A thermo-sensitive water absorbent is used as a draw material in production of fresh water by a forward osmosis process. The thermo-sensitive water absorbent has a cloud point, and coagulates when heated, the thereto-sensitive water absorbent being a block copolymer containing at least a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part, having a glycerin structure as a basic structure, and including an ethylene oxide group and a group consisting of propylene oxide and/or butylene oxide.

A thermo-sensitive water absorbent is used as a draw material in production of fresh water by a forward osmosis process. The thermo-sensitive water absorbent has a cloud point, and coagulates when heated, the thermo-sensitive water absorbent being a block copolymer containing at least a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part, having a glycerin structure as a basic structure, and including an ethylene oxide group and a group consisting of propylene oxide and/or butylene oxide.

A thermo-sensitive water absorbent is used as a draw material in production of fresh water by a forward osmosis process. The thermo-sensitive water absorbent has a cloud point, and coagulates when heated, the thermo-sensitive water absorbent being a block copolymer containing at least a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part, having a glycerin structure as a basic structure, and including an ethylene oxide group and a group consisting of propylene oxide and/or butylene oxide.

Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to methods and systems of concentrating effluent, removing nitrogen from an effluent, and producing fertilizer from an effluent. In an embodiment, the effluent is a digestate, such as from a biomass digester. In an embodiment, the digestate is concentrated and nitrogen is removed by performing forward osmosis using a draw solution and the digestate as a feed solution. The draw solution is subjected to reverse osmosis to produce an ammonium salt fertilizer. Phosphorus in the effluent may be precipitated as a struvite fertilizer.

A method of concentrating a lithium-containing aqueous solution, the method comprising: (i) providing a water-permeable structure having an inner surface and outer surface, wherein at least said outer surface is coated with a water-permeable hydrophilic polymer having a thermal stability of at least 100 C.; and (ii) flowing a lithium-containing aqueous feed solution having an initial concentration of lithium over said inner surface while said outer surface is in contact with an aqueous draw solution containing a higher overall ion concentration than said lithium-containing aqueous feed solution, to result in forward osmosis of water from said lithium-containing aqueous feed solution to said aqueous draw solution, and wherein said forward osmosis results in a lithium-containing aqueous product solution having an increased concentration of lithium relative to the initial concentration of lithium in the lithium-containing aqueous feed solution.

The present invention relates to a thermo-responsive solution and in particular, a solution for use in an osmosis process that is suitable for separating or purifying solutes and or water from an aqueous solution on a large scale and under energy efficient conditions.

Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for controllably removing one or more solutes from a solution. Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for removing water from alcoholic beverages.

A method of treating a liquid. The method comprises providing a feed liquid comprising at least one solvent and at least one solute to a first side of a membrane. A single-phase draw solution comprising at least one of an aminium salt, an amidinium salt, and a guanidinium salt is provided to a second side of the membrane. The at least one solvent is osmosed across the membrane and into the single-phase draw solution to form a diluted single-phase draw solution. At least one of CO.sub.2, CS.sub.2, and COS is removed from the diluted single-phase draw solution to form a first multiple-phase solution comprising a first liquid phase comprising the at least one solvent, and a second liquid phase comprising at least one of an amine compound, an amidine compound, and a guanidine compound. A liquid purification system is also described.

A vesicle in a liquid composition including an amphiphilic diblock copolymer of the PMOXA.sub.a-bPDMS.sub.c-d type as vesicle membrane forming material, further including as an additive from about 0.05% to about 1% v/v of reactive end group functionalised PDMS.sub.e-f, and a transmembrane protein. The vesicle optionally includes about 1 to about 12% v/v of triblock copolymer of the PMOXA.sub.a-b-PDMS.sub.c-d-PMOXA.sub.a-b type as membrane forming material.

Provided herein are osmotic desalination methods and associated systems. According to certain embodiments, multiple osmotic membranes may be used to perform a series of osmosis steps, such that an output stream having a relatively high water puritycompared to a water purity of an aqueous feed streamis produced. In some embodiments, multiple draw streams can be used to produce aqueous product streams having sequentially higher purities of water. Certain embodiments are related to osmotic desalination systems and methods in which forward osmosis is used to produce a first product stream having a relatively high water purity relative to an aqueous feed stream, and reverse osmosis is used to perform a second step (and/or additional steps) on the first product stream. In some embodiments, multiple reverse osmosis steps can be used in series to perform a net desalination process.