A method of separation of predetermined gas from the mixture of gases or an atmosphere, wherein said method of separation of predetermined gas from a mixture of gases or an atmosphere comprises passing a mixture of gases or an atmosphere through the reinforced mass selective fluid bandpass filter (8). The reinforced mass selective fluid bandpass filter comprises the mass selective fluid bandpass filter element (9) permanently affixed to the sintered metal load bearing structure (14). The mass selective fluid bandpass filter element consists of quartz glass, of either natural or manmade origin. This method provides removing predetermined gas from the group consisting of: .sup.1H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sup.2H, .sup.2H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sup.3H, .sup.2H.sup.3H, .sup.3H.sub.2, .sup.1H.sub.2O, .sup.1H.sup.2HO, .sup.2H.sub.2O.sub., .sup.1H.sup.3HO, .sup.2H.sup.3HO, .sup.3H.sub.2O, O.sub.2, O.sub.3, .sup.12CO.sub.2, .sup.13CO.sub.2, .sup.14CO.sub.2, .sup.4 CO, N.sub.2, NO, NO.sub.2, NO.sub.x, SiO.sub.2, FeO, Fe.sub.2O.sub.3, SiF.sub.4, HF, NH.sub.3, SO.sub.2, SO.sub.3, H.sub.2SO.sub.4, H.sub.2S, .sup.35Cl.sub.2, .sup.37Cl.sub.2, F.sub.2, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, CaO, MnO, P.sub.2O.sub.5, phenols, volatile organic compounds, and peroxyacyl nitrates.

Equipment, systems, processes and techniques for conducting processing of solutions are described. The techniques can be applied to provide diluted solution (i.e. purified solvent), concentrate solution or each. A variety of specific equipment, example systems and processes are depicted and described.

Disclosed herein is a method for recovering an acid or a base during a metal extraction process. The method comprises contacting a feed stream comprising the acid or base and the metal with an ultrafiltration membrane to produce an ultrafiltration retentate and an ultrafiltration permeate, and contacting the ultrafiltration permeate with a nanofiltration membrane. The nanofiltration retentate produced comprises a majority of the metal from the feed stream, and the nanofiltration permeate produced comprises a majority of the acid or base from the feed stream. Also disclosed herein is a recovery apparatus for recovering an acid or a base during a metal extraction process.

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 purity—compared to a water purity of an aqueous feed stream—is 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.

A method for treating a natural gas containing carbon dioxide using membrane modules which are assigned to a first treatment stage or a second treatment stage and are fluidically connected to a retentate mode or a permeate mode. When evolution in the operating conditions results in one of the processing levels requiring less membrane surface for gas processing and the other processing level requiring more membrane surface for gas processing, then the method allows for reassignment of needed membrane modules assigned from one processing level requiring less membrane surface to another processing level requiring more membrane surface.

A filtration device includes a continuous first unit including a first membrane that separates a liquid into first permeated and non-permeated liquids, a first adjuster that adjusts a flow rate of the first permeated liquid to be substantially constant, and a first liquid scale that detects a liquid amount, a second unit including a second membrane that separates another liquid into second permeated and non-permeated liquids, a second adjuster that adjusts a flow rate of the second permeated liquid to be substantially constant, and a second liquid scale that detects another liquid amount, a first controller that controls the liquid amount in the first storage tank based on measurement values from continuous two first units or from the continuous first and second units, and a second controller that controls the another liquid amount based on a measurement value from the second unit.

The present invention relates to a dialysate regeneration method that reduces a urea concentration of a urea-containing aqueous solution, the method including a reverse osmosis process of obtaining, from the urea-containing aqueous solution, a concentrate having a higher urea concentration and a permeate having a lower urea concentration by using a reverse osmosis membrane element at an operating pressure of 0.5 MPa or more and 2.0 MPa or less, in which the urea concentration of the urea-containing aqueous solution is 0.5 g/L or more, the reverse osmosis membrane element includes a reverse osmosis membrane, and the reverse osmosis membrane has a pore diameter of 7.0 Å or less as measured by a positron annihilation lifetime measurement method.

A method for preparing a filtered beverage includes filtering a raw beverage using a cross-flow ultrafiltration device to produce a solids fraction and a liquid fraction; heating the solids fraction to a temperature of 60° C. or greater to produce a pasteurized solids fraction; microfiltering the liquid fraction through a microfilter having a size cut-off of 1 μm or smaller to produce a microfiltered liquid fraction; and combining the pasteurized solids fraction and the microfiltered liquid fraction to result in the filtered beverage.

An automated waste water treatment system includes a collection tank constructed to hold waste water, a first flow line connected to the collection tank to output the waste water from the collection tank, an electrocoagulation unit that receives the waste water and outputs the waste water as coagulated waste water to a flow line, a polymer dosage tank to provide a polymer dosage into the flow line where the polymer dosage mixes with the coagulated waste water to produce and output flocculated waste water. A clarifier connected to the flow line receives the flocculated waste water and produces sludge-free waste water and concentrated sludge, a series of filters to output filter-treated water, and an ultrafiltration system that receives filter-treated water and outputs ultrafiltration-treated water to a reverse osmosis system.

A flue gas extraction system provides extraction, collection, cooling, enriching and distributing flue gas from a vent stack of a stationary flue gas generator to carbon dioxide consuming crops, orchards, and other photosynthetic organisms. The collected flue gas is processed through the system to achieve optimal temperature, pressure, flowrate, water content and carbon dioxide concentration for application to plants for increasing plant productivity and sequestering the carbon dioxide. The gas distribution network may have one or more membrane modules which receive a low pressure gas mixture, where the membrane modules are utilized to enrich the CO2 concentration and to separate out a nitrogen rich component from the flue gas. Application of carbon dioxide may be supplemented by providing additional components to the plants which maintain a level of fertilization and irrigation suitable for the increased biomass and water utilization efficiency of the plants resulting from the increased intake of carbon dioxide.