Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from April 2003

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from April 2003

NON-SEPARATING: Sensors First Step Toward Artificial Skin.
April 1, 2003... An artificial skin composed of polyimide layers embedded with metal-film wiring and membrane-based tactile sensors at various levels could provide a key to replicating the sense of touch. According to University of Illinois (UI) at...

Protected Proteins Closer to Perfection.
April 1, 2003... In research work sponsored by NASA, scientists have invented a process for growing and dehydrating protein crystals within semipermeable membranes. The process improves upon prior methods by protecting the crystals from physical damage and...

MEMBRANE CHROMATOGRAPHY Peroxidase Purified With Con A.
April 1, 2003... Using three different activation and immobilization methods, chemical engineers at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo have immobilized concanavalin A (con A) on macroporous cellulose membranes for use as a ligand in membrane...

REVERSE OSMOSIS: Photocatalytic Thin Films Resist Biofouling.
April 1, 2003... South Korean scientists have fabricated hybrid polyamide thin-film composite (TFC)/ titanium dioxide (TiO2) membranes possessing photocatalytic properties that reduce biofouling and enhance RO performance. The membranes, which incorporate a...

ULTRAFILTRATION: Systems Target Protein Applications.
April 1, 2003... Millipore Corp. has introduced the first 96-well UF systems for protein applications. They are the MultiScreen filter assembly with Ultracel PPB membrane for the quantitative separation of protein bound from free drug in 96-serum or plasma...

GAS SEPARATION: Nanosil Demonstrates Hydrogen Selectivity.
April 1, 2003... Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute have patented a membrane made of silica-modified Vycor that exhibits 100% selectivity to hydrogen without a loss of permeability, and remains stable under hydrothermal conditions over a prolonged...

MATERIALS: Crystals Grown as Fibers Orient in Films.
April 1, 2003... Chemical engineers at the University of Rochester have grown long fibrous molecular sieve crystals with tunnel-like pores that they hope to form into working membranes for separating differently sized molecules. Some eventual applications...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Tampa Bay Plant Late, But Online.
April 1, 2003... Tampa Bay, Florida's long-awaited large-scale RO desalination plant is up and running, although not yet sending drinking water to area homes. The plant is currently producing 4.2 mgd of fresh water from seawater daily, but testing of the...

NSF Adding Perchlorate to Removal Standards.
April 1, 2003... NSF International is working on a testing protocol for the removal of perchlorate that will be added to at least two of the NSF/ANSI standards: Standard 58 for RO systems and Standard 53 for filters. Perchlorate, the primary component in...

Mykrolis Sues Pall for Patent Infringement.
April 1, 2003... Millipore spinoff Mykrolis Corp., a leading supplier to the semiconductor industry, has filed a lawsuit against Pall Corp. in U.S. District Court. The suit charges that Pall is unlawfully using patented Mykrolis technology developed for...

ELAD Entering Phase 2 Trials.
April 1, 2003... As part of Phase 2 clinical trials, the ELAD (Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device) Artificial Liver, a bioartificial organ comprised of a two-chambered hollow-fiber cartridge containing cultured human liver cells, will soon begin testing at the...

Briefly Noted:.
April 1, 2003... * GE Specialty Materials, a unit of General Electric Co. (Fairfield, CT), has completed the acquisition of Osmonics, Inc. (Minnetonka, MN). Osmonics joins GE Betz within GE Specialty Materials' water and process technologies business, creating...

CALENDAR.
April 1, 2003... May 17-21, NAMS 2003 Fourteenth Annual Conference and Workshop, Snow King Lodge, Jackson Hole, WY, Contact: Eric S. Peterson, email: esp@inel.gov August 4-8, Membranes for Gas Applications-EMS XX Summer School, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway;...

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Innovations of Membrane Chromatography for Biomolecular Purification.
April 1, 2003... By Tim N. Warner, Ph.D., Sam Nochumson, Ph.D. and Derek E. Pendlebury, Ph.D. Pall Corporation, Life Sciences Division 2200 Northern Boulevard East Hills, NY, 11548 Single-use membrane-based anion-exchange chromatography offers...

Capacity Limitations.
April 1, 2003... Polymeric resin-bead chromatography presents several roadblocks to fast purification that ultimately limit its efficacy. The flow rate for purification is dependent on diffusion into the pores of resin beads, an inherently rate-limiting step....

Dynamic Capacity.
April 1, 2003... A microporous membrane-based anion exchanger offers a much faster and higher capacity method of chromatography, and the capture of larger biomolecules is also more efficient. It can be envisioned as a single sponge-like bead formed as a shallow...

Single-Use Systems.
April 1, 2003... Biopharmaceutical manufacturers can significantly benefit from disposable purification procedures. A resin-bead chromatography column needs to be cleaned, repacked, and its integrity validated. This results in a significant amount of added...

Scale-Up Challenges.
April 1, 2003... Scale-up is a critical consideration for biopharmaceutical manufacturers: increasing the scale to increase capacity does not always result in consistent results. For resin-bead chromatography columns, it is challenging and expensive to retain...

New Possibilities.
April 1, 2003... Membrane chromatography is most advantageous for applications requiring large volumes of processing where a small mass of DNA or proteins needs to be captured. The membrane is not significantly affected by changes in residence time or by...