Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.

A system for cleaning feed water of variable quality, the system comprising an inlet for selectively delivering feed water (FW) to one or other of at least two feed chambers (2,4), each feed chamber having a delivery pipe (2i, 4i) for delivering feed water to a reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8); a pump (6) to deliver the feed water from one of the chambers (2, 4) through its associated delivery pipe (2i, 4i) to the reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8) to create a concentrated feed stream and a product water stream (PW); return pipes (2R, 4R) for selectively returning the concentrated feed stream to one or other of the at least two feed chambers (2, 4); a product water outlet for removal of the product water (PW); and means for switching the delivery of the concentrated feed stream between the selectable return pipes (2R, 4R) upon detection of a predetermined reduction in the efficiency of the RO or NF process within one or other of the feed chambers (2, 4). The pressure of the concentrated feed stream is reduced to atmospheric pressure prior to its delivery back to the chamber and the feed stream passes through a desaturation unit (20).

A system for cleaning feed water of variable quality, the system comprising an inlet for selectively delivering feed water (FW) to one or other of at least two feed chambers (2,4), each feed chamber having a delivery pipe (2i, 4i) for delivering feed water to a reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8); a pump (6) to deliver the feed water from one of the chambers (2, 4) through its associated delivery pipe (2i, 4i) to the reverse osmosis or nanofiltration (8) to create a concentrated feed stream and a product water stream (PW); return pipes (2R, 4R) for selectively returning the concentrated feed stream to one or other of the at least two feed chambers (2, 4); a product water outlet for removal of the product water (PW); and means for switching the delivery of the concentrated feed stream between the selectable return pipes (2R, 4R) upon detection of a predetermined reduction in the efficiency of the RO or NF process within one or other of the feed chambers (2, 4). The pressure of the concentrated feed stream is reduced to atmospheric pressure prior to its delivery back to the chamber and the feed stream passes through a desaturation unit (20).

Systems and methods used to control tangential flow filtration are provided, including control systems and methods for use with connected systems with upstream processing units, such as chromatography processing units, in fluid communication with a tangential flow filtration processing unit. Also included are control systems and methods for performing continuous concentration using single-pass tangential flow filtration with permeate flow control.

Systems and methods used to control tangential flow filtration are provided, including control systems and methods for use with connected systems with upstream processing units, such as chromatography processing units, in fluid communication with a tangential flow filtration processing unit. Also included are control systems and methods for performing continuous concentration using single-pass tangential flow filtration with permeate flow control.

A technology that provides various modular biomimetic microfluidic modules emulating varieties of microvasculature in body. These microfluidic-base capillaries and lymphatic Technology modules are constructed as multilayered-microfluidic microchannels of various shapes, and aspect ratios using diverse biocompatible microfluidic polymers. Then, various semipermeable membranes are sandwiched in between these multilayered microfluidic microchannels. These membranes have different chemical, physical characteristics and MWCO values. Consequently, this design will produce much smaller dimension channels similar to human vasculature to achieve biomimetic properties like of human organs and tissues. By interchanging microfluidic-layers or the membranes various diverse modules are designed that act as building blocks for constructing various medical devices, various forms of dialysis devices including albumin and lipid dialysis, water purification, bioreactors bio-artificial organ support systems. Connecting various modules in diverse combinations, permutations, in parallel ad/or in series to ultimately design many unrelated medical devices such as dialysis, bioreactors and organ support devices.

Provided is a method for producing and/or purifying measles virus (MV) particles from a sample, the method comprising in sequential order the following steps loading a sample containing MV particles and one or more impurities onto a stationary phase material for carrying out flow-through chromatography to bind at least a fraction of the impurities contained in the sample and to produce a flow-through comprising at least a fraction of the MV particles contained in the sample; carrying out filtration, preferably ultrafiltration, and obtaining a retentate having an increased MV titer relative to the MV titer comprised in the flow-through. Further provided is a system for producing and/or purifying MV particles, comprising at least one bioreactor; a clarification unit, preferably a dead end filter unit, downstream to the bioreactor; a flow through chromatography unit downstream to the clarification unit; and a filtration unit, downstream to the flow through chromatography unit.

A system for producing steam includes a steam generator with steam output; a membrane filtration system in fluid communication with the steam output and including a membrane filter with a permeate side and an opposing retentate side. The membrane filter includes a separation membrane constructed to reject organic molecules. The system may be used for removing organic compounds, such as anti-corrosion agents or contaminants, from steam.

Provided is a method of efficiently treating a fluid to be treated containing a compound that destroys a zeolite membrane to prevent the fluid from destroying the zeolite membrane. A fluid to be treated 10 formed of a liquid mixture or a gas mixture and containing a compound that destroys a zeolite membrane 2 is brought into contact with particles (3, 5) made of the same type of zeolites as the zeolite membrane 2 and filling a pretreatment device 4 installed upstream of a membrane module 1 including the zeolite membrane 2 or a portion upstream of the zeolite membrane 2 in the membrane module 1 to destroy the zeolite forming the particles (3, 5) and the fluid to be treated 10 is made to contain a component generated by the destruction.

A method for preparing battery grade and high purity grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate from high-impurity lithium sources includes steps for preparation of a refined lithium salt solution, preparation of battery grade lithium hydroxide, preparation of high purity grade lithium hydroxide, preparation of high purity grade lithium carbonate and preparation of battery grade lithium carbonate. The system to carry out the preparation includes a refined lithium salt solution preparation subsystem, a battery grade lithium hydroxide preparation subsystem, a high purity grade lithium hydroxide preparation subsystem, a high purity grade lithium carbonate preparation subsystem and a battery grade lithium carbonate preparation subsystem arranged in turn according to production sequence. A combination of physical and chemical treatment methods are used to treat the high-impurity lithium sources having variations in lithium contents, impurity categories, and impurity contents.