A system and method for increasing the efficiency of a multi-pass nanofiltration system associated with water desalination and mineral extraction. A saline source water is preferably subjected to a first treatment by passage through a first nanofiltration unit, followed by a second treatment by passage through a second nanofiltration unit. At least a portion of the second nanofiltration unit's reject stream is recirculated to the inlet of the first nanofiltration unit, thereby increasing the production of permeate from the first nanofiltration unit, as well as increasing the purity of monovalent ions in the first nanofiltration unit permeate. Further nanofiltration units with one or more recirculated reject streams may be connected in series and/or in parallel with the first and second nanofiltration units.

This specification describes membrane based filtration and softening systems and methods. A system has a microfiltration or ultrafiltration (MF/UF) membrane unit upstream of a nanofiltration or reverse osmosis (NF/RO) membrane unit, optionally with no intermediate tank. In some cases, the system and method may be used with feed water provided at municipal line pressure to the membranes. NF/RO permeate is collected in a tank and then pumped to a header. Treated water may be drawn from the header for use or recycled to the system, for example to backwash or flush one or both of the membrane units. In a combined process, NF/RO permeate flushes the feed side of the NF/RO unit and then backwashes the MF/UF unit. In another process, the MF/UF unit and NF/RO unit are filled with NF/RO permeate before being placed in a standby mode.

Provided are electrodialysis systems for removing silica from a desalinated water stream and methods for removing silica from a desalinated water stream. For example, described are bipolar membrane electrodialysis devices for removing silica from water comprising one or more anion exchange membranes; one or more bipolar membranes; and a pair of electrodes comprising a positive electrode and a negative electrode. Also described are electrodialysis systems comprising: one or more electrodialysis devices for the removal of dissolved ions and one or more bipolar membrane electrodialysis devices, wherein a product inlet stream of the one or more bipolar membrane electrodialysis devices comprises the product outlet stream of the one or more electrodialysis devices.

A two-stage electrodialysis system and a method for recovering waste CO.sub.2-lean amine solvent are provided. The system includes an amine solution pretreatment filtering system, a C-A homogeneous membrane electrodialysis device, a BP-A bipolar membrane electrodialysis system, and a CO.sub.2 recovery and capture system. The C-A homogeneous membrane electrodialysis system includes a material chamber, a C-A homogeneous membrane electrodialysis device, a concentrated HSSs waste solution chamber, an electrode solution chamber, and corresponding pipelines and peristaltic pumps. The BP-A bipolar membrane electrodialysis system includes a secondary feed chamber, a BP-A bipolar membrane electrodialysis device, an acid liquor chamber, an electrode solution chamber, and corresponding pipelines and peristaltic pumps. The waste CO.sub.2-lean amine solvent enters the material chamber after passing through the amine solution pretreatment filtering system. The concentrated HSSs waste solution chamber is connected to the secondary feed chamber by a buffer tank.

The present application provides a water treatment method, a water treatment device, and a slime inhibitor for membranes that are capable of, in water treatment using a separation membrane and a reverse osmosis membrane in the subsequent stage, inhibiting the generation of a slime both in the separation membrane and in the reverse osmosis membrane by a simple method. The water treatment method includes adding an iodine-based oxidizer to water to be treated, subjecting the water to be treated obtained during the adding of the iodine-based oxidizer to filtration with the separation membrane, and causing filtrated water obtained during the filtration to be separated with the reverse osmosis membrane into permeated water and concentrated water.

A filtering device is for obtaining a chemical liquid by purifying a liquid to be purified, and has an inlet portion, an outlet portion, a filter A, at least one filter B different from the filter A, and a flow path which includes the filter A and the filter B arranged in series between the inlet portion and the outlet portion and extends from the inlet portion to the outlet portion, in which the filter A includes at least one kind of porous membrane selected from the group consisting of a first porous membrane having a porous base material made of polytetrafluoroethylene and a non-crosslinked coating which is formed to cover the porous base material and contains a perfluorosulfonic acid polymer and a second porous membrane containing polytetrafluoroethylene blended with a perfluorosulfonic acid polymer.

An apparatus includes a filtration skid configured to generate a filtrate through at least one of microfiltration and ultrafiltration. The apparatus further includes a desalination skid fluidly connected to the filtration skid. The desalination skid is configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to generate a permeate, where the filtrate travels from the filtration skid to the desalination skid without traversing a storage tank. In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a controller, where the filtration skid and the desalination skid are integrated to provide self-adaptive operation of the filtration skid and the desalination skid in response to control by at least one of a supervisory controller and a local controller. In one embodiment, the control responds to at least one of temporal variability of feed water quality, a permeate production capacity target, and a permeate quality target.

A two-reactor catalytic system including a catalytic membrane gasification reactor and a catalytic membrane water gas shift reactor. The catalytic system, for converting biomass to hydrogen gas, features a novel gasification reactor containing both hollow fiber membranes that selectively allow O.sub.2 to permeate therethrough and a catalyst that facilitates tar reformation. Also disclosed is a process of converting biomass to H2. The process includes the steps of, among others, introducing air into a hollow fiber membrane; mixing the O.sub.2 permeating through the hollow fiber membrane and steam to react with biomass to produce syngas and tar; and reforming the tar in the presence of a catalyst to produce more syngas.

Systems and methods for purification and concentration of autologous alpha-2 macroglobulin (A2M) from whole blood and or recombinant A2M are provided. Also provided are methods of treating wounds with A2M. Methods for utilizing A2M in combination with other treatments (e.g., platelets and other growth factors) are provided in addition to combinations with exogenous drugs or carriers. Also provided is a method of producing recombinant A2M wild type or variants thereof where the bait region was modified to enhance the inhibition characteristics of A2M and/or to prolong the half-life of the protein for treating wounds.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods of extracting a high protein food product from legumes comprising: milling a supply of legumes to form a fine powder; hydrating the fine powder to form a liquid slurry; separating solids from the liquid slurry to form a milk-like fluid; pasteurising said milk-like fluid to remove unwanted organisms therefrom; filtrating said pasteurised milk-like fluid to remove permeates therefrom to form a substantially liquid product; and removing most of the moisture from the substantially liquid product to generate a high protein food product in the form of a powder.