Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from June 2005

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from June 2005

REVERSE OSMOSIS: Navy Begins EUWP Testing.
June 1, 2005... The Naval Facilities Engineering Services Center (NFESC) received the first Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier (EUWP) for initial testing and evaluation at the Seawater Desalination Testing Facility in Port Hueneme, CA. Based on UF membrane...

NANOFILTRATION: Coating Improves Solvent Stability.
June 1, 2005... Scientists at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology have found a means of improving organic solvent resistance in polyamide composite NF membranes by coating the membranes with silicone during interfacial polymerization. In...

ULTRAFILTRATION: Proteins Separated With High Specificity.
June 1, 2005... Chemical engineers at Pennsylvania State University have demonstrated proof of concept for a protein purification process that combines the high throughput of ultrafiltration with high specificity, accomplished by attaching commercially...

Modular Pod Better Than Stacked Discs.
June 1, 2005... Millipore Corp. has launched the disposable, scalable Pod Filter System, a modular filter format that reduces operating costs and improves productivity by reducing cycle time. The Pod filter incorporates Millistak+ HC, multiple graded density...

MICROFILTRATION: Wine Contaminants Removed, Not Color.
June 1, 2005... Koch researchers have devised a hollow fiber MF membrane for filtering undesirable components from liquids, such as wine and juice. The membrane has a narrow pore size distribution, which permits the removal of bacteria, gel and/or suspended...

MEMBRANE CHROMATOGRAPHY: Vivascience Increases Adenovirus Recovery.
June 1, 2005... Sartorius upgraded Vivapure AdenoPACK 100, a ready-to-use kit based on ion exchange membranes, is designed to achieve fast, efficient and economical adenovirus purification. In contrast to traditional cesium chloride density gradient methods,...

Capsule Improves Process Economics.
June 1, 2005... Pall Corps five-liter Mustang XT5000 membrane chromatography capsule is designed for the cost-efficient, high-volume capture of complex proteins from biological solutions used in manufacturing protein-based drugs. At PREP 2005, the 18th...

PERVAPORATION: Sulfur Levels Lowered Without Octane Loss.
June 1, 2005... W.R. Grace & Co. has received U.S. Patent 6,896,796 for a pervaporation process that reduces sulfur levels in fluid catalytic cracking light naphtha (cat naptha) feed streams used in manufacturing gasoline. Sulfur in gasoline directly...

GAS SEPARATION: Hydrogen Separated from High Sulfur Diesel Fuel.
June 1, 2005... At the National Hydrogen Association 2 meeting in Washington DC, Power + Energy, Inc. (P+E) described the progress made on its Phase II SBIR contract to develop a compact, sulfur-tolerant membrane-based, high efficiency 50 kilowatt hydrogen...

Screening Model Predicts Optimal Properties.
June 1, 2005... Researchers at the DOEs National Energy Technology Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University are combining computational and experimental methods to test a variety of membranes that remove hydrogen from mixed gas streams and simultaneously...

ELECTROCHEMICAL: Agents Halt Methanol Migration.
June 1, 2005... Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jlich GmbH have found that adding cation-complexing agents to the membrane of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) can prevent methanol crossover and change of potential at the electrodes. Typically, a...

INDUSTRY NEWS.
June 1, 2005... MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY STOCKWATCH (At close, May 31) This Last Company Symbol Month Month Change Air Products & Chemicals APD 60.230 58.720 ...

MEDRC Accepting R&D Proposals.
June 1, 2005... The Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) has issued a request for proposals for desalination R&D. The RFP addresses all individuals, institutions and companies, worldwide, engaged in the different fields of desalination practice, in...

Eltron Continuing FutureGen Research.
June 1, 2005... As part of FutureGen pollution-free power plant of tomorrow program, the DOE will cost share a project with Eltron Research (Boulder, CO) to further develop membrane-based coal-to-hydrogen production. Based in part on Eltron-patented materials,...

B&V to Study Residuals Impact.
June 1, 2005... Black & Veatch has been awarded a contract to study the impacts of membrane treatment residuals, such as concentrate and membrane cleaning wastes, on wastewater treatment plant operations and processes. Membrane processes continue to gain...

CALENDAR.
June 1, 2005... August 22-23, The Future of Desalination in Texas: Membrane Desalination Workshop, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Contact: Connie Conaway, Petroleum Engineering Department, 710 Richardson Bldg., TAMU-3116, College Station,...

