Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from June 2006

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from June 2006

FORWARD OSMOSIS FO Process Promises Lower Energy, Less Brine.
June 1, 2006... Yale University researchers are building a pilot-scale forward osmosis (FO) membrane plant that uses osmotic pressure, instead of hydraulic pressure or thermal evaporation, to desalinate brackish or seawater. The process promises significant...

Forward Osmosis Desalination Process Image sent separately.
June 1, 2006... Lower Energy Cost Heat used by the FO process can be minimized in quantity or in cost, or set at a balance between the two. In most cases, FO will use less than half of the thermal energy used in multi effect distillation (MED), the most...

Total Water Cost.
June 1, 2006... The researchers expect the combination of low energy costs, high water recoveries and lower brine discharge to make FO a useful and far less costly desalination process compared to RO or MED. But, only pilot testing will provide the necessary...

REVERSE OSMOSIS Polymer Up to 20X More Oxidant Tolerant.
June 1, 2006... Eltron Research chemists have manufactured a new class of polymers that can be used to fabricate RO and NF membranes with 10 to 20 times more resistance to oxidizing agents such as chlorine, stability to continuous contact with transition...

New Approach to Design.
June 1, 2006... Eltron's new materials are based on a polymer design strategy in which the polymers' supporting structure is partially decoupled from the pore structure to enable chemical flexibility. Because pore structure currently is coupled with the...

Comparison of Sub-Micron Surface Morphology (SEM images) Image sent separately.
June 1, 2006... Material costs are comparable to current technology, and, Buschmann adds, "The membrane fabrication process does not substantially deviate from existing methods."

Test Membranes.
June 1, 2006... The company has produced membranes on a demonstration scale (41 in2) and tested them under a variety of conditions using planar crossflow filtration systems common in the industry. A test thin film composite membrane designated as ER-HF2 has...

Clean Hub Provides Instant Infrastructure.
June 1, 2006... A Minneapolis architectural firm, Shelter Architecture, has designed a self-contained structure, called the Clean Hub, that could supply electricity, clean water, and toilet and bathing facilities to people in temporary settlements, such as...

Organoclay Pretreatment Cuts Oily Fouling.
June 1, 2006... Biomin, Inc. reports that its Oilsorb organoclay product is an effective pretreatment to RO for removing oily wastes. Available in granular form, organoclay is less expensive than activated carbon, but can be used in vessels designed for carbon...

NANOFILTRATION OSN Improves Chiral Separations.
June 1, 2006... Researchers at the Imperial College London are combining enantioselective inclusion complexation (EIC) with organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) to separate enantiomers from a chiral host. The process permits direct use of the chiral host,...

ULTRAFILTRATION Membrana Launches Liqui-Flux Element.
June 1, 2006... Membrana has developed a 12-inch hollow fiber UF membrane module for surface and drinking water filtration, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, and pre-treatment of seawater and brackish water prior to RO. The company is showcasing...

UF Patents.
June 1, 2006... Patent No.: 7,045,607 Method and system for extraction of zein from corn Inventors: Cheryan; Munir (Urbana, IL) Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL) This patent describes a corn product removal process...

MATERIALS Heparin Composites Blood Compatible.
June 1, 2006... Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have engineered blood-compatible nanoscale materials including carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and membranes, using the anticoagulant heparin. Fabricated using the enhanced dissolution of...

Materials Patents.
June 1, 2006... Patent No.: 7,041,616 Enhanced selectivity of zeolites by controlled carbon deposition Inventors: Nenoff; Tina M. (Albuquerque, NM); Thoma; Steven G. (Albuquerque, NM); Kartin; Mutlu (Albuquerque, NM) Assignee: Sandia Corp.(Albuquerque, NM) ...

INDUSTRY NEWS DOE Funds Small Business Projects.
June 1, 2006... The DOE has announced grant recipients for the FY 2006 Small Business Innovation Research Program and Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I awards. Funding was made available for several membrane projects in six different focus...

FINANCIAL NEWS Manufacturers Post Quarterly Increases.
June 1, 2006... Membrane makers posting quarterly results reported year over year sales increases from 2.5% to 34%. The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) reported a new sales record of $12.0 billion for the first quarter of 2006, 3% higher than the same...

COMMENTARY Remaining Recycling Challenge Not Technical.
June 1, 2006... In a recent editorial for Australia's Courier-Mail, Stuart Khan, a research fellow at the Center for Water and Waste Technology-University of New South Wales, writes, "We have to learn to trust recycled water." The major hurdle, he continues,...

CALENDAR.(Calendar)
June 1, 2006... July 30-August 2, AMTA Biennial Conference & Exposition 'Desalination Comes of Age - The Answer for New Supplies,' Marriott Hotel, Anaheim, CA. Contact: American Membrane Technology Association, 611 S. Federal Highway, Suite A, Stuart, FL...

(((NEWS BRIEFS))) BUSINESS.
June 1, 2006... Cantel Buys Fluid Solutions Cantel Medical Corp. (Little Falls, NJ), through its Mar Cor Purification subsidiary, has expanded its water treatment business by purchasing the assets of Fluid Solutions, Inc. (Lowell, MA). Fluid Solutions designs,...

PROJECTS.
June 1, 2006... Blue Hills Plant to Open in Summer Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.'s (Nassau, The Bahamas) new Blue Hills RO plant is on schedule to begin delivering 5 million gallons of water per day to New Providence Island's Water and Sewerage Corp. on July...

RESEARCH.
June 1, 2006... Reactor Removes Pollutants Simultaneously Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) researchers are testing a sequencing batch membrane biofilm reactor (SBMBfR) for the simultaneous removal of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. The reactor...

PEOPLE.
June 1, 2006... Hydranautics Names Three to EU/ME Operations Hydranautics, Inc. (Oceanside, CA) has announced three new positions within their European and Middle East organization. Water industry veteran and long-time Hydranautics team leader Larry Pelegrin...

INDUSTRY INSIGHT Poseidon Defeats Desalination Challenges.
June 1, 2006... By Nikolay Voutchkov, Senior Vice President-Technical Services, Poseidon Resources Corp., 1055 Washington Blvd., Stamford, CT 06901; Tel: 203/327-7740, Fax: 203/253-1312 In May this year, Poseidon Resources was honored by the American...

Seawater Desalination.
June 1, 2006... Nikolay Voutchkov, Corporate Technical Director at Poseidon says, "We are delighted to have won the 2006 American Academy's award and to be recognized for our work in the field seawater desalination. Our research and development efforts are...

Evaluation of Alternative Pretreatment.
June 1, 2006... The side-by-side testing of granular media and membrane filtration systems for seawater desalination allowed to: Y Develop guidance for selection of alternative seawater pretreatment technologies; Y Quantify key advantages,...

Conclusion.
June 1, 2006... Seawater contains an order-of-magnitude higher level of boron than fresh water sources (i.e., river and lake water). Although boron is rejected to a great extent by the seawater RO membranes, its level in the desalinated water may exceed...