Disclosed herein are systems and methods in which multivalent ions are selectively retained in an aqueous stream. According to certain embodiments, multiple separations may be used to process an aqueous feed stream containing solubilized monovalent ions and solubilized multivalent ions to produce a stream enriched in the solubilized multivalent ions. The separations may be arranged, according to certain embodiments, to enhance the overall separation process such that the product stream containsrelative to the initial aqueous feed streama high amount of solubilized multivalent ions, a high amount of water from the aqueous feed stream, and/or a high ratio of solubilized multivalent ions to solubilized monovalent ions.

An artificial lung 100 has a filling portion 110 that communicates with an inlet port 101 and an outlet port 102 for blood and is filled with blood, a heat exchange portion 160 that includes a bundle of a plurality of hollow fibers 163 for heat exchange and is provided inside the filling portion, a gas exchange portion 170 that includes a bundle of a plurality of hollow fibers 173 for gas exchange and is provided inside the filling portion to be adjacent to the heat exchange portion, and a porous member 180 that is disposed in a gap 190 between the heat exchange portion and the gas exchange portion. A volume within the housing occupied by a wall of the porous member correspondingly reduces a priming volume within the housing available for conveying the blood (i.e., a bulk volume of the porous member partially blocks or fills the gap.

A disposable filter capsule for a filtration device comprises only one housing, which has an inflow connection for a fluid to be filtered and an outflow connection for filtrate. The disposable filter capsule also comprises at least two separate filter means, which are fixed in the housing and together with the housing form an inseparable structural unit. All the components of the disposable filter capsule consist of sterilizable, in particular gamma-sterilizable, materials.

A disposable filtration system can include a disposable filter housing having an ultrafiltration filter contained therein. The disposable filtration system can further include a feed inlet and retentate outlet in fluid communication on one side of the filter and a permeate conduit on the other side of the filter for withdrawing permeate that passes through the filter. The system can include at least one disposable pressure control valve in fluid communication with either the retentate outlet or the permeate conduit and configured to regulate the pressure within the housing.

A system for removing minerals from a brine using electrodialysis. One system includes a gypsum removal system configured to receive a feed stream having a first amount of gypsum, to extract at least a portion of the gypsum from the feed stream, and to produce a first output having a second amount of the gypsum less than the first amount of the gypsum. The system also includes an electrodialysis (ED) system fluidly coupled to the gypsum removal system and configured to receive the first output from the gypsum removal system, to produce a second output having a substantially sulfate hardness free sodium sulfate solution, to produce a third output having a sodium chloride solution, and to produce a fourth output having a mineral solution.

Perforated graphene and other perforated two-dimensional materials can be used in hemodialysis membranes and blood filtration membranes for selective removal of components from blood in vivo and ex vivo. The membranes are useful in hemodialysis and hemofiltration techniques to provide improved patient care. Hemodialysis systems can include a hemodialysis membrane formed from perforated graphene or another perforated two-dimensional material disposed upon a porous support structure. Hemofiltration systems can include one or more and preferably two or more blood filtration membrane formed from perforated graphene or another perforated two-dimensional material disposed upon a porous support structure. Methods for performing hemodialysis can involve exposing blood from a patient to a hemodialysis membrane formed from a perforated two-dimensional material. Ex vivo dialysis techniques can be performed similarly. Methods for filtration of blood can involve passing blood through one or more filter membranes or through a plurality of sequential filter membranes.

A method for conditioning natural gas into fuel gas, where the method includes the step of: delivering a natural gas stream including both CO.sub.2 and C2+ hydrocarbons to a membrane separation assembly; and separating the natural gas stream into the following streams: (i) a first permeate stream, (ii) a second permeate stream, and (iii) a residual stream. The first permeate stream includes CO.sub.2 removed from the natural gas stream. The second permeate stream includes methane at a greater concentration than a concentration of methane in the natural gas stream. The residual stream contains C2+ hydrocarbons at a greater concentration than a concentration of C2+ hydrocarbons in the natural gas stream.

The present invention relates to apparatuses for use in electrophoretic separation of macromolecules and/or cells.

Devices and methods are presented in which a plasma separation device with a first and second portion separates a blood containing fluid. Most preferably, the first portion produces a cell fraction and a plasma fraction, and the second portion captures the plasma fraction. A first actuator then fluidly isolates a portion of the plasma fraction within the second portion, and a second actuator moves the isolated portion of the plasma fraction from the second portion.

An integrated forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) module and systems and methods incorporating the module is disclosed providing higher efficiencies and using less energy. The FO-MD module is osmotically and thermally isolated. The isolation can prevent mixing of FO draw solution/FO permeate and MD feed, and minimize dilution of FO draw solution and cooling of MD feed. The module provides MD feed solution and FO draw solution streams that flow in the same module but are separated by an isolation barrier. The osmotically and thermally isolated FO-MD integrated module, systems and methods offer higher driving forces of both FO and MD processes, higher recovery, and wider application than previously proposed hybrid FO-MD systems.