A heat exchanger has a hollow fiber membrane layer comprised of a plurality of hollow fiber membrane conduits each of which has a hollow portion allowing a heat medium to pass therethrough. The conduits are derived by winding a base cord of the hollow fiber membrane onto a cylindrical body. The winding follows a generally helical trajectory around the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical body with a plurality of continuous round trips from the first end to the second end and turning back at each respective end, wherein each round trip completes a number of circumferential revolutions N, wherein N is greater than or equal to one, and wherein N is less than two.

The present invention provides devices and methods for concentrating a fluid and for treating a patient with the concentrated fluid. The concentrator apparatus includes a main housing (12) defining a separation chamber (14), a filter housing (48) containing a filter (46) comprising a filter element, a piping (44) for moving concentrated fluid from the separation chamber to the filter, and ports (32) for pressurizing the concentrated fluid past the filter element of the filter. The present invention also provides a variety of uses of concentrated body fluids, including autologous concentrated body fluid. The concentrated fluids can be used for example in surgical applications, including graft applications such as allograft, xenograft and autograft applications.

The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for desalination of high-salt and high-concentration organic wastewater by coupling three membrane separation technologies. Wastewater is subjected to diffusion desalination to obtain diffusion desalination wastewater and diffusion desalination circulating water; the diffusion desalination circulating water is subjected to reverse osmosis to obtain pure water and high-concentration salt water; and the diffusion desalination wastewater is subjected to forward osmosis to obtain forward osmosis wastewater and forward osmosis circulating water, where the forward osmosis wastewater is desalted and concentrated wastewater.

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 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.

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.

A membrane distillation module comprising a membrane distillation cartridge and a membrane distillation housing, wherein: the cartridge comprises a anchoring part in which porous membranes are anchored by resin; the housing comprises a housing body and a housing lid; the membrane distillation module comprises a support part where the outer surface of the anchoring part is supported by the inner surface of the housing with a seal member interposed therebetween; and a value C in the cross section of the support part is at least 30 C. as represented by the formula, where d.sub.F is the equivalent circular diameter (mm) of the outer circumference of the anchoring part, k.sub.F is the linear expansion coefficient (1/ C.) of the resin, d.sub.E is the equivalent diameter (mm) of the inner circumference of the housing, and k.sub.E is the linear expansion coefficient (1/ C.) of a portion where the housing contacts the seal member.

A membrane-based inverted liquid-liquid extraction method for extracting an analyte from an unsupported aqueous liquid sample includes sealing the unsupported aqueous liquid sample in a porous membrane bag, immersing the porous membrane bag in an organic solvent, and extracting the analyte from the unsupported aqueous liquid sample to produce an extract within the organic solvent. The unsupported aqueous liquid sample is immiscible with the organic solvent. The porous membrane bag does not contain a solid sorbent.

The invention relates to an apparatus and a process for mass- and/or energy-transfer between two media, in particular between blood and a gas/gas mixture, having a chamber (1) through which a first medium, in particular blood, flows and in which a bundle of mass- and/or energy-permeable hollow fibers through which the second medium can flow and around which the first medium can flow is arranged transverse to the flow direction of the first medium, in which the chamber (1) is configured as an elastic shell (3) at least in a region which completely surrounds the bundle, where a rigid housing (6) is arranged around the elastic shell (3) and the inner wall of the housing contacts the shell (3) in a plurality of first regions (9) and the inner wall of the housing is not in contact with and is in particular at a spacing from the shell (3) in at least one second region (10), preferably a plurality of second regions (10) in the direction of the extension of the hollow fibers, where the one hollow space or at least one of the plurality of hollow spaces formed in the second regions (10) between shell (3) and housing (6) joins a fluid connection (11) passing through the wall of the housing.

A method for modifying the flow capabilities of an existing tangential flow filtration (TFF) system is contemplated in which the processing capabilities of the existing static TFF system may be increased without requiring the addition of additional systems running in parallel. This may be achieved via adjusting or replacing certain of the components of the TFF skid to accommodate a tubing set having a larger (or smaller) internal diameter than the existing tubing set or the tubing set for which the TFF system was originally manufactured. In this fashion, it may be seen that an existing skid may have its flow capabilities dramatically increased. It is further contemplated that a retrofit kit for an existing TFF system for use according to the described method may be provided.