Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from February 2006

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from February 2006

ELECTROCHEMICAL Dendrimers Decrease Methanol Crossover.
February 1, 2006... A team of Argonne National Laboratory scientists has patented an ion conducting membrane composed of dendrimeric polymers covalently linked into a network structure that permits higher temperature operation and reduces methanol crossover in...

Metallized Cellulose Is Cheaper, Greener.
February 1, 2006... Scientists at UT-Batelle have patented a process for depositing metal salts in a bacterial cellulose matrix and incorporating a three-layered anode/membrane support/cathode structure made from the material in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel...

REVERSE OSMOSIS Seawater + River Water=Electricity.
February 1, 2006... A pair of projects under investigation by European researchers aims to replace fossil fuel-based power production with two different membrane processes that generate electricity by mixing sea and river water. Both ideas are based on the natural...

SWC5 Offers Low Pressures, High Quality Permeate.
February 1, 2006... Hydranautics has launched its most advanced seawater RO membrane product, the SWC5, a module that operates at pressures comparable to or lower than other low pressure seawater membranes, while producing an extremely high purity permeate. The...

NON-SEPARATING Heavy Metal-Specific Reagents Fixed by Filtration.
February 1, 2006... Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have developed an inexpensive membrane test strip that detects the presence and concentration of heavy metals rapidly onsite by merely dipping the...

Cancer Test Accurate At Early Disease Stages.
February 1, 2006... 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. will incorporate its P-Film (Protein Function Identification Layered Membranes) Technology, a membrane stack for detecting disease biomarkers, in an early screening test for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 20/20 has...

BIOMEDICAL & BIOMEMBRANE Porous Molybdenum Mimics Ion Channel Transport.
February 1, 2006... A German research team has constructed an artificial cell from an inorganic macromolecule containing pores that demonstrate similar behavior to that of a voltage-gated ion channel in a living cell. The spherical polyoxymolybdate cluster...

Cell Culture System Step To Personalized Medicine.
February 1, 2006... Biovest International presented its newest cell culture instrument, the AutovaxIDTM-C, at the Cancer Research Institute's recent meeting "Cancer Vaccines: Barriers, Endpoints and Opportunities." The automated hollow fiber membrane reactor...

MATERIALS Combination Template Tailors Nano-Size, Shape.
February 1, 2006... Pennsylvania State University researchers have synthesized nanomaterials with controlled sizes and shapes using membranes as templates. Using a sol gel method, the scientists successfully employed a porous alumina membrane as a template for the...

Harnessing Aquaporins For Man-Made Separations.
February 1, 2006... A handful of research groups are hoping to exploit nature's water channels for use in bio-synthetic membranes. Living organisms adjust the water content in their cells by regulating water flow through the cell membrane. Water is "turned on...

INDUSTRY NEWS Manufacturers Increase Capacity, Upgrade Plants.
February 1, 2006... Three manufacturers have recently built larger plants, or made facility upgrades to meet global membrane demand. * Dow FilmTec Corp. (Minneapolis, MN) is on track to complete its new manufacturing plant in Edina, MN, which began...

NAMS Issues Second Call for Papers.
February 1, 2006... NAMS, the North American Membrane Society, has issued a second call for papers to be presented at its yearly conference. Hosted by Kraft Foods and the University of Alabama, the 17th Annual Meeting will be held at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel,...

CALENDAR.(Calendar)
February 1, 2006... April 2-6, 16th Annual Membrane & Separations Technology Short Course with Daily Pilot Plant Demonstrations, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Contact: Carl J. Vavra, Tel: 979/845-2758, email: cjvavra@tamu.edu, website:...

(((NEWS BRIEFS))) BUSINESS.
February 1, 2006... Pionetics Gains Entry into China Pionetics Corp. (San Carlos, CA) has entered into a joint venture with Elantec (Beijing, China) under which the companies will manufacture and sell Pionetics' LINX Drinking Water System for the Chinese market....

FINANCIAL RESULTS.
February 1, 2006... Pall Sales, Earnings Up Modestly Pall Corp. (East Hills, NY) has reported first quarter sales of $431.2 million, a 4% increase compared to $414.7 million last year. Reported earnings were $25.1 million, or 20 cents per share, compared to $21.7...

PRODUCTS.
February 1, 2006... Large Area Plate Permits Better Cell Modeling Millipore Corp. (Billerica, MA) has introduced a new 24-well cell culture plate with twice the membrane surface area of other 24-well plates, a feature that allows researchers to use greater cell...

PATENTS.
February 1, 2006... MMCs Superior as Asymmetric Films Air Liquide (Houston, TX) inventors have filed a patent application for mixed matrix composite (MMC) membranes incorporating a molecular sieve material, such as SSZ-13, dispersed in a polyimide polymer....

PROJECTS.
February 1, 2006... Qatar Awards Degremont DBO Contract The State of Qatar Public Works Authority has awarded Degremont (Rueil-Malmaison, France) a contract to design, build and operate the country's largest wastewater treatment plant. The 135,000m3 per day plant...

RESEARCH.
February 1, 2006... Two-Stage Treatment Cleans Oily Bilge Water In the journal Desalination (Volume 185), scientists at the Technical University of Szczecin (Szczecin, Poland) describe treating bilge water using an integrated UF/RO system. Their studies using the...

COMMENTARY Future Directions in Membrane Science.
February 1, 2006... At the annual AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) meeting in Cincinnati, six of the eight invited papers making up the session "Future Directions of Membrane Science" dealt with applications in pharmaceutical biotech and medicine....

SPECIAL REPORT A Brief Look at the Membrane Bioreactor Market.
February 1, 2006... Excerpted from Membrane Bioreactors in the Changing World Water Market (January 2006), Business Communications Co., 25 Van Zant St., Norwalk, CT 06855; Tel: 203/853-4266, Fax: 203/853-0348 In commercial use for little more than a decade,...

MBR History.
February 1, 2006... The earliest reports of MBRs come from the late 1960s. At that time, Dorr-Oliver, Inc. developed the Membrane Sewage Treatment process in which wastewater flowed through a suspended growth bioreactor via rotating drum screen to externally...

Technology Development.
February 1, 2006... MBRs treat wastewater using a biological treatment process combined with low-pressure membranes that retain biological solids within the system. Compared to conventional activated sludge treatment, the method does away with clarifiers, weirs...

Market Drivers.
February 1, 2006... Issues of water quality, water quantity and aging/non-existing infrastructure propel the market for MBRs. Anticipated stricter environmental regulations in the U.S. and overseas are driving sales of MBRs to industry, municipalities, and...

Market Growth.
February 1, 2006... As MBR technology sees rising demand in North America and around the globe, both the number of installations and the capacity of installed plants are increasing dramatically. The most optimistic industry estimates suggest that up to 1,000 new...