Membrane & Separation Technology News articles from March 2004

Membrane & Separation Technology News archives from March 2004

MEMBRANE CHROMATOGRAPHY: Brushing Up on Functionalized Polymers.
March 1, 2004... Scientists at eMembrane, Inc. are developing a range of multifunctional polymeric materials and membranes by means of electron-beam-induced grafting of nano/micro combinatorial polymer brushes. The novel materials feature surfaces containing...

REVERSE OSMOSIS: Electroactive Fibers Improve Salt Rejection.
March 1, 2004... Santa Fe Science and Technology (SFST) has received two Expeditionary Warfare Water Purification Awards from the U.S. Navy to investigate electrically conductive, hollow fiber RO membranes for desalinating water. Santa Fes technology is based...

Water Recyclied from Palm Oil Effluent.
March 1, 2004... Chemical engineers at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) have devised a process combining UF and RO that treats wastewater from palm oil production, creating high quality water suitable for reuse. Malaysia is the worlds largest producer...

Seaside Plant Runs on Wave Energy.
March 1, 2004... What may be the worlds first tidal-energy-run RO desalination plant has begun operations in the port of Vizhinjam on the Indian Sea. The tidal energy plant is generating 6kW to 7kW of electricity daily to produce 1,800 to 2,100 gallons of...

ULTRAFILTRATION: High Yield Purification of Protease Inhibitors.
March 1, 2004... Kemin Foods has patented a method involving ultrafiltration for removing protein impurities from the extracts of protease inhibitor-containing plant materials, such as potatoes. The inventors describe the process as highly efficient in removing...

GAS SEPARATION: P&E Increases Staff for Hydrogen Separation.
March 1, 2004... Power & Energy, Inc. (P&E) is developing a hydrogen separation membrane designed for use in fuel cell applications. The nanostructured high efficiency palladium alloy membrane will permit fuel cell users to cost-effectively generate high purity...

PERVAPORATION: TransIonics Cuts Sulfur without Octane Loss.
March 1, 2004... TransIonics Corp. has developed a pervaporation process called TranSep-S that will reduce the sulfur content of gasoline to 30ppm without a significant loss in octane. The pervaporation system selectively removes sulfur from naphtha streams for...

ELECTROCHEMICAL: Fujitsu Electrolyte Provides More Power.
March 1, 2004... Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has developed a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) membrane that enables the use of highly concentrated methanol (30% in water) as a fuel source. The technology is expected to provide much higher power capacities for...

Polyfuel Supplying Development Samples.
March 1, 2004... Start-up PolyFuel has launched a new polymer membrane for use in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) for laptops and cellphones. The PolyFuel DMFC membrane delivers performance and cost advantages over both traditional lithium ion batteries and...

BIOMEDICAL & BIOMEMBRANES: Pediatric Transplant Patients Benefit.
March 1, 2004... A team of British pediatricians have found that using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a short-term bridge to heart transplantation reduces the number of children who die waiting for the procedure. Blood oxygenators consist of...

Cells Detect ChemBio Hazards.
March 1, 2004... Researchers at Swedens Ume University are developing artificial phospholipid membranes for use in sensors that detect chemical and biological weapons including nerve gases, viruses, bacteria and other toxins. Under the auspices of FOI, the...

MARKET: Research Needs for Hydrogen Economy.
March 1, 2004... A recently released DOE report, Basic Research Needs for the Hydrogen Economy, outlines the challenges facing scientists in transitioning the nation toward an energy strategy founded on the Earths third most abundant element. One high priority...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Congress Hosting Membrane Workshops.
March 1, 2004... The 9th World Filtration Congress (WFC) will be held at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, April 18th through 24th. Organized by the American Filtration and Separation Society and the International Delegation on Filtration Association (INDEFI),...

EnChem Installed to Treat CMP Waste.
March 1, 2004... Taiwan's largest semiconductor manufacturer has chosen Ionics, Inc. to handle wastewater treatment using EnChem technology at three recently completed plants and a fourth plant now in construction. Under the multimillion-dollar contract...

Alliance Links Bioprocessing Strengths.
March 1, 2004... Millipore Corp. and HyClone Laboratories have formed a bioprocessing alliance that will offer biopharmaceutical manufacturers one supplier contact for the design, development, and validation support of disposable manufacturing systems. These...

Chemfab Investing in Own Water Plant.
March 1, 2004... Indian chloralkali manufacturer Chemfab Alkalies intends to invest $6 million in an RO plant that produces one million gallons per day of drinking-quality water from seawater. By constructing its own desalination facility, Chemfab can overcome...

Briefly Noted:.
March 1, 2004... * Millipore Corp.s (Billerica, MA) BioPharmaceutical division has launched the industrys first peel and stick labels on its filtration products to ensure process efficiency and simplify the documentation process. The new labels are part of a...

CALENDAR.
March 1, 2004... May 24-28, Engineering Conferences International-Advanced Membrane Technology II, Kloster Irsee, Irsee, Germany, Contact: Dr. Norman N. Li, NL Chemical Technology, Inc., 479 Business Center Drive, Suite 100, Mt. Prospect, IL 60056; Tel:...

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Unique Metrology Tool Aids QC of Membrane Filters.
March 1, 2004... By Roger Gagnon and Gerard E Mayers Pall Corp. needed to find a quick method of quantifying flatness on some of its tangential flow filtration cassettes without having to manually do so through the use of calipers. Tangential flow...

Explanation of TPSF.
March 1, 2004... Tactile pressure sensor film (TPSF) technology is non-destructive, relatively accurate, extremely efficient and easily calibrated. Generally speaking, any situation where two components either contact or impact in a normal (perpendicular)...

Interpretation of TPSF.
March 1, 2004... Once a compressive load has been applied, the TPSF can now be analyzed in several different ways. The quickest and most economic technique is by visual comparison to a color calibration chart (conceptually similar to using Litmus paper); this...

Conclusion.
March 1, 2004... Where implemented, TPSF as a measurement tool has generally resulted in a quite positive return on investment. With relative ease, the two fundamental attributes of seal efficacy, namely total force and average kg/cm2, can be visually assessed....