A method for concentrating and crystallizing fermentable carboxylic acids, salts, and mixtures thereof may involve the use of carboxylic acids that have a defined temperature dependence of the solubility and of the osmotic pressure. The carboxylic acids may be concentrated by a membrane method and subsequently crystallized out by a cooling crystallization and isolated. In some examples, the membrane method may involve nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and/or membrane distillation for separation into a concentrate and a permeate. Similarly, an apparatus for implementing such methods may include a nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and/or membrane distillation unit for concentrating the carboxylic acid, and at least one cooling crystallization unit for crystallizing the carboxylic acid.”

Separation methods and systems for converting high concentrations of animal wastes into nutrients and other useful products such as struvite and potassium struvite. Advantageously, the system and methods do not require the addition of external chemicals other than an acid and a base.

The present invention relates to a process for treating aqueous effluents from the primary circuit of a nuclear power plant implementing a separation of boric acid using a reverse osmosis membrane, characterized by the fact that it comprises steps consisting of treating the effluents using a multi-stage assembly composed of reverse osmosis modules comprising a membrane with a high boron rejection rate, arranged in parallel and in series, and recycling of the intermediate products to different points in the assembly.

Installation for the pressurised filtration of liquid with a view to producing drinking water, comprising at least one membrane-based drinking-water production unit (MPU), each MPU comprising: a plurality of filtration blocks each containing a bundle of pressure tubes mounted in parallel, each pressure tube accommodating at least two membrane-based filtration modules with spiral membranes or hollow-fibre membranes mounted in series, means (20) for feeding the liquid that is to be filtered, means for removing the filtered liquid, and means (30) for removing the concentrate, characterised in that the membranes of the filtration modules are of at least two different types selected from the group consisting of reverse-osmosis membranes and low-pressure reverse-osmosis membranes (4-6), on the one hand, and nanofiltration membranes (1-3) on the other hand, and in that at least one MPU comprises means (21-26) making it possible to alter the order in which the blocks of pressure tubes that it groups together are supplied with fluid. The method consists in supplying the filtration blocks of at least one MPU in a first order of supply in which the tubes containing nanofiltration membranes are at the head of the MPU and then in supplying the pressure tubes in a second order of supply in which the pressure tubes containing reverse-osmosis membranes or low-pressure reverse-osmosis membranes are at the head of the MPU.

Lithium brine is treated with a multiple pass nanofiltration (NF) membrane system. Sulfate is added to permeate from an upstream pass before it flows through a downstream pass. Optionally the sulfate may be added to the permeate by dosing it with sulfuric acid or a slat such as sodium sulfate. The softened brine may then be processed further, for example by a combination of solvent extraction, electrolysis, crystallization and drying, to produce a lithium hydroxide product that can be used to make batteries.

The present invention relates method for purifying antibodies, said method comprising a limited number of steps while still allowing obtaining high yields of purified antibodies with an appropriate degree of purity. Briefly, this method comprises only filtration and precipitation steps, omitting the need for chromatography steps.

Provided are methods, devices, and kits for the isolation of extracellular vesicles using silicon nanomembranes. A method for EV isolation includes the steps of collecting a biofluid sample, contacting the biofluid sample with a pre-filtration membrane, thereby forming a first filtrate and a first retentate, optionally, washing the first retentate of the pre-filtration membrane, contacting the first filtrate from the pre-filtration membrane with a capture membrane, thereby forming a second filtrate and a second retentate, optionally, washing the second retentate, and eluting the second retentate from the capture membrane or lysing the second retentate to recover the contents.

A gas separation system includes: a first gas separation membrane unit; a second gas separation membrane unit; a material gas feed line connected to a gas inlet port of the unit; a first compressor interposed to the line; a first connection line connecting a permeated gas discharge port of the unit and a gas inlet port of the unit; and a second connection line connecting a non-permeated gas discharge port of the unit and the line. The unit and unit each have a gas separation selectivity of 30 or greater. The CH.sub.4 recovery rate is 98% or higher. The CO.sub.2 content in non-permeated gas of the unit is 5 mol % or less. The flow rate of gas fed to the unit is 60% or less of the flow rate of material gas fed to the unit.

A pure-water production device including: a first reverse osmosis membrane device to which water to be treated is supplied; a second reverse osmosis membrane device to which permeated water from the first reverse osmosis membrane device is supplied; an electrodeionization device to which permeated water from the second reverse osmosis membrane device is supplied; a brine tank to which concentrated water from the first reverse osmosis membrane device is supplied; and a third reverse osmosis membrane device connected to the brine tank, wherein the second reverse osmosis membrane device is a high-pressure reverse osmosis membrane device, the brine tank is supplied with at least one concentrated water selected from the group consisting of concentrated water from the second reverse osmosis membrane device and concentrated water from the electrodeionization device, wherein permeated water from the third reverse osmosis membrane device is supplied to water to be treated, is used.

A method for purifying a protein-containing solution comprising a protein of interest, the method comprising the steps of:

(a1) contacting the protein-containing solution with a porous medium comprising polyketone; and

(a2) passing the protein-containing solution contacted with the porous medium comprising polyketone through a virus removal membrane.