The reverse osmosis centrifuge converts rotational energy into fluid velocity and conserves the energy placed into the concentrate. As concentrate travels back towards the center of the reverse osmosis centrifuge, the velocity of the fluid is converted into rotational force, thus conserving energy. To accomplish this, the reverse osmosis centrifuge includes a stationary cylindrical housing having a vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump for generating vacuum pressure in the vacuum chamber, a driveshaft coupled to a membrane cylinder rotatable within the stationary cylindrical housing, the membrane cylinder having a plurality of vertical desalination membranes, and an energy recovery turbine. The reverse osmosis centrifuge can be placed on the concentrate or waste stream outlet of a desalination or reverse osmosis facility to increase freshwater production. Through using the methods described above, plant water production can be increased up to 40%, which in turn has a dramatic effect on plant profitability.

A supercoil filtration unit is provided. The supercoil filtration unit includes an outer coil, and an inner coil disposed within the outer coil. The inner coil includes a plurality of hollow fiber membranes which are aligned and arranged into a helical bundle containing multiple turns of the inner coil per turn of the outer coil. The supercoil filtration unit further includes a feed inlet, a permeate outlet, and a retentate outlet. The feed inlet is disposed upon the outer coil and in fluid communication with a first interior volume. The permeate outlet is disposed upon the outer coil at a location distant from the feed inlet and in fluid communication with a second interior volume. The retentate outlet is disposed upon the outer coil at a location distant from the feed inlet and in fluid communication with the first interior volume.

A reverse osmosis system that utilizes the energy in the brine stream to improve the efficiency of the system.

A high recovery variable volume reverse osmosis system where the volume of concentrate cycled through the RO system is reduced in response to recovery levels increasing. By reducing the volume of concentrate cycled through the RO system, this reduces the cycle time of highly saturated concentrate passing through the RO system. Reducing the cycle time of concentrate passing through the RO system tends to minimize or reduce membrane scaling.

A device for exchange of water molecule and temperature between two fluids. The device comprises thin molecular sieve membrane sheets that allow water molecules to permeate through while blocking cross-over of the exchanging fluids. The device provides two sets of flow channels having a hydraulic diameter ranged from 0.5 to 2.0 mm for respective process and sweep fluid flows. The two sets of the channels are separated by a membrane sheet having a thickness less than 200 μm. The thin molecule sieve membrane may be prepared by forming an ultra-thin zeolite membrane layer on a porous metal-based support sheet which provides very high water permeance so that the exchange can be conducted in a compact membrane module at high throughput. The device can be used to remove water from a process stream of higher water content by use of a sweep fluid of lower water content or higher water affinity. For example, the device can be used to condition outdoor fresh air close to the temperature and humidity of indoor air by conducting humidity and heat exchange between the fresh air flow drawn from outdoors and waste air discharged indoors.

A desalination system including: a partitioned container having upstream and downstream compartments divided by a movable partition, a first inlet port at an upstream end, and a second inlet port and an outlet port at the downstream end; a membrane container housing a cross-flow semipermeable membrane dividing the membrane container into saline and desalinated compartments, the saline compartment including first and second cross-flow ports, the desalinated compartment including a desalinated water outlet port; a feed pump connected to the first inlet port; a recharge pump having an inlet connected to the second cross-flow port and an outlet connected to the second inlet port; a main valve connected between the outlet port and the first cross-flow port; a bypass valve connecting the inlet port to the second cross-flow port and the recharge pump inlet; and a purge valve connecting the first cross-flow port and the main valve to a purge port.

A wave-actuated system for desalination of water by reverse osmosis (RO) having a wave energy converter (WEC) subsystem and a RO desalination subsystem is disclosed. The WEC subsystem has a float, a reaction member, and a hydraulic cylinder connected between the float and the reaction member and defining first and second variable volume chambers The RO desalination subsystem has a RO cell containing a RO membrane and a flow smoothing device (FSD). During a first stroke of the WEC subsystem: the float moves in a first direction; and seawater is supplied from the first variable volume chamber to the RO cell and to the FSD. During a second stroke of the WEC subsystem: the float moves in a second direction; seawater is supplied from a seawater intake to the first variable volume chamber; and seawater is supplied from the FSD to the RO cell.

A method for reusing wastewater by using reverse osmosis, according to the present invention, provides a method for preparing pure water through a primary reverse osmosis step, a secondary reverse osmosis step, a foam generation step, and a reverse osmosis membrane washing step. The present invention prepares pure water through several reverse osmosis steps, thereby enabling prepared pure water to be immediately used as industrial water, and washes a reverse osmosis membrane with foam, thereby improving washing efficiency and saving on maintenance costs of a wastewater reuse apparatus.

A device for exchange of water molecule and temperature between two fluids. The device comprises thin molecular sieve membrane sheets that allow water molecules to permeate through while blocking cross-over of the exchanging fluids. The device provides two sets of flow channels having a hydraulic diameter ranged from 0.5 to 2.0 mm for respective process and sweep fluid flows. The two sets of the channels are separated by a membrane sheet having a thickness less than 200 μm. The thin molecule sieve membrane may be prepared by forming an ultra-thin zeolite membrane layer on a porous metal-based support sheet which provides very high water permeance so that the exchange can be conducted in a compact membrane module at high throughput. The device can be used to remove water from a process stream of higher water content by use of a sweep fluid of lower water content or higher water affinity. For example, the device can be used to condition outdoor fresh air close to the temperature and humidity of indoor air by conducting humidity and heat exchange between the fresh air flow drawn from outdoors and waste air discharged indoors.

A turbocharger includes a turbocharger housing having an impeller housing comprising a circular cross-section. A main nozzle is disposed within the turbocharger housing communicating a first portion of a fluid stream to a first volute. A first auxiliary channel and a first auxiliary nozzle communicating a second portion of the fluid stream to the first volute. The first auxiliary nozzle is downstream of the main nozzle. A second auxiliary channel and a second auxiliary nozzle communicate a third portion of the fluid stream to the first volute. The second auxiliary nozzle is downstream of the first auxiliary nozzle. A valve assembly is selectively coupling the first auxiliary channel to the first auxiliary nozzle and the second auxiliary channel to the second auxiliary nozzle.