There are provided processes for preparing a metal hydroxide comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium, copper, magnesium and aluminum, the process comprising: reacting a metal sulfate comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium, copper, magnesium and aluminum with lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide and optionally a chelating agent in order to obtain a solid comprising the metal hydroxide and a liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate; separating the liquid and the solid from one another to obtain the metal hydroxide; submitting the liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate to an electromembrane process for converting the lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate into lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide respectively; reusing the sodium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate; and reusing the lithium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate and/or with the metal hydroxide.

A desalination device may comprise: a membrane distillation module comprising a water feed chamber, a carrier gas (CG) chamber, and a hydrophobic microporous membrane configured to separate the water feed chamber and the CG chamber; and a bubble column dehumidifier comprising a bubble column inlet, a bubble column gas outlet, and a product outlet, wherein the MD module allows water vapor to translocate to the CG chamber, but not liquid water, and wherein the water feed each chamber has comprises a water feed inlet and a water feed outlet, wherein the CG chamber comprises a CG chamber inlet and CG chamber outlet, wherein the CG chamber outlet is upstream of and connected to the bubble column dehumidifier, and wherein the CG chamber inlet is downstream of and connected to the bubble column dehumidifier so as to cycle a carrier gas through the CG chamber and the bubble column dehumidifier.

The present disclosure provides a system for extracting long chain dicarboxylic acid, the system comprising: a primary membrane filtration unit, a first crystallization unit, a first separation unit, a first dissolution tank, a secondary membrane filtration unit, a second separation unit, a second crystallization unit and a third separation unit. By the system for extracting long chain dicarboxylic acid of an embodiment of the present invention, the resulted long chain dicarboxylic acid product has a high purity, very low and even no residual alkane residue, and organic solvent-free.

The present disclosure provides a system for refining long chain dicarboxylic acid, comprising: a first membrane filtration unit, for a first membrane filtration of a long chain dicarboxylic acid fermentation broth or a treated liquid therefrom; a first decolorization unit, for carrying out a first decolorization treatment to the filtrate obtained after the membrane filtration; a first acidification/crystallization unit, for carrying out a first acidification/crystallization of a filtrate obtained after the membrane filtration to give a solid-liquid mixture; a first separation unit, for a solid-liquid separation of the solid-liquid mixture; a drying unit, for drying the solid separated by the separation unit to give a first solid. By using the refining system according to the present disclosure, the purity of the obtained product is high, and the disadvantages such as poor quality of the product obtained by crystallization from a solvent and environment pollution caused by a solvent can be overcome.

A method for extracting and purifying Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides comprises following steps: (1) fully disperse Dendrobium officinale powder in pure water to obtain crude liquid; (2) removing insoluble impurities from the crude liquid through a microfiltration membrane to obtain permeate 1 and retentate 1; (3) performing macroporous ultrafiltration treatment of the permeate 1 and collect permeate 2 and retentate 2; (4) adding an aqueous solution of edible alkali metal inorganic salt to the retentate 2, fully stirring and dissolving to obtain polysaccharide crude liquid, performing macroporous ultrafiltration treatment and collecting permeate 3 and retentate 3; (5) combining the permeate 2 and permeate 3, adding the combined permeate into an electrodialysis device for desalination, and collecting dilute solution and concentrated solution; (6) performing microporous ultrafiltration treatment of the dilute solution and collect retentate 4 and permeate 4; (7) carrying out freeze-drying of the retentate 4 to obtain Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides.

There are provided processes for preparing a metal hydroxide comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium and aluminum, the process comprising: reacting a metal sulfate comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium and aluminum with lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide and optionally a chelating agent in order to obtain a solid comprising the metal hydroxide and a liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate; separating the liquid and the solid from one another to obtain the metal hydroxide; submitting the liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate to an electromembrane process for converting the lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate into lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide respectively; reusing the sodium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate; and reusing the lithium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate and/or with the metal hydroxide.

Disclosed by the invention is a method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore, comprising the steps of: preparing lithium sulfate leachate from lithium ore concentrate, removing Fe.sup.2+ and Al.sup.3+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by adding alkali, removing Ca.sup.2+ and Mg.sup.2+ from the lithium sulfate leachate by an ion exchange method, adding a saturated solution of soda ash into the obtained concentrated solution of lithium sulfate leachate, precipitating lithium carbonate, filtering and separating the lithium carbonate precipitate, washing with hot water and drying to obtain a finished lithium carbonate product. The invention saves the production cost, and obviously improves the purity of lithium carbonate as a final product. In addition, disclosed by the invention is also a system for realizing the method for preparing lithium carbonate from lithium ore.

Pulse protein isolates, food compositions containing such isolates, and methods for preparing pulse protein isolates are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods include extracting pulse proteins from a milled composition and applying the extracted proteins to an ultrafiltration process to produce pulse protein isolates with desirable organoleptic characteristics.

An apparatus for extracting a material from a liquid includes a concentration stage having a filter, a first path from the filter, and a second path from the filter. Under this configuration, the concentration stage accepts an initial liquid volume. A first liquid not having material collected by the filter is passed along the first path, and concentrated liquid having material therein, which is entrapped by the filter, is directed to the second path. The apparatus also includes an aerosolizing stage coupled to the concentration stage that converts the concentrated liquid into an aerosol and a drying stage that dries the aerosol such that material extracted from the aerosol onto a material substrate.

A system and method for producing minerals from divalent ion-containing brine stream includes rejecting sulfate from a divalent-ion rich reject stream in a first nanofiltration seawater reverse osmosis (NF-SWRO) unit, producing solid calcium sulfate dihydrate and a magnesium-rich brine stream in a first concentration unit, concentrating the magnesium-rich brine stream to a saturation point of sodium chloride in a second concentration unit, producing solid sodium chloride and a supernatant product stream in a first crystallizing unit, produce a concentrated magnesium-rich bittern stream from the supernatant product stream in a third concentration unit, and at least one of producing hydrated magnesium chloride from the concentrated magnesium-rich bittern stream in a second crystallizing unit and producing anhydrous magnesium chloride by prilling the concentrated magnesium-rich bitterns stream under a hydrogen chloride atmosphere in a dry air process unit.