Disclosed is a process for enriching silicate content in drinking water that includes separating raw water via reverse osmosis into a permeate comprising demineralised raw water and a retentate comprising mineral enriched raw water. The permeate is mixed with a water glass solution comprising sodium silicate and/or potassium silicate. An ion exchange process is used to reduce the concentration of sodium and/or potassium ions in at least part of the mixture. At least part of the retentate is supplied to the mixture after reducing the concentration of sodium and/or potassium ions to provide a silicate-enriched drinking water. Also disclosed is an apparatus for producing a drinking water enriched with silicate. The apparatus includes a reverse osmosis unit, a mixing unit, an ion exchanger, and a feed unit for feeding at least part of the retentate to the mixture after reducing the concentration of sodium and/or potassium ions.

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments, to systems for purifying proteins and carbohydrate rich products from photosynthetic aquatic species and compositions thereof. In some embodiments, a system for recovering a highly soluble protein product from a biomass comprising a microcrop (e.g., Lemna) may comprise (a) a lysing unit to lyse a first portion of the biomass to form a first portion of lysed biomass, (b) a first separating unit to separate the first portion of lysed biomass to generate a first portion of a juice fraction and a first portion of a solid fraction, (c) a second separating unit to separate the first portion of the juice fraction to generate a first portion of a first juice and a first portion of a first cake, (d) a first filtration unit to filter the first portion of the first juice to generate a first portion of a soluble protein and a first reject stream, (e) a second filtration unit to filter the first portion of the soluble protein to generate a first portion of a second soluble protein and a second reject stream, (f) a dewatering unit to concentrate the first portion of the second soluble protein to generate a first portion of a concentrated soluble protein, and (g) a drying unit to dry the first portion of the concentrated soluble protein to generate a first portion of a dry protein concentrate.

A method for extracting and purifying Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides comprises following steps: (1) fully disperse Dendrobium officinale powder in pure water to obtain crude liquid; (2) removing insoluble impurities from the crude liquid through a microfiltration membrane to obtain permeate 1 and retentate 1; (3) performing macroporous ultrafiltration treatment of the permeate 1 and collect permeate 2 and retentate 2; (4) adding an aqueous solution of edible alkali metal inorganic salt to the retentate 2, fully stirring and dissolving to obtain polysaccharide crude liquid, performing macroporous ultrafiltration treatment and collecting permeate 3 and retentate 3; (5) combining the permeate 2 and permeate 3, adding the combined permeate into an electrodialysis device for desalination, and collecting dilute solution and concentrated solution; (6) performing microporous ultrafiltration treatment of the dilute solution and collect retentate 4 and permeate 4; (7) carrying out freeze-drying of the retentate 4 to obtain Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides.

A method for producing an ethanol solution includes obtaining, from a starting liquid, a liquid feed having less than by weight of constituents and having 3% to 25% by weight of ethanol, supplying the liquid feed to a feed stream inlet of a reverse osmosis separation system having a first pass, wherein (i) each pass has an reverse osmosis membrane filtration unit, each membrane filtration unit having an ethanol rejection percentage of between 50% to 99%, and (ii) each pass has the feed stream inlet for a feed stream, a permeate stream outlet for a permeate stream, and a retentate stream outlet for a retentate stream, operating the system to maintain pressure in one of the membrane filtration units in a range of 1,200 to 4,000 psi, and obtaining retentate that is enriched with ethanol, the retentate differs from the starting liquid by absence of the removed constituents.

The present invention relates to a system for jointly producing erythritol and liquid sorbitol by using a corn starch, including a liquefaction tank, a saccharification tank, a filter and a nanofiltration assembly. The liquefaction tank is used to perform liquefaction for the corn starch, the saccharification tank is used to perform saccharification for the liquefied material, the filter is used to filter out impurities in the saccharified material to obtain a glucose liquid, and the nanofiltration assembly is used to perform nanofiltration for the filtered glucose liquid to respectively obtain a dialysate and a concentrate. The system further includes a fermentation and crystallization assembly for performing fermentation and crystallization for the dialysate to prepare crystalline erythritol, and a hydrogenation and evaporation assembly for performing hydrogenation and evaporation for the concentrate to prepare liquid sorbitol. The present invention further provides a method of jointly producing erythritol and liquid sorbitol by using a corn starch. The present invention not only improves the purity of erythritol but also obtains liquid sorbitol, thus improving the utilization value of the corn starch.

A method for operating a desalting device that has a first desalting device and a second desalting device, said method comprising: a normal operation step for supplying to-be-treated water to the first desalting device so as to separate the to-be-treated water into first concentrated water and first desalted water, and supplying the first concentrated water to the second desalting device so as to separate the first concentrated water into second concentrated water and second desalted water; and a recovery operation step for supplying the to-be-treated water to the first desalting device so as to separate the to-be-treated water into the first concentrated water and first permeate water, and passing dilute water having a lower concentration than the first concentrated water through the second desalting device so as to recover desalting performance of the second desalting device.

The reverse osmosis centrifuge converts rotational energy into fluid velocity and conserves the energy placed into the concentrate. As concentrate travels back towards the center of the reverse osmosis centrifuge, the velocity of the fluid is converted into rotational force, thus conserving energy. To accomplish this, the reverse osmosis centrifuge includes a stationary cylindrical housing having a vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump for generating vacuum pressure in the vacuum chamber, a driveshaft coupled to a membrane cylinder rotatable within the stationary cylindrical housing, the membrane cylinder having a plurality of vertical desalination membranes, and an energy recovery turbine. The reverse osmosis centrifuge can be placed on the concentrate or waste stream outlet of a desalination or reverse osmosis facility to increase freshwater production. Through using the methods described above, plant water production can be increased up to 40%, which in turn has a dramatic effect on plant profitability.

Processes and systems for filtering a liquid sample are provided. Batches of a liquid sample can be routed to two or more cycling tanks (e.g., first and second cycling tanks). Upon filling a first cycling tank, a first batch of the liquid sample can be routed to a filtration assembly by a continuous diafiltration process that includes routing produced retentate back to the first cycling tank or to a collection vessel. Upon filling a second cycling tank, a second batch of the liquid sample is routed to the filtration assembly by a continuous diafiltration process that includes routing produced retentate back to the second cycling tank or to the collection vessel. The filling and continuous diafiltration of batches of the liquid sample continues to alternate between the two or more cycling tanks until a total product volume is processed.

Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for controllably removing one or more solutes from a solution. Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for removing water from alcoholic beverages.

An integrated, membrane-based process to produce purified water and conversion of salt to high value chemicals from oil and gas well produced water is described. A liquid stream including water and dissolved salt is flowed through pretreatment units and one or more desalination and concentration units which remove at least a portion of the water to form a brine enriched in dissolved salt. The purified high-density brine may be subjected to electrically-enforced salt dissociation techniques to produce chemicals from oil and gas produced water.