A decentralized water treatment unit is for purifying untreated water to purified water for human consumption. The unit includes i) a filtration module, having at least one filtration membrane configured to, during a filtration cycle, purify the untreated water; and ii) a cleaning module, having an electrolytic cell configured to, during a generation cycle, generate a cleaning solution of predetermined composition from a chloride starting solution. The cleaning module is further configured to, during a cleaning cycle, pump the cleaning solution through the filtration module to clean the at least one filtration membrane.

The disclosure pertains to sanitizing the permeate flow path of a reverse osmosis system. A method of sanitizing a filtration system is disclosed that can include injecting a biocide into a permeate compartment of an operating reverse osmosis system. The method can also include maintaining pressure in a concentrate compartment of the reverse osmosis system simultaneously while injecting the biocide.

This filtration treatment system is provided with a membrane filtration device as a prefiltration treatment device for removing insoluble components from the water to be treated containing organic substance, a reverse osmosis membrane treatment device for subjecting the prefiltration-treated water to reverse osmosis membrane treatment, and a chemical agent supply pipe for supplying a chemical agent into the membrane filtration device, wherein the chemical agent contains a sulfamic acid compound, and a bromine-based oxidizing agent or the reaction product of a bromine compound with a chlorine-based oxidizing agent, or, contains the reaction product of a sulfamic acid compound with a bromine-based oxidizing agent or with the reaction product of a bromine compound with a chlorine-based oxidizing agent.

The present invention concerns a method for cleaning a filtration system under operation. The filtration system comprising a hydraulic circuit Cp recycling the permeate stream to the feed side of the membrane and/or a hydraulic circuit Cr recycling the retentate stream to the feed side of said membrane. The method comprises injecting an amount of a chemical product into the filtration system in the hydraulic circuit Cp or in the hydraulic circuit Cr or upstream of the cross-flow filtration membrane, setting the proportion of recycled permeate stream or recycled retentate stream collected in the hydraulic circuit Cp and/or Cr to enable the recycling of a significant amount of unreacted chemical product having passed through said cross-flow filtration membrane to the feed side of said cross-flow filtration membrane, as well as a filtration system for carrying out said method.

The present invention relates to a method for filtering a microbial culture solution using a membrane module, said method comprising four stages including (a) cross-flow filtration of the microbial culture solution, (b) rinsing with water, (c) washing with a chemical solution and (d) rinsing with water, wherein: the filtrate passing through the membrane module in the cross-flow filtration has a total sugar concentration of 1,000-100,000 mg/1 inclusive and a protein concentration of 50-1,000 mg/l inclusive; the aforesaid stage (c) comprises step (c-1) for washing with a chemical solution containing a hypochlorite and a nonionic surfactant; and the aforesaid stages (a) to (d) are repeated in this order.

The present invention provides, in various embodiments, hybrid single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, disposable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, scalable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies and adaptable modular single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies. In other embodiments, the invention relates to processes for recovering proteins from the surface of a filtration membrane in a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly and for cleaning a tangential flow filtration assembly. In additional embodiments, the invention provides methods of increasing the processing capacity of a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly.

The present invention provides, in various embodiments, hybrid single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, disposable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, scalable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies and adaptable modular single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies. In other embodiments, the invention relates to processes for recovering proteins from the surface of a filtration membrane in a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly and for cleaning a tangential flow filtration assembly. In additional embodiments, the invention provides methods of increasing the processing capacity of a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly.

Disclosed are membrane separation cleaning processes and clean in place compositions for such membranes. The cleaning compositions can remove proteins, fats, and other food, beverage, and brewery based soils and offer an environmentally friendly alternative surfactant system to NPE. Branched extended chain PO/EO nonionic surfactants with certain characteristics may be used to provide superior cleaning to membranes. The specific surfactants may be used alone or in combination. In some embodiments, the surfactant package is used as part of a cleaning composition.

A method for operating a membrane separation device includes (a) setting a flow amount M(t) of permeated water and extracting the permeated water from the membrane separation device by the set flow amount M(t), and (b) temporarily stopping the extracting the permeated water, when a water level of a first water tank in which the membrane separation device is immersed, a water level of a second water tank in communication with the first tank, or a water level of a third water tank receiving overflowing water from the first water tank becomes lower than a predetermined halt water level. M(t), which is the flow amount of the permeated water during a time period t, satisfies a equation M(t)=KQ(t?1), where K is a gain (K>1), and Q(t?1) is an amount of inflow of the water-to-be-treated during a time period t?1 immediately prior to the time period t.

The present invention provides, in various embodiments, hybrid single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, disposable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies, scalable single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies and adaptable modular single-pass tangential flow filtration assemblies. In other embodiments, the invention relates to processes for recovering proteins from the surface of a filtration membrane in a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly and for cleaning a tangential flow filtration assembly. In additional embodiments, the invention provides methods of increasing the processing capacity of a single-pass tangential flow filtration assembly.