered in North Carolina with a subsidiary in Singapore. The company was established around chlorine-durable reverse osmosis (RO) membranes invented by Riffle, a professor emerita at Virginia Tech, and Benny Freeman, a professor in UT’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. NALA Membranes' patented materials and novel process aim to meet the global demand for abundant, clean and accessible water while reducing costs and lessening the negative impact of traditional RO operations.
Mecham, CEO of NALA Membranes, expressed gratitude for the investment from the UT Austin Seed Fund and highlighted the long-standing research collaboration with Dr. Freeman that led to founding NALA. She stated that this investment would support commercialization of their technology to advance their vision for a new class of durable membranes that will reduce energy consumption, maintenance costs and membrane replacement in advanced water treatment operations. Mecham added that they look forward to collaborating with Texas industries to support sustainable wastewater reuse projects using NALA’s membranes.
NALA Membranes and its researchers are part of a larger hydrohub of top water innovators who are developing solutions to mitigate the global water crisis.