The invention provides a method for sterilizing a blood purifier, as well as a blood purifier package. The method is effective to decrease the amounts of extracts from the blood purifier attributed to the deterioration of the selectively permeable separation membranes with time during and after exposure to a radioactive ray or an electron ray, and is highly reliable in safety when employed for hemocatharsis therapy. The method for sterilizing a blood purifier which comprises substantially dried selectively permeable separation membranes as a main component, by way of the exposure of the same blood purifier to a radioactive ray and/or an electron ray, is characterized in that the blood purifier is sealed in a packaging bag, together with an oxygen scavenger and a humectant or together with an oxygen scavenger capable of releasing a moisture, and is then sterilized in such a sealed state by the above exposure.

There is provided a process for effecting separation of at least a gaseous permeate-disposed operative material from a gaseous supply material that is being supplied to a gaseous supply material receiving space that is disposed in mass transfer communication with a permeate receiving space through a membrane, the gaseous supply material including an operative material that defines a gaseous supply material-disposed operative material, and the membrane including a gel. The process includes replenishing liquid material that has become depleted from the gel.

A membrane system including an anti-fouling layer and a method of applying an anti-fouling layer to a membrane surface are provided. In an embodiment, the surface is a microfiltration (MF) or an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane surface. The anti-fouling layer can include a stimuli responsive layer and a dynamic protective layer applied over the stimuli responsive layer that can be a coating on a surface of the membrane. The stimuli responsive polymer layer can act as an adhesive prior to coating with the dynamic protective layer to aid in adhering the dynamic protective layer to the membrane surface. The dynamic protective layer can be formed by suitable nanoparticles that can prevent adhesion of foulants directly to the membrane surface. The stimuli responsive layer can be responsive to physio-chemical stimuli to cause a release of the stimuli responsive layer and the dynamic protective layer including foulants from the membrane.

An ion-exchange membrane is disclosed here including ion-permeable layers impregnated with an ion-exchange material and arranged in an order from one face of the membrane to the opposite face of the membrane such that opposing layers in the supporting membrane substrate provide sufficiently identical physical properties to substantially avoid irregular expansion when in a salt solution. The ion-permeable layers including at least one non-woven layer and at least one reinforcing layer.

There is provided a process for effecting separation of an operative material from a gaseous feed material via a membrane that includes a polymeric phase and a liquid phase, comprising: over a first time interval, within a first apparatus, separating a first fraction of the operative material in response to permeation of the first fraction of the operative material through the membrane, with effect that residual material, including unseparated operative material is discharged and, within a second apparatus, from the residual material, separating a second fraction of the operative material in response to permeation of the second fraction of the operative material through the membrane; and after the first time interval, disposing a liquid material relative to the membrane of the first apparatus, such that a first fraction of the liquid material replenishes the liquid phase of the membrane of the first apparatus, and residual liquid material is collected by a redistributor and redistributed such that the residual liquid material becomes disposed relative the membrane of the second apparatus, such that a second fraction of the liquid material replenishes the liquid phase of the membrane of the second apparatus.

Disclosed are methods of preparing antifouling coatings on reverse osmosis membranes with initiated chemical vapor deposition. The coatings enhance the stability and lifetime of membranes without sacrificing performance characteristics, such as permeability or salt retention.

A method of operating a filtration system including a hybrid filter assembly is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a pump that is in fluid communication with a pool or a spa, providing a hybrid filter assembly including a filtration module, providing a chemical cleaning system including a container configured to retain a chemical cleaning agent in which the container is in fluid communication with the hybrid filter assembly, and providing a controller in communication with the hybrid filter assembly and the chemical cleaning system. The method also includes the steps of determining via the controller an operational efficiency of the filtration module at a predetermined interval of time and initiating via the controller a chemical cleaning mode to clean the hybrid filter assembly.

An in-situ repair method for the surface of polyamide (PA) membrane after the destruction of oxidizing substances is provided. Lysozyme solution is mixed with tris (2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) buffer solution, and the PA membrane to be repaired is immersed in the mixed solution, after being taken out, the PA membrane to be repaired is rinsed, and the nano-protein coating with uniform changes in pore size, charge density and thickness is obtained on the surface of the PA membrane to be repaired. Then the amine solution modification is used, the surface of the nano-protein coating is grafted by amines, and the repaired PA membrane is obtained. The PA membrane to be repaired is immersed in a mixed solution for 1-24 h. The PA membrane repaired by nano-coating has a water permeability of 11.4 Lm.sup.2L.sup.1bar.sup.1 (LMH/bar) and a rejection rate of 98.5% to magnesium chloride for the nanofiltration (NF) membrane after strong chlorine destruction.

A control method for an RO system, which is a control method for an RO system that includes a plurality of RO devices 41 to 44 arranged in parallel, a control unit that controls a start/stop process including an operation process and a stop process of the RO devices 41 to 44, and a chemical injection unit that injects a chemical that mitigates fouling during the stop process. The control method performs control such that a number of times of start/stop increases for RO devices that are more likely to recover treatability through start/stop operations, and a stop-time is controlled according to a recovery rate.

A treatment method for a waste aqueous development liquid generated through development of a flexographic printing original plate by using an aqueous development liquid, the method including: a first filtration step of filtering the waste aqueous development liquid at 5 C. or more and 48 C. or less through a microfiltration membrane to give a recovered liquid and a concentrated waste liquid; and a reuse step of reusing the recovered liquid for development of a flexographic printing original plate.