Tag: Membrane
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Solar membrane distillation ideal for remote areas
Fraunhofer ISE develops solar thermally driven compact desalination systems based on membrane distillation for a capacity range between 100 and 500 L/d and larger system capacities up to 10 m³/d. A modular design of systems is important in order to resize them to a wide range of user profiles. Membrane distillation (MD) is a separation…
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Depth Exposed Membrane for Water Extraction (DEMWAX™)
DXV Water Technologies has designed a novel membrane system that uses natural pressure, a very low recovery rate and gravity flow of feedwater past the membrane surface, resulting in an elegant, efficient system. Since the invention of the reverse-osmosis (RO) membrane researchers have tried to harness natural water-pressure, but past attempts mimic onshore processes with…
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Solar pond and membrane distillation merger in Nevada University
Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven membrane separation process that involves evaporation of volatile constituents (water in desalination applications) through a hydrophobic, microporous membrane. The vacuum-enhanced MD process recently patented by researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno in the United States has now been coupled with some equally interesting research at the university…
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Aquaporin-embedded membranes to fight water scarcity
Biomimetics – nature-inspired innovation – is one of the emerging technologies racing to become the first to effectively bring down the energy costs of desalination. Several groups and companies around the world are working on copying nature s method of transporting pure water across a membrane. One of them is Denmark-based Danfoss AquaZ A/S and…
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Perth provides world desalination sustainability model
As the USA finally starts its second large SWRO plant at Carlsbad, Australia is already into a second generation, with contracts let for the Southern Seawater desalination plant, the second to serve the Perth region. The author has for many years been a strong advocate of desalination and has promoted the technology around the world.…
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Going private is recipe for BWA’s exceptional growth
The Chief Operating Officer of a company, who found life under a corporate umbrella was holding back its growth, explains how the senior management took the company private and watched it grow by over 50% in two years. Robin Wiseman spoke to the president and COO of BWA Water Additives, Paul Turgeon. This article first…
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Ozone improves ceramic membrane use for wastewater reclamation
Ceramic membranes have been used in the industrial production of beer, wine and cheese. One of the reasons for this use is the narrow pore size distribution, where careful separation of different size compounds can be achieved. Outside of Japan, the use of ceramic membranes has been almost non-existent for municipal drinking-water systems. The slow…
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PESU membranes in municipal water treatment applications
In his previous article (D&WR August/September 2009), Dr Maletzko dealt with the use of polyethersulfone (PESU) membranes in pretreatment systems for seawater reverse osmosis. Here he looks at applications for municipal water treatment and claims improved virus removal and twice the permeability of PVDF membranes. This article first appeared in the November/December 2009 issue of…
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Boron nitride nanotube membranes outstrip carbon copies
One approach to improve the desalination process would be to design a more efficient membrane. Embedding nanotubes in the membrane is one area of research. Investigation of water transport through nanotubes in the past has primarily focused on carbon nanotubes, where the water has been found to flow extraordinarily fast in addition to rejecting salt…
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Low-Biofouling Polypropylene Feedspacers for Reverse Osmosis Applications
Polypropylene (PP) is a commercial polymer that is ubiquitous in membrane filtration as feedspacer due to its high chemical stability, low cost and versatile properties. The goal of this project was to develop low-biofouling polypropylene reverse-osmosis (RO) feed spacers, which can be used for desalination, through the functionalization of PP with copper ions since copper…