A water purifier comprising: a filter unit comprising at least one filter filtering water to generate purified water; a flow rate sensor measuring a flow rate of the water; a concentrated water channel discharging concentrated water, having been filtered by the filter unit; an extraction unit extracting the purified water; a flow rate control valve controlling a flow rate of purified water; an opening and closing degree measurement unit, measuring a degree of opening and closing of the flow rate control valve; a concentrated water ratio calculation unit, calculating a ratio between purified water and concentrated water, according to the degree of opening and closing of the flow rate control valve; and a controller, using the flow rate of water and the calculated ratio between purified water and concentrated water, to calculate amounts of water used, integrating the calculated amounts of water, and calculating a lifespan of the filter.

A method of integrity testing porous materials that is non-destructive to the material being tested. The inlet gas stream includes at least two gases, wherein one of the gases has a different permeability in liquid than the other, such as oxygen and nitrogen in water. The relative permeability of the gases is measured in the retentate stream, thereby avoiding accessing the permeate stream and potentially introducing contaminants to the material being tested. The integrity test is capable of detecting the presence of oversized pores or defects that can compromise the retention capability of the porous material.

Membranes used in membrane separation technologies change over time due to changes in physical characteristics of the membrane. Predicting remaining useful lifetime of a membrane is performed by fitting an evolution model of the membrane to real-time performance characteristics recorded for the membrane and by comparing later performance characteristics of the membrane to the evolution model. Updating an evolution model during membrane operation improves estimates of remaining useful membrane lifetime and allows for accurate estimates of estimated membrane end-of-life.

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.

A method for treating water including intaking a first amount of water into a plurality of treatment blocks, treating the first amount of water, outputting aqueous treated water streams from each of the plurality of treatment blocks, separating the aqueous treated water streams from each of the plurality of treatment blocks into aqueous permeate streams and concentrate reject streams, monitoring each of the aqueous permeate streams, controlling the operation of at least one of the plurality of treatment blocks based on predefined water-characteristic tolerances that fall within a predetermined concentration range based on the different qualities of the aqueous permeate streams, combining the aqueous permeate streams of at least two of the plurality of treatment blocks based on the identified characteristics and the predefined water-characteristic tolerances, and outputting the product water stream and the at least one concentrate reject stream.

A method for treating water including intaking a first amount of water into a plurality of treatment blocks, treating the first amount of water, outputting aqueous treated water streams from each of the plurality of treatment blocks, separating the aqueous treated water streams from each of the plurality of treatment blocks into aqueous permeate streams and concentrate reject streams, monitoring each of the aqueous permeate streams, controlling the operation of at least one of the plurality of treatment blocks based on predefined water-characteristic tolerances that fall within a predetermined concentration range based on the different qualities of the aqueous permeate streams, combining the aqueous permeate streams of at least two of the plurality of treatment blocks based on the identified characteristics and the predefined water-characteristic tolerances, and outputting the product water stream and the at least one concentrate reject stream.

The present invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a clogging location determination program for a separation membrane module, in which, in order to determine a clogging location of a separation membrane module in a fresh water generation system for obtaining treated water by filtrating water to be treated by a separation membrane module having a separation membrane, a computer is caused to function as a clogging location determination means for determining a clogging location of the separation membrane module from a resistance in a lower part of the separation membrane module, a filtration resistance of a hollow-fiber membrane, and a resistance in an upper part of the separation membrane module.

A reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17 including an RO membrane 17a that yields recycled water 18 and concentrated water 19 from pre-treated raw water (inflow water 16), salts being removed in the recycled water and salts being concentrated in industrial park waste water 11; monitoring apparatuses 21A and 21B disposed at an inflow water line L.sub.1 through which the inflow water 16 flows into the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17 or a concentrated water line L.sub.2 through which the concentrated water 19 flows out from the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17, which monitor the presence of chemical fouling causal substances in the inflow water 16 or the concentrated water 19; and a chemical supply section 22, which is a removal apparatus that removes the chemical fouling causal substances from the inflow water 16 on the front upstream side of the inflow into the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17, upon the presence of chemical fouling causal substances in the inflow water 16 or the concentrated water 19 being confirmed. Thus, the chemical fouling preventing system removes chemical fouling causal substance from inflow water 16 before it enters the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17.

A reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17 including an RO membrane 17a that yields recycled water 18 and concentrated water 19 from pre-treated raw water (inflow water 16), salts being removed in the recycled water and salts being concentrated in industrial park waste water 11; monitoring apparatuses 21A and 21B disposed at an inflow water line L.sub.1 through which the inflow water 16 flows into the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17 or a concentrated water line L.sub.2 through which the concentrated water 19 flows out from the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17, which monitor the presence of chemical fouling causal substances in the inflow water 16 or the concentrated water 19; and a chemical supply section 22, which is a removal apparatus that removes the chemical fouling causal substances from the inflow water 16 on the front upstream side of the inflow into the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17, upon the presence of chemical fouling causal substances in the inflow water 16 or the concentrated water 19 being confirmed. Thus, the chemical fouling preventing system removes chemical fouling causal substance from inflow water 16 before it enters the reverse osmosis membrane apparatus 17.

The present invention concerns a method for cleaning a filtration system under operation. The filtration system comprising a hydraulic circuit Cp recycling the permeate stream to the feed side of the membrane and/or a hydraulic circuit Cr recycling the retentate stream to the feed side of said membrane. The method comprises injecting an amount of a chemical product into the filtration system in the hydraulic circuit Cp or in the hydraulic circuit Cr or upstream of the cross-flow filtration membrane, setting the proportion of recycled permeate stream or recycled retentate stream collected in the hydraulic circuit Cp and/or Cr to enable the recycling of a significant amount of unreacted chemical product having passed through said cross-flow filtration membrane to the feed side of said cross-flow filtration membrane, as well as a filtration system for carrying out said method.