The present system is for simultaneous recovery of purified water and dissolved solids from impure high TDS water (1) which is achieved in a single step and eliminates the use of external thermal energy for making the system significantly efficient. It eliminates the use of boiler, cooling tower that reduces the overall capital cost and continuous requirement of external thermal energy for making system efficient. The simultaneous recovery of the purified water and solids from high TDS input effluent reduce the energy intensity of the system. Said system provides a vacuum system as heat pump which enables the system to be self-sufficient in thermal energy requirements for evaporation process and reduces GHG emissions significantly.

The invention provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

A hermetically sealed horizontal washing decanter centrifuge for enhanced drilling fluid recovery and drilled solids washing. A process and apparatus for liquid phase-solid phase separation of oil based drilling mud-containing drill cuttings is described including flowing the drilling mud-containing drill cuttings into a horizontal washing decanter wherein the stresses imposed within the decanter act as a wash as the diluent and oil based drilling mud move away from the drill cuttings. Diluent is added prior to flowing the drilling mud containing drill cutting to the hermetically sealed horizontal washing decanter centrifuge. The entire process is performed in a gas-tight environment preventing escape of diluent from the process into the external atmosphere and preventing introduction of gases into the process from the external atmosphere.

A process for bio-1,3-butanediol purification from a fermentation broth includes the steps of: (a) subjecting the fermentation broth to separation, (b) subjecting the product obtained in step (a) to treatment with ion-exchange resins, (c) subjecting the product obtained in step (b) to a first evaporation, (d) subjecting the product obtained in step (c) to a second evaporation; and (e) subjecting the product obtained in step (d) to a third evaporation, obtaining purified bio-1,3-butanediol. The purified bio-1,3-butanediol can be used to produce bio-1,3-butadiene. Bio-1,3-butadiene can be used as a monomer or as an intermediate to produce elastomers and (co)polymers.

The present invention is a CO.sub.2 based hydrometallurgical multistage reaction and separation system comprising: a pre-washing device configured to fully mix the feedstock, such as industrial solid waste, mineral and mine tailings with auxiliary reagents and water at specific ratio, a reactor configured to treat the washed slurry with CO.sub.2 bubbling and discharge the treated slurry to the next stage, multistage separators configured to separate solid particles from treated slurry and recycle the unreacted solids back into the pre-washing device, a by-product preparation device configured to generate calcium and magnesium based products from filtrate containing target elements, a water recirculating device configured to recycle the remaining liquor back to the system. The present invention ensures the whole system is able to continuously and consistently react at maximum capacity through continuous slurry feeding and CO.sub.2 bubbling into the reactors which also enables multistage circulating reaction.

The present invention relates to an in-line blending apparatus and use therein for flocculating and dewatering an aqueous mineral suspension. Said method comprises blending an aqueous mineral suspension and a poly(ethylene oxide) (co)polymer using a progressive cavity pump. Said method is particularly useful for the treatment of suspensions of particulate material, especially waste mineral slurries, especially for the treatment of tailings and other waste material resulting from mineral processing, in particular, the processing of oil sands tailings.

A portable waste treatment apparatus for treating hydro-excavation waste includes an elongate frame formed from separable upper and lower frame sections mounted upon one another. The upper frame section houses a mixing tank for receiving waste slurry and for mixing the waste slurry with flocculating and/or coagulating agents. A thickener tank receives waste slurry from the mixing tank, and a dewatering device is provided for dewatering sludge collected in the thickener tank. The lower frame section houses a buffer tank arranged to receive sludge from a sludge outlet of the thickener tank. A pump is provided for pumping the sludge to the dewatering device, and a water tank is arranged to receive water overflowing from the thickener tank.

Methods and systems for maintaining patient fluid balance during an extracorporeal cell treatment are disclosed. The method includes minimizing the amount of saline or other fluid that is returned to the donor. Saline used during priming of the fluid circuit may be used to increase the volume of the collected cells to arrive at a treatment-ready product with a suitable hematocrit.

A novel method for freeze-related separations, involving the combination of water with a selected concentration of biogenic ice nucleation proteins, freezing the combination, and separating the ice, potentially via centrifugation or sublimation. In some instances, the freezing conditions and the concentration of the at least one biogenic ice nucleation protein are selected such that the aqueous solution, upon freezing, forms a lamellar ice crystal structure having at least one property selected from the group consisting of a solute inclusion volume at least 30% smaller than in the first material alone, a hydraulic diameter at least 30% larger than in the first material alone, an inclusion width that is less than 10% of a crystal dimension, a hydraulic diameter that is less more than 1.5 times that of an inclusion width, a deviation of crystal orientation angle in the transverse direction of less than 45 degrees, an ice crystal length in the transverse direction that is at least 10% larger than in the first material alone, and a length of the ice crystal structure in the longitudinal direction that is at least 10% larger than in the first material alone. The use of these structures result in a significant efficiency improvement and energy savings.

The embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to systems, devices and methods for the fractionation, isolation, extraction and processing of the adipose supernatant layer of a bone marrow aspirate. In particular, the various embodiments relate to systems, devices, and methods of obtaining, utilizing, and processing the adipose supernatant layer of a bone marrow aspirate as a source of mesenchymal stem cells.