The invention relates to a method for recovery and purification of a neutral or sialylated human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) from a fermentation broth, comprising the steps of separating the fermentation broth to form a separated HMO-containing stream and a biomass waste stream, purifying the HMO-containing stream by ultrafiltration using an ultrafiltration membrane having a MWCO of 500 Da to 5 kDa, purifying the HMO-containing stream by nanofiltration, concentrating the purified HMO-containing stream, and drying the purified HMO-containing stream to obtain a solidified neutral or sialylated HMO. Moreover, the invention also concerns a neutral or sialylated human milk oligosaccharide obtained by the inventive method, as well as its use in food, feed, and medical application.

The present invention relates to processes and systems for ammonia recovery and/or acid-gas separation. In some embodiments, a system for acid gas separation may be integrated with an ammonia abatement cycle employing a high temperature absorber. In some embodiments, a system for acid gas separation may employ a higher temperature absorber due to the lower energy consumption and cost of the integrated ammonia abatement cycle. Advantageously, heat may be recovered from the absorber to power at least a portion of any acid gas desorption in the process. Reverse osmosis or other membranes may be employed.

A portable water conditioning system is provided that includes an incoming water inlet; a reverse osmosis stage in fluid communication with the incoming water inlet, the reverse osmosis stage having a permeate outlet and a concentrate outlet; a diversion device having a diversion valve, the diversion valve placing the concentrate outlet in fluid communication with a waste water outlet; a deionizing stage in fluid communication with a pure water outlet; a bypass valve configured to selectively place the permeate outlet in fluid communication with one or more of the waste water outlet, the deionizing stage, and the pure water outlet; and a controller configured to control the diversion device and the bypass valve to provide water at the pure water outlet of a desired condition.

A process for removing at least Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ from a lithium-containing brine. The process comprises (i) providing an aqueous lithium-containing brine feed comprising dissolved Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ impurities in a weight ratio of Li.sup.+:Ca.sup.2+ of about 4:1 to 50:1 wt/wt and in a weight ratio of Li.sup.+:Mg.sup.2+ of about 4:1 to 50:1; (ii) subjecting said brine feed to nanofiltration to produce a lithium-containing permeate from which Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ components are being removed concurrently; and (iii) conducting the nanofiltration so that a separation occurs and a retentate solution is formed with a total amount of Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ of at least 75% of the total amount of Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ in the original aqueous lithium-containing brine feed and forming an aqueous lithium-containing permeate solution in which the total content of dissolved Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ is decreased to 25% or less as compared to the original aqueous lithium-containing brine feed.

A plant and a process may be utilized to isolate a carboxylic acid from a fermentation broth. The process may involve separating a biomass from the fermentation broth containing a salt of the carboxylic acid to produce a low-biomass solution. The separation of the biomass may be performed in a first step by centrifugation, separation, precoat filtration, or microfiltration, and in a second step by ultrafiltration. The process may further involve concentrating the salt of the carboxylic acid in the low-biomass solution. The concentrated solution may then be acidified. Further, precipitation of the carboxylic acid may be obtained by acidification.

A method of producing a sugar liquid using a cellulose-containing biomass as a raw material includes (a) hydrolyzing a cellulose-containing biomass to produce an aqueous sugar solution and (b) filtering the obtained aqueous sugar solution through a reverse osmosis membrane to collect a purified sugar liquid from a feed side, while removing fermentation-inhibiting substances from a permeate side.

Examples relate to systems and methods for reducing the energy required to concentrate solutions by nanofiltration to concentrations with osmotic pressures far above the applied pressure. In an embodiment, a method may include separating permeate streams from successive stages of a nanofiltration process, the separated permeate streams having a higher salinity from the elements at the end of the nanofiltration process. The method also may include reinjecting the permeate stream into a nanofiltration brine stream at one or more locations where the nanofiltration brine stream and the permeate stream have substantially similar concentrations.

A multistage nanofiltration (NF) system for filtering a solute from a feed solution where a downstream NF stage is more permissive to the solute than an upstream NF stage. In some examples. the nanofiltration system includes a plurality of nanofiltration stages in series, where each nanofiltration stage is more permissive to the solute than the nanofiltration stage that is immediately upstream.

A high salinity feed water such as seawater is treated to produce a reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate and an RO permeate. Optionally, some or all of the RO concentrate may be filtered to produce a nanofiltration (NF) permeate. Optionally, some feed water can also be filtered to produce NF permeate without first being concentrated by RO treatment. The NF permeate, or a blend of the RO permeate and NF permeate, may be used to produce a product water for injection into an oil-bearing reservoir to enhance oil recovery. Optionally, the product water may have salinity greater than the feedwater, or at least 30 g/L. The product water may have hardness of less than 20 mg/L.

A system for the treatment of phosphate-containing wastewater comprises a pretreatment subsystem including a mixing chamber configured to mix a potassium-based salt with the wastewater to precipitate K.sub.2SiF.sub.6 from the wastewater, a solids-liquid separator to separate the precipitated K.sub.2SiF.sub.6 from the wastewater and form a pretreated wastewater, and a mixing chamber to dilute the pretreated wastewater with raw wastewater, and a filtration subsystem including a first filtration configured to receive the pretreated wastewater and remove particles to form a first effluent, a second filtration unit remove divalent ions from the first effluent and form a second effluent, and a third filtration unit configured to remove additional dissolved solids from the second effluent and form a third effluent suitable for discharge to the environment.