A ballast water treatment apparatus for a ship includes a water collection part for collecting sea water, a forward osmosis process unit for producing ballast water and treatment water obtained by desalinating the sea water collected through the water collection part, and a ballast water tank for storing the ballast water produced by the forward osmosis process unit. Since the sea water is treated using a forward osmosis process, fresh water required within the ship can be supplied and the treated sea water can be used as ballast water. In addition, since waste heat and carbon dioxide generated in the ship are used to treat the sea water, the ballast water can be treated and produced in a low-cost and high efficient manner.

This invention is an onboard pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) unit for charging or recharging the battery of an electric conveyance or for feeding the conveyance's motor directly. The PRO unit exploits the combined use of osmotic pressure, a water-submerged hollow fiber membrane system, a concentrated aqueous solution of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (a ferrofluid) as a draw solution, and a solenoid-type permanent magnetic field, to create a high pressure water flow that acts upon one or more hydroturbine generators to produce electricity. After the pressurized water acts upon the hydroturbine generators, it is returned to the feed side of the membrane system to once again become permeate, in effect making the entire system a closed loop, continuously re-circulating process. The membrane cells may be heated to increase power density.

Provided are a curable composition including an amide compound that is represented by Formula (1) below and of which a density of sulfonic acid is 3.9 milliequivalent/g or greater. ##STR00001## m represents an integer of 1 or greater, n represents an integer of 2 or greater, L.sup.1 represents a m+1-valent linking group, and L.sup.2 represents an n-valent linking group. R.sup.1 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, and R.sup.2 represents SO.sub.3.sup.?M.sup.+ or SO.sub.3R.sup.3 (R.sup.3 represents an alkyl group or an aryl group). Here, in a case where there are plural R.sup.2's, not all of the R.sup.2's are SO.sub.3R.sup.3. M.sup.+ represents a hydrogen ion, an inorganic ion, or an organic ion.

The present invention relates to a desalination apparatus and a desalination method using the same. In one specific embodiment, the desalination apparatus comprises: a forward osmosis unit having a draw-solution part into which seawater flows, and a raw water part into which raw water flows, and having an osmosis membrane, formed between the draw solution part and the raw water part, so as to respectively generate first treated water and first concentrated water; a capacitive deionization unit, which is connected to the draw solution part through a first inflow passage, and into which the first treated water of the draw solution part flows so as to generate second treated water; and an electrodialysis unit, which is connected to the raw water part through a second inflow passage, and into which the first concentrated water of the raw water part flows so as to generate third treated water.

There is provided a system for the removal of scaling precipitants obtained due to dewatering a solution including i. at least one membrane, such as FO membrane adapted to be at least partially surrounded by a feed solution and to receive a flow through of a draw solution; and ii. a device adapted to control the flow of said draw solution through said at least one membrane; wherein said system is configured to operate in at least three predetermined different modes of operation including; filtration mode, osmotic relaxation mode and pulsation mode, according to some demonstrative embodiments.

The method of solvent recovery includes using a plurality of solvent recovery units to recover solvent from a dilute solution. The solvent recovery units can include a plurality of reverse osmosis or forward osmosis membrane systems arranged in series. For reverse osmosis, at least some of the concentrate in a last reverse osmosis unit of the series is recycled back to the permeate of that unit to provide a mixed permeate. The mixed permeate is then passed successively to the permeate side of each preceding reverse osmosis unit in the series. For forward osmosis, a draw solution is passed sequentially from the permeate side of each unit to the permeate side of the preceding unit. The draw solution may be prepared by concentrating part of the concentrate stream by evaporation and recycling it back as a draw solution.

A method is disclosed for purifying, by direct osmosis, a first liquid including water and at least one impurity, in which the method comprises the consecutive steps of: contacting the first liquid with a first side of a semi-permeable membrane, a second aqueous liquid containing an osmotic agent being in contact with the second side of the semi-permeable membrane, whereby water is extracted by direct osmosis from the first liquid through the semi-permeable membrane and passes into the second liquid containing the osmotic agent; forming clathrates hydrates of a host molecule in the second liquid containing the osmotic agent into which the water has passed; separating the clathrates hydrates from the second liquid containing the osmotic agent; and dissociating the separated clathrates hydrates to obtain pure water and the host molecule.

A method and system of generating electrical power or hydrogen from thermal energy is disclosed. The method includes separating, by a selectively permeable membrane, a first saline solution from a second saline solution, receiving, by the first saline solution and/or the second saline solution, thermal energy from a heat source, and mixing the first saline solution and the second saline solution in a controlled manner, capturing at least some salinity-gradient energy as electrical power as the salinity difference between the first saline solution and the second saline solution decreases. The method further includes transferring, by a heat pump, thermal energy from the first saline solution to the second saline solution, causing the salinity difference between the first saline solution and the second saline solution to increase. The method may include a process of membrane distillation, forward osmosis, evaporation, electrodialysis, and/or salt decomposition for further energy efficiency and power generation.

Provided herein are a control arrangement and a method for determining a water permeability status of a forward osmosis (FO) membrane of a FO device in a dialysis fluid generation apparatus. The FO-membrane separates a feed side and a draw side of the FO device. The FO-device comprises a feed inlet port and a feed outlet port in fluid communication with the feed side, and a draw inlet port and a draw outlet port in fluid communication with the draw side. The method comprises providing a flow of pure water at the feed side and providing a flow of pure water at the draw side. The method further comprises monitoring one or more pressures indicative of a transmembrane pressure between the feed side and the draw side.

An osmotic process comprising for a first period, passing a draw stream and a feed stream through an osmotic unit having a semi-permeable membrane, permitting the passage of water but not salts. The feed stream is an aqueous stream with a lower salinity than the draw stream. The feed stream has a scalant with a concentration above saturation in a region on a feed side of the semi-permeable membrane. The draw stream passes over a draw side of the membrane and the feed stream passes over the feed side so water passes across the membrane from the feed stream to the draw stream. For a second time period, the flow rate of the draw stream is lower than the flow rate in the first time period, and the feed stream passes over the feed side such that the concentration of the scalant in said region is reduced.