Systems and processes for purifying and concentrating a liquid feed stream are disclosed. In the systems, the concentrated liquid output from the high pressure side of a reverse osmosis stage is used as the draw solution in the low pressure side of the reverse osmosis stage in a configuration called osmotically assisted reverse osmosis. This reduces the osmotic pressure differential across the membrane, permitting high solute concentrations to be obtained, hastening the purification of the liquid. Reduced system pressures are also obtained by arranging multiple osmotically assisted reverse osmosis stages in a cross-current arrangement. Overall system energy consumption is reduced compared to conventional thermal processes for high concentration streams.

The present disclosure relates to osmotic power plants and method for their operation. For example, a method for operating an osmotic power plant may include: supplying a starting solution containing a first substance to the thermal separating facility; evaporating the starting solution in an evaporator; discharging the substance out of the evaporator with a gaseous medium flowing through the evaporator; converting the discharged substance to a liquid phase in a condenser and thereby generating the first solution; wherein the substance is more easily converted to a gas phase than the solvent of the starting solution. The first solution has a first concentration the substance dissolved in a solvent. A second solution has a second, lesser concentration of the substance. The first solution is provided by a thermal separating facility.

An apparatus for reducing the total dissolved solids of a solution includes a unit having at least two chambers; a respective semi-permeable membrane arrangement disposed between each of the at least two chambers; a device for introducing respective solutions into, and withdrawing solutions from, the chambers; and at least one paddle disposed in each of said chambers. The paddles are configured to sweep opposite sides of each of the semi-permeable membrane arrangements. A device provides relative movement between the paddles and the semi-permeable arrangements.

Separation processes using forward osmosis are disclosed generally involving the extraction of a solvent from a first solution to concentrate a solute therein by using a second concentrated solution to draw the solvent from the first solution across a semi-permeable membrane. One or both of the solute and solvent may be a desired product. By manipulating the equilibrium of the soluble and insoluble species of solute within the second solution, a saturated second solution can be used to generate osmotic pressure on the first solution. The various species of solute within the second solution can be recovered and recycled through the process to affect the changes in equilibrium and eliminate waste products. Enhanced efficiency may result from using low grade waste heat from industrial or commercial sources.

The present disclosure relates to a salinity (NaCl) difference energy generating system and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a structural asymmetric ionic transport channel by inducing partial thermal expansion of a laminated film in which vermiculite is re-stacked and an energy generating system capable of producing power by abundant low-cost resources based on the method. The energy power generating device according to the present disclosure is capable of generating power with an easy capacity control and abundant low-cost resources, and the energy power generating device satisfying size characteristics, structural stability characteristics, and furthermore, filtering characteristics may stably produce electrical energy using a solution having a concentration similar to that of seawater and river water.

A system for treatment of a brine feed, the system including a hybrid reactor, the reactor having a plurality of forward osmosis membranes configured to permit the passage of a draw solution solute through the middle of the membrane to draw water across the membrane wall from the brine feed so as to generate diluted solute, and a plurality of membrane electrode assemblies configured to separate ions of the salt in the brine feed to concentrate the salt ions, each membrane electrode assembly having an anion exchange membrane and a cation exchange membrane; whereby each membrane electrode assembly houses a plurality of forward osmosis membranes therewithin.

Embodiments described herein relate to methods and systems for dewatering solutions via forward osmosis.

Provided are a curable composition including a compound expressed by General Formula (1) below; a polymerization initiator; and a chain transfer agent, and a cured polymer product. ##STR00001##
In General Formula (1), m represents an integer of 1 to 4, and n represents an integer of 1 to 4. Here, a sum of m and n is not greater than 5. M.sup.A represents a hydrogen ion, an inorganic ion, or an organic ion. Here, an inorganic ion and an organic ion may be bivalent or higher ions. Each of R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 independently represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group.

[Problem] To provide a membrane for the forward osmosis method, which keeps a high porosity, reduces concentration polarization by appropriately controlling the pore distribution, achieves both high water permeability and a self-supporting property, and has high chemical durability such that the membrane is applicable to various draw solutions. [Solution] A separation membrane having a structure inclined from an outer surface side to an inner surface side, a ratio between a thickness of a dense layer having a dense polymer density and a thickness of a coarse layer having a coarse polymer density being in a range of 0.25≦(the thickness of the coarse layer)/[(the thickness of the dense layer)+(the thickness of the coarse layer)]≦0.6, when measuring polymer density distribution in a thickness direction of the separation membrane by Raman spectroscopy.

A method for manufacturing a porous device (10) is described. The method comprises creating (340) a carbon nanomembrane (40) on a top surface (22) of a base material (20) having latent pores (23) and etching (360) the latent pores (23) in the base material (20) to form open pores (24). The porous device (10) can be used as a filtration device.