A system for cleaning feed water of variable quality, the system comprising an inlet for selectively delivering feed water (FW) to one or other of at least two feed chambers (2,4), each feed chamber having a delivery pipe (2i, 4i) for delivering feed water to a reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8); a pump (6) to deliver the feed water from one of the chambers (2, 4) through its associated delivery pipe (2i, 4i) to the reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8) to create a concentrated feed stream and a product water stream (PW); return pipes (2R, 4R) for selectively returning the concentrated feed stream to one or other of the at least two feed chambers (2, 4); a product water outlet for removal of the product water (PW); and means for switching the delivery of the concentrated feed stream between the selectable return pipes (2R, 4R) upon detection of a predetermined reduction in the efficiency of the RO or NF process within one or other of the feed chambers (2, 4). The pressure of the concentrated feed stream is reduced to atmospheric pressure prior to its delivery back to the chamber and the feed stream passes through a desaturation unit (20).

Disclosed by the invention is a method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore, comprising the steps of: preparing lithium sulfate leachate from lithium ore concentrate, removing Fe.sup.2+ and Al.sup.3+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by adding alkali, removing Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by an ion exchange method, adding a saturated solution of soda ash into the obtained concentrated solution of lithium sulfate leachate, precipitating lithium carbonate, filtering and separating the lithium carbonate precipitate, washing with hot water and drying to obtain a finished lithium carbonate product. The invention saves the production cost, and obviously improves the purity of lithium carbonate as a final product. In addition, disclosed by the invention is also a system for realizing the method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore.

Disclosed by the invention is a method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore, comprising the steps of: preparing lithium sulfate leachate from lithium ore concentrate, removing Fe.sup.2+ and Al.sup.3+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by adding alkali, removing Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by an ion exchange method, adding a saturated solution of soda ash into the obtained concentrated solution of lithium sulfate leachate, precipitating lithium carbonate, filtering and separating the lithium carbonate precipitate, washing with hot water and drying to obtain a finished lithium carbonate product. The invention saves the production cost, and obviously improves the purity of lithium carbonate as a final product. In addition, disclosed by the invention is also a system for realizing the method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore.

A method for highly concentrating aqueous solutions containing thermally sensitive organic constituents and with or without mineral constituents, wherein firstly, a major portion of the water is extracted by membrane filtration from the solution for pre-concentration and is discharged from the process and the solution which is pre-concentrated is then subjected to a freeze concentration procedure, in which, in the form of separated ice crystallisate, further water is extracted from the solution. To promote results, that concentration may be effected in the freeze concentration procedure until a viscosity of the mother solution of at least 0.0002 m.sup.2/s is achieved, and in that the separated ice crystallisate from the freeze concentration with the mother solution adhering thereto as a suspension is returned to the membrane filtration upstream of the membrane filtration or after melting of the ice crystallisate.

A method for highly concentrating aqueous solutions containing thermally sensitive organic constituents and with or without mineral constituents, wherein firstly, a major portion of the water is extracted by membrane filtration from the solution for pre-concentration and is discharged from the process and the solution which is pre-concentrated is then subjected to a freeze concentration procedure, in which, in the form of separated ice crystallisate, further water is extracted from the solution. To promote results, that concentration may be effected in the freeze concentration procedure until a viscosity of the mother solution of at least 0.0002 m.sup.2/s is achieved, and in that the separated ice crystallisate from the freeze concentration with the mother solution adhering thereto as a suspension is returned to the membrane filtration upstream of the membrane filtration or after melting of the ice crystallisate.

This disclosure provides a method for concentrating a solution of a macromolecule that is retained on at least two semi-permeable membranes that have different molecular weight cutoffs (MWCOs), the method comprising passing the solution through a hybrid configuration of said semi-permeable membranes staged in series in a single pass tangential flow filtration (SPTFF) apparatus. The method is applicable to the efficient concentration of biological macromolecules such as proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids.

Disclosed are methods for preparing dairy compositions using an ultrafiltration step and a nanofiltration step, followed by diafiltration of the nanofiltration retentate, and then at least one of a reverse osmosis and a forward osmosis step.

A filter module analysis system configured for the analysis of a filter module having a filter element contained within a housing, the housing having an inlet, a clean outlet and a waste outlet. A clean outlet sensor assembly can be provided about the clean outlet, and a waste outlet sensor assembly can be provided about the waste outlet. A data collection and network communication mechanism can be configured to receive process and receive data from the clean and waste outlet sensor assemblies and transmit the data over a network to a server form storage and processing filter module statuses based on flow detected flow parameters.

The present invention aims to provide a method for preparing exosomes comprising: (i) a step for ultrafiltering a sample containing at least one exosome; and (ii) a step for subjecting the sample that can be obtained from step (i) to anion exchange column chromatography.

The present invention aims to provide a method for preparing exosomes comprising: (i) a step for ultrafiltering a sample containing at least one exosome; and (ii) a step for subjecting the sample that can be obtained from step (i) to anion exchange column chromatography.