A system and method provide improved ultrafiltration of charged/uncharged solutes in a fluid, especially a body fluid. The improvement is achieved through imposed electric field and/or surface charge patterning to a permeable membrane. In many of the embodiments, at least one selected material is used as an additive on a permeate side of the permeable membrane to reduce the sieving coefficient of the membrane with regard to a solute present in the fluid.

A porous membrane for use in an electroosmotic pump for pumping a fluid by electroosmotic transport, the porous membrane comprising: first and second opposite surfaces and a net fluid flow direction extending in the porous membrane between said opposite surfaces, wherein when a given amount of charge flows through the porous membrane from the first to the second opposite surface more electroosmotic transport of the fluid will occur than when the same amount of charge flows through the porous membrane from the second to the first, opposite surface.

An array of hollow nanotubes is configured and dimensioned to allow impurities to transport through the hollow nanotubes from a first space containing an impurity-laden fluid to a second space where the impurities may be collected for removal, allowing fluids, such as blood, to be purified.

An array of hollow nanotubes is configured and dimensioned to allow impurities to transport through the hollow nanotubes from a first space containing an impurity-laden fluid to a second space where the impurities may be collected for removal, allowing fluids, such as blood, to be purified.

The present invention relates to an extracorporeal circuit for CO.sub.2 removal from blood comprising a line for taking blood from the patient, a decarboxylation assembly and a line for returning the blood to the patient; said decarboxylation assembly comprising a first filtering unit, an oxygenator, an electrodialyzer adapted to generate an acid solution and a basic solution and means for the infusion of said acid solution upstream of said oxygenator, wherein said electrodialyzer comprises a first electrodialysis chamber and a second electrodialysis chamber, said first and second electrodialysis chambers being separated by an ionic membrane, and in that wherein said first chamber and said second chamber are respectively separated from the positive electrode, or anode, and from the negative electrode, or cathode, by means of a bipolar membrane.

The present invention relates to an extracorporeal circuit for CO.sub.2 removal from blood comprising a line for taking blood from the patient, a decarboxylation assembly and a line for returning the blood to the patient; said decarboxylation assembly comprising a first filtering unit, an oxygenator, an electrodialyzer adapted to generate an acid solution and a basic solution and means for the infusion of said acid solution upstream of said oxygenator, wherein said electrodialyzer comprises a first electrodialysis chamber and a second electrodialysis chamber, said first and second electrodialysis chambers being separated by an ionic membrane, and in that wherein said first chamber and said second chamber are respectively separated from the positive electrode, or anode, and from the negative electrode, or cathode, by means of a bipolar membrane.

Ion Concentration Polarization (ICP) purification devices and methods for building massively-parallel implementations of the same, said devices being suitable for separation of salts, heavy metals and biological contaminants from source water.

Ion Concentration Polarization (ICP) purification devices and methods for building massively-parallel implementations of the same, said devices being suitable for separation of salts, heavy metals and biological contaminants from source water.

The invention relates to a spacer with mixing elements, particularly for membrane modules. The spacer comprises a three-dimensional net with mesh (1) having the shape of polygons with number of sides n≥5, with at least one pair of sides made of support beams (2) which are not in contact with one another, parallel to one another, preferably inclined from the axis defining the direction of the flow, each of which fits in the volume of a cylinder and is in contact with the surface of membranes (4), with at least one pair of vertices of the sides made of support beams (2) is connected with one another by means of two connectors (3) comprising mixing elements which are not in contact with the surface of both membranes (4) and forming between them an angle β<180°, each of the connectors (3) fits in the volume of a solid formed by twisting a cylinder along its longitudinal axis by 90°, the spacer having, at least on part of its surface, mixing elements fixed in the net mesh, each of which is made of two beams (101) of the height of 0.1-10 mm, preferably 0.3 mm, being support points of the membrane (103), which are in contact with the membrane (103) and comprise side edges of a polyhedron being a mesh of the net and are connected by at least two connectors (102a) and (102b), intersecting at an angle (γ) in the range of 0-180°, preferably 30°, or interweaving in at least one point of a flat projection on a plain defined by axes of the beams (101). The spacer makes it possible to minimize fluid flow resistance and operate with a high linear flow velocity in constant conditions.

There is provided a system and method for angstrom confinement of trapped ions. The method including: receiving water molecules and ionic compounds in a first reservoir, an angstrom confinement assembly is positioned between the first reservoir and a second reservoir, the angstrom confinement assembly defining angstrom conduits; and repeatedly applying an electric field across a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode on a same side of the angstrom confinement assembly as the first reservoir and the second electrode on a same side of the angstrom confinement assembly as the second reservoir, the electric field applied such that, when the electric field is applied, positive ions of the ionic compounds are induced to flow through the angstrom conduits, and wherein, when the electric field is not applied, water molecules flow into the angstrom conduits due to capillary forces to confine the positive ions in the angstrom conduits.