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS.
June 1, 2005... 3M Purchases Cuno. 3M (St. Paul, MN) and Cuno, Inc. (Meriden, CT) have entered into a definitive agreement for 3Ms acquisition of Cuno in an all cash merger for $72 per share, or $1.35 billion including the assumption of debt. Cuno designs,...

LEGAL.
June 1, 2005... Zenon Clears Hurdle in USFilter Suit The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of California has ruled that U.S. Patent 6,620,319, the subject of a patent infringement suit brought by Zenon Environmental, Inc. (Ontario, Canada) against...

PUBLIC OFFERINGS.
June 1, 2005... Hoku Files for IPO. Hoku Scientific, Inc. (Honolulu, HI) has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The underwriters of the offering...

BUSINESS.
June 1, 2005... Perth to Use Wind-Powered Desalination The City of Perth, Australia will use 50 giant wind turbines to power a planned seawater desalination plant at Kwinana Beach. The plant is designed to make Perth drought-proof and provide two million...

FINANCIAL.
June 1, 2005... Zenon Posts Slow First Quarter. Zenon Environmental (Ontario, Canada) has reported a slight increase in sales revenues (1%) for the first quarter 2005 compared to the same quarter 2004, growing from $50.8 million to $51.1 million. A comparison...

PRODUCTS.
June 1, 2005... Celgard Debuts Separators, Inks Supply Agreements. Polypore subsidiary Celgard, LLC (Charlotte, NC) has launched several new membrane-based battery separators and established a supply agreement with a major new customer. Celgards 2323 trilayer...

PATENTS.
June 1, 2005... Particle Size Distribution Prevents Film Cracking. The University of California (Berkeley, CA) and inventors Steven Visco, Craig Jacobson and Lutgard DeJonge have patented a method for making thin-film ceramic membranes on non-shrinking...

PERSONNEL.
June 1, 2005... Whatman Appoints CEO. Whatman PLC (Maidstone, Kent, UK) has named Timothy Haines Chief Executive Officer, effective September 1, 2005. Haines joins Whatman from Astex Technology, a privately held UK-based drug discovery and development company,...

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Membrane Biological Reactors for Treatment of High-Strength Pharmaceutical Wastewater.
June 1, 2005... By A. Paul Togna, Sam Frisch, William Guarini, Envirogen, Inc., 4100 Quakerbridge Rd., Lawrenceville, NJ 08648. Paul Sutton, P.M. Sutton & Associates, 45 Bradford Lane, Enfield, NJ 03748 In September 1998, the U.S. EPA promulgated the final...

Specialty Chemical Plant.
June 1, 2005... A specialty pharmaceuticals company located in the Midwest produces bulk pharmaceutical intermediates and other fine chemicals. A decision was made to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant with a biological destruction step to meet more...

Process Design.
June 1, 2005... Based on the results of the pilot study, the full-scale reactor tank was designed to be 20 feet in diameter and 35 feet in height. The operating liquid volume is approximately 78,000 gallons. The MBR system is designed for a specific TOC...

Full-Scale Performance.
June 1, 2005... Shortly after full-scale system startup, sample analyses of reactor influent and effluent showed the plant to be in compliance with the Pharmaceutical Pretreatment Regulations. All the targeted regulated compounds present in the feed stream...

System Design.
June 1, 2005... Table 1 compares the membrane design for the two MBRs. The membrane system for the West Coast pharmaceutical plant was designed anticipating operation at a wastewater feed flow of 5gpm, or 7,200gpd, corresponding to a feed TOC concentration of...

Membrane Performance.
June 1, 2005... An inevitable consequence of membrane processes for wastewater applications is that sooner or later, the membranes become fouled to the point where they will no longer support design permeate flows. At this point, the membranes must usually...

Pharmaceutical Plant.
June 1, 2005... Shortly after start-up of the pharmaceutical plant, a cracked flange was discovered on the permeate suction pipe in the reactor, which caused biological solids from the reactor to accidentally enter the permeate storage tanks. This resulted in...

Specialty Chemicals Plant.
June 1, 2005... In contrast, the specialty chemicals plant membrane permeability has been much more stable. The membranes have undergone two soak cleaning procedures. Two months after the first membrane cleaning, permeability values were observed to drop by...

Conclusions.
June 1, 2005... The number of case studies reported in the literature clearly indicates that the acceptance of MBRs for municipal wastewater treatment has accelerated. With numerous municipal applications now documented, the boundaries of applicability for MBR...