A water treatment apparatus is provided. The water treatment apparatus includes a filtering unit including a water filter filtering raw water, a sterilizing water generator producing sterilizing water from purified water filtered by at least a portion of the filtering unit, and a discharge member through which the purified water, filtered by the filtering unit, is discharged externally. The sterilizing water produced in the sterilizing water generator sterilizes the discharge member and at least a portion of a flow path connected to the discharge member.

The present invention teaches a design of apparatus using which microspheres of customizable uni-sizes may be produced through a greatly simplified process. The apparatus consists a microsphere-forming unit, a microsphere rinsing unit, and a sterile hood that isolate the other two unit within a sterilized cover. The microsphere-forming unit enables the processed of microsphere formation, solidification and collection simultaneously. The sterile hood allow the microsphere producing operation be carried out within a glove box, preventing direct contact of operator with the sterilized materials of the microspheres. The apparatus has also a refrigerator wherein the microsphere collector and final product storage are placed for extracting the solvent of microsphere-forming materials and stabilizing the final product, respectively.

The hybrid desalination system is a desalination system for seawater which uses both filtering and treatment from a reverse osmosis filter system as well as evaporative distillation for the production of potable water. The hybrid desalination system includes a recovery system, which may be a reverse osmosis system, a forward osmosis system, or a combination thereof, for at least partially desalinating a volume of saltwater and outputting a treated fluid. A boiler is in fluid communication with the recovery system for receiving the treated fluid and producing pure water by evaporative desalination. The boiler includes an internal heating coil for passing a heated working fluid therethrough. A collection tank is in communication with to the boiler for receiving the pure water. At least one solar parabolic trough is in fluid communication with the internal heating coil of the boiler for heating the heated working fluid.

A method is disclosed for preventing carbon nanotube degradation in ionizable environments. The method includes immersing a porous thin-film nanotube (CNT)/polymer composite Joule heating element in an ionizable environment; and applying an alternating current at a frequency of at least 100 Hz to the porous thin-film nanotube (CNT)/polymer composite Joule heating element in the ionizable environment.

The present invention relates generally to an effluent treatment device including in one embodiment a skid configuration. The method and apparatus of the present invention can use only two fluid pump units and including individual or multiple membrane modules in a stacked longitudinally arranged configuration. The stacked or in series modules can be either vertical or horizontal forming a column. The membrane modules are contained in large diameter pipes with enough space around each module so that filtered permeate water collects in the pipe and backwash water can flow in the pipe to backwash the modules and contained membranes. The present invention includes one or more hollow fiber ceramic membrane modules which each includes multiple hollow fibers bundled together by end or band caps (e.g., ceramic, epoxy of glass material end caps) to form a complete membrane module. A complete hollow fiber membrane module can comprise multiple symmetric individual hollow fibers between about 2.0 to 4.00 millimeters inside diameter and can be made of aluminium oxide (Al.sub.2O.sub.3) substrate material. The geometry of the individual ceramic fiber walls can be between about 1.0 to 2.0 millimeters in thickness, known as the membrane wall. Such ceramic hollow fibers can have pores including a range of nominal 1 nanometer to 1400 nanometers. The ceramic hollow fibers can comprise selective membranes pores including a range of nominal 1 nanometer to 1400 nanometers which may include individual or multiple separating layers attached to the fiber walls of nominal 1 to 100 nanometers. The separating layers can each be a porous polymeric material. In one embodiment, a skid mounted treatment device is operable to pass water through an individual hollow fiber ceramic membrane module or multiple membrane modules in series known as a membrane loop. Filtration is inside to out flow filtration through the hollow fiber membranes. The apparatus is also operable to pass water through the hollow fiber ceramic filter module or multiple membrane modules in an outside to in flow direction, so as to remove material from the separation layer of the hollow fiber ceramic membrane fibers, a process known as backwashing or back flushing. Contaminant materials (retentate) having been deposited during inside-out filtration of the commercial or industrial laundry effluent is removed with such back flushing.

The present invention provides a method of treating a commercial or industrial laundry wastewater stream. The method and apparatus treats a commercial laundry waste stream from a commercial washing machine or machines wherein the waste includes total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, turbidity, and bacteria. The waste stream is transmitted to a first treatment unit that has a membrane filter that filters particles of between about 6 and 40 nanometers. At the first treatment unit, the waste stream is separated into a permeate stream and a retentate component. The retentate component is transmitted to a second treatment unit that filters particles of between about 3 and 10 nanometers. The permeate stream is then transmitted to a permeate holding vessel after treatment in the second treatment unit. The retentate component is placed in a mixing vessel where it is mixed with a polymer to form a solid waste.

A membrane module includes a housing, a membrane structure housed in the housing, a sealing portion configured to seal a gap between the housing and the membrane structure, and a cooling portion configured to cool a portion of the housing in contact with the sealing portion.

A vapor-absorption refrigeration (VAR) system. The VAR system includes a VAR section having a condenser, an absorber, an evaporator, a first desorber, a second desorber, a first heat exchanger, a second heat exchanger, at least four throttling valves, and at least two pumps. The VAR section heats a saline water feed stream using heat released from the absorber and the condenser, producing cooling effect. The VAR system includes a direct contact membrane distillation-absorber (DCMD-Abs) section receiving the hot saline water feed stream. The DCMD-Abs section comprises DCMD-Abs modules linked in series. Each DCMD-Abs module includes a saltwater feed compartment and a water compartment, and a membrane. Due to temperature difference between the saline water feed stream and cooling water stream, water vapors are produced by evaporation in the saltwater feed compartment and passes through the membrane to the water compartment to be condensed therein.

The present disclosure relates to a hybrid AD-DCMD desalination system, where two subsystems, such as AD and DCMD, are integrated synergistically to maximize freshwater production. The waste heat released from an AD condenser is used to drive the DCMD subsystem in a first configuration of the hybrid AD-DCMD system, while another configuration relies on the heat released due to an exothermic adsorption process in an adsorption bed. The DCMD subsystem is included to exploit the waste heat of the AD subsystem to enhance performance. In both these configurations, seawater is used to release the heat from the AD subsystem, which is then fed into the DCMD subsystem. The hybrid AD-DCMD system configurations demonstrate improved performance in terms of GOR, specific daily water production (SDWP), and freshwater cost reduction.

The invention relates to an arrangement for providing sterile water for injection purposes. A device for heating drinking water above the boiling point, a device for maintaining a chamber inner pressure which lies below the atmospheric pressure, and an electronic controller are provided, and the chamber is equipped with at least one membrane which is impermeable for liquids and a film or plate at a distance from the membrane, wherein steam which is permeated through the membrane is condensed on the film of plate. The membrane and the film or plate form a module, and the condensed water can be removed from the chamber via an outlet as sterile water for injection purposes.