Since industrialization, oil spills and industrial organic pollutants have posed serious threats to human health, marine and surface ecosystems. Oily wastewater, oil depots for the storage of diesel and gasoline, wastewater with oily substances discharged from industrial production processes, harmful particulate pollution in the atmosphere, and harmful heavy metal pollution on the surface and underground have all become serious global challenges.

In recent years, with the advent of new materials and technologies, the research of the application of foams and porous materials in media filtration and separation field such as air filtration, particle adsorption separation and oil-water separation has become a hot spot, making important contributions to tackling the environmental crisis.

Filter foams and porous materials are key and common materials widely applied in air, liquid, chemical, environmental protection, energy, automobile and other industries and people's livelihood fields. Filter facilities (equipment, elements, materials, filter aids, etc.) have extensive application in such areas as automotive, petrochemical, environmental protection and upstream-downstream industries. They are crucial to the safe and reliable operation of the process and equipment, the improvement of production efficiency, the reduction of energy consumption and the guarantee of product quality. Moreover, they are the indispensable technical materials for the air and water pollution control systems.

Polyurethane, melamine, polyolefin and activated carbon sponge, as common filter materials, are widely used in daily filtration projects. Different from other similar technologies in the development process, activated carbon sponge is difficult to scale up due to its higher price, or its production requires special materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. This material’s extensive application and simple manufacturing process promise it a fast scale-up. The filtration properties of metal foams, ceramic foam polymers, gels, graphene foams and other porous composite materials have been widely applied in many modern industries, suggesting a bright future.

In addition, modification technologies including "reticulated structure", "two-step prepolymer process", "sintering", "carbon nanotubes", "photocatalyst" and "solution spinning technique", can help to strengthen the filtering performance of foaming materials to further improve environmental management.

Specific application scenarios are as follows: indoor HAVC air filters; filters in aquariums and ponds; the effluent treatment of seawater aquaculture; inserts made of PUR foam for wastewater filtration; HEPA filters with activated carbon sponges; purification for kitchen; combined inserts made of filter foams for commercial vehicle’s structure; air compressors for aerospace cabin; filter elements made of PUR foam for the electronics industry; protective face shields; pharmaceuticals; microelectronics manufacturing; nuclear waste and heavy metal disposal; oil-water separation; ceramic foams for filtering metal melt; foamed metal for oil-gas separation, etc.