Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from February 2003

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from February 2003

PERVAPORATION: S-Brane Separates Sulfur from Gasoline.
February 1, 2003... Researchers at the Davison Catalysts division of W. R. Grace have developed a pervaporation membrane process that removes sulfur from gasoline during manufacturing more economically than currently practiced methods. Called S-Brane, the...

MICROFILTRATION: OenoPure Stabilizes Wine Color, Flavor.
February 1, 2003... Pall Corp. has added to its OenoVations line of wine processing products with the OenoPure filter, a pleated PES membrane cartridge that prevents bacteria and yeast from turning good wine bad. The microbial stability of wine is key to a...

MEMBRANE BIOREACTORS: Biofiltration Cleans NOx from Combustion Gases.
February 1, 2003... A team of environmental engineers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has found that a hollow fiber membrane bioreactor, which combines membranes with nitrifying microorganisms, is an effective system for controlling nitrogen oxides...

FUEL CELL & ED: Thio Acid Electrolyte Fills Temperature Gap.
February 1, 2003... Iowa State materials scientists have developed a new class of proton conducting fuel cell membranes based on new thio-acids that yield high proton conductivities (10-6 to 10-3 S/cm), are anhydrous, thermally stable, chemically stable to H2O and...

EDI Modules by Low Temp Process.
February 1, 2003... Electropure Inc. has been granted U.S. Patent 6,503,957 for an environmentally friendly, low temperature method of manufacturing polypropylene-based ion-exchange membranes at a reasonable cost and without the use of solvents. The membranes,...

BIOMEDICAL & BIOMEMBRANE: Eurand Improving Drug Delivery, Taste.
February 1, 2003... Italian specialty pharmaceuticals company Eurand has signed a licensing agreement with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. for a fast melt drug delivery technology that Eurand will incorporate into its membrane-based Microcaps taste-masking tablets....

Selective Electrode Improves Analysis.
February 1, 2003... Beckman Coulter, Inc. researchers have patented a lithium ion- selective membrane that offers fast kinetic response, high sensitivity and good reproducibility when used in a clinical setting on biological samples. The membrane favors the...

GAS SEPARATION: Portable, Stationary Units Deliver OEA.
February 1, 2003... Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is launching a portable oxygen supply unit and a line of stationary air conditioners that supply air with high oxygen concentrations by means of a silicon membrane-based oxygen enrichment system. ...

WATER VAPOR TRANSFER: Gel-Filling Cuts Costs for Ventilator Core.
February 1, 2003... At McMaster University's Brockhouse Institute of Materials Research, researchers have developed a range of low-cost membranes useful for heating, air-conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) applications. The membranes, which consist of a gel...

MATERIALS: Molecular 'Doors' Controlled by Light.
February 1, 2003... Scientists from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) at Kansai have developed a nano- scale material based on hexagonal mesoporous silica (MCM-41) that opens or closes its pores in response to light....

INDUSTRY NEWS: Corning to Supply Filters to Ionics.
February 1, 2003... Corning Inc. and Ionics, Inc. have entered into a multi-year agreement under which Corning will supply its ceramic membranes to Ionics for use in their process systems for the food and beverage industries. Corning's ceramic membranes are...

Reiss to Evaluate Desal for Diluted Seawater.
February 1, 2003... Reiss Environmental, an engineering consulting firm, has been awarded a U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation research project to evaluate the desalination of seawater diluted with fresh water from coastal surface runoff. ...

Army Evaluating Respiratory Catheter.
February 1, 2003... Researchers from the U.S. Army and the University of Pittsburgh are evaluating the possibility of using the experimental membrane device, the Hattler Respiratory Catheter, for battlefield medicine, particularly as treatment for lung injuries...

GEOX Opening New York Store.
February 1, 2003... Italian shoemaker Geox, Inc., inventors of the rubber-soled "shoe that breathes," will soon be bringing its membrane-based footwear to the U.S. with the opening of a New York store. Geox is a patented design in which the rubber sole of the...

Briefly Noted.
February 1, 2003... * Zenon Environmental, Inc. (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) has negotiated a $20 million agreement with Gwinnett County, GA to supply ZeeWeed membrane technology to the F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center, a state-of-the-art water reclamation and...

CALENDAR.
February 1, 2003... February 23-27, Advances in Materials for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Systems, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, Contact: Lesia Robertson, Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc., Virginia Tech, 410 Davidson Hall, M.C....

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Ceramic Membranes for Low Molecular Weight Separations.
February 1, 2003... By Richard Higgins, Sc.D., Vice President, CeraMem Corp., 12 Clematis Ave., Waltham, MA 02453 CeraMem Corp. is currently ramping up commercialization of crossflow MF and UF membrane elements based on low-cost monolithic silicon carbide...

Geometries and Sizes.
February 1, 2003... CeraMem's industrial-scale monolithic membrane elements utilize large extruded SiC honeycomb monoliths as a support for asymmetric inorganic membrane layers. A typical industrial-scale element incorporates permeate conduits, a patent-protected...

Zeolite Membranes.
February 1, 2003... CeraMem has collaborated with the Chemical Engineering Dept. at the University of Colorado (Professors R. Noble and J. Falconer) in developing specific processing methods for application of MFI- type zeolite membranes to coupon and...

Inorganic Nanofiltration.
February 1, 2003... Currently available commercial inorganic membranes have MWCO characteristics that cannot achieve true NF separations. A number of very large potential markets exist for inorganic NF, including sulfate removal from injection water in oil and gas...

Conclusions.
February 1, 2003... Significant progress has been made in development of inorganic membranes with molecular separations capabilities that can be reproducibly incorporated within monolithic honeycomb elements having relatively low associated capital costs. Both...