Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from August 2002

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from August 2002

REVERSE OSMOSIS: KMS Meets WHO Boron Guidelines.
August 1, 2002... Koch Membrane Systems (KMS) has successfully tested its Fluid Systems brand TFC-SS RO element for reducing boron in seawater. While high groundwater boron levels are known to have toxic effects on certain crops and plants, the World Health...

Seawater Composite Rejects Boron.
August 1, 2002... Hydranautics has added the SWC4 (seawater composite) to its line of seawater desalination elements. The SWC4 is designed to provide higher salt rejection at elevated seawater temperatures with increased boron rejection. The element's...

ULTRAFILTRATION: Turbulence Improves Polymer Recovery.
August 1, 2002... Rohm and Haas Co. inventors have patented an ultrafiltration process for recovering polymeric lattices from whitewater. The technique, which uses either a flat stationary membrane or a vibrating membrane module, offers longer membrane life...

NANOFILTRATION: Low Pressure SR2 More Productive.
August 1, 2002... Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. has launched the Fluid Systems TFC- SR2, a low-pressure nanofiltration element that offers high specific fluxes for efficiently removing divalent ions such as hardness and sulfate, as well as dissolved organics from...

Targeting Barriers to Large-Scale Use.
August 1, 2002... In an effort to design more efficient filters, University of Houston (UH) engineers are examining how commercially available nanofiltration membranes interact with various contaminants, including bacteria and other organic materials. Stage...

Antibodies Guide Chiral Separations.
August 1, 2002... University of Florida researchers have devised antibody-coated nanotubule membranes that separate the mirror image molecules of medicinal chiral compounds, a difficult, but sometimes crucial, task. Many synthetic drugs are derived from...

GAS SEPARATION: MIECs Reduce Hydrogen Cost.
August 1, 2002... Boston University engineers are seeking an alternate path to the "hydrogen economy" by applying mixed ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) ceramic membranes to gas separation. By using reactors containing MIEC membranes many of the expensive...

Metal-Metal Composites Robust, Highly Selective.
August 1, 2002... North Carolina A&T State University researchers are developing metal-metal composite membranes for steam reforming of liquid hydrocarbons and methanol that simultaneously produce and separate high-purity hydrogen for PEM fuel cells and other...

BIOMEDICAL & BIOMEMBRANE: Switchable Filter Sorts Similarly Sized Molecules.
August 1, 2002... University of California scientists have created a switchable membrane-based filter that separates mixtures of biological molecules, even of similar sizes, with electrostatic screening. Incorporated into small-scale devices that sort mixtures...

ECMO Keeps Donor Organs Viable.
August 1, 2002... Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a procedure using standard extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) that keeps organs healthy in non-heart-beating (NHB) donors. In most organ donation cases, the donor has been...

Artificial Lung Successful in Sheep.
August 1, 2002... A University of Michigan surgeon is developing an artificial lung made up of hollow fiber membranes contained in a wearable vest that could help seriously ill patients stay alive for 6 mo or longer while they await a transplant organ. ...

Bioengineers Create Working Cow Kidneys.
August 1, 2002... Bioengineers at Advanced Cell Technology have created working artificial kidneys using cells taken from cloned cow embryos seeded onto polycarbonate membranes. When implanted into the animal whose DNA generated the clone, the renal devices were...

MATERIALS: LCD Polymer Has Advantages.
August 1, 2002... Solvay Advanced Polymers, L.L.C has introduced UDEL P-3500 LCD, a low cyclic dimer polysulfone designed specifically for membranes, which offers a number of economic advantages for membrane manufacturers. The company introduced the polymer...

MARKET: Roadmap Bodes Well for IC Fluids Filtration.
August 1, 2002... At the SEMICON West-Wafer Processing conference, held July 22-24 in San Francisco, presentations on industry goals and its imminent financial recovery indicate the future of semiconductors includes a continued market for membranes. Both Pall...

INDUSTRY NEWS: West Basin Pilot Demos Desalination.
August 1, 2002... West Basin Municipal Water District began operations at California's West Basin Ocean-Water Desalination Demonstration Project, which the utility said will give it the experience to apply microfiltration and reverse osmosis technologies to...

Grant to Study Wastewater Treatment.
August 1, 2002... Through Proposition 13, Orange County Water District (OCWD) has been awarded a 2-yr, $415,000 grant from the Department of Water Resources to conduct research to improve membrane treatment of municipal wastewater and fund projects designed to...

Millipore Obtains Multiwell Patents.
August 1, 2002... Millipore Corp. has signed a licensing agreement with Japan's RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Corp. granting Millipore exclusive rights to RIKEN's patent on the manufacture of UF-based, multiwell sequence reaction...

Osmonics Sells MUNI for Arsenic Reduction.
August 1, 2002... Osmonics, Inc. will supply Clearwater, Florida, with two compact, energy-efficient Osmo MUNI Series RO systems, including pretreatment filtration, which will remove arsenic and treat 3 million gal of water/day for the city's 100,000 residents....

FDA Clears Rapid Drug Test.
August 1, 2002... Startox, an on-site point-of-care assay that detects illicit drug use within 5 min, has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA. Designed by Starplex Scientific, the integrated sample collection and analysis device is based on membrane strips...

Briefly Noted:.
August 1, 2002... * MN Water Plant Underway. Black & Veatch (Kansas City, MO) has received notice to proceed with the largest UF project in North America, a retrofit at Minneapolis Water Works' Columbia Heights Plant. For its part, Ionics (Watertown, MA) has...

CALENDAR.
August 1, 2002... September 8-11, 2002. Reuse Symposium XVII-Water Reuse for the Future: Use it Again, America!, Orlando, FL. Contact: David W. York, WateReuse Organization, 635 Slaters Lane, 3rd Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: 703/684-2409, Fax: 703/536-7534....

INDUSTRY INSIGHT The Heart of a PEM Cell.
August 1, 2002... By Anna Welch Crull and Col. Richard D. Hooker (USA, Ret.) Membranes are the heart of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, serving as the electrolyte to allow ion exchange and create current. Fuel cells can provide clean energy for...

PEM Fuel Cell Technology.
August 1, 2002... PEM fuel cell technology was invented at General Electric in the early 1960s, through the research of Thomas Grubb and Leonard Nerdish. GE announced an initial success in mid-1960 when the company developed a small fuel cell for a program with...

Manufacturers.
August 1, 2002... The oldest membrane for a PEM fuel cell is DuPont's Nafion (Wilmington, DE). Nafion 117 is a poly tetrafluoroethylene- perfluorovinyl ether sulfonic acid copolymer (PTFE). The fluorinated backbone has terminal sulfonic acid groups. DuPont has...

Looking Ahead.
August 1, 2002... Researchers continue to search for a membrane electrode assembly with low-hydrogen-gas crossover, high-carbon-monoxide tolerance, high power density, and low cost. One approach is cation- conducting composite membrane made of an oxidation...

Conclusion.
August 1, 2002... In the world of PEM fuel cells, as in the world of membranes in general (except for pervaporation), thinnest is best. Transport and ionic conductivity is desirable, and better transport properties are highly prized. High temperature stability...