A water treatment system comprising a pressure vessel, vertically aligned separation elements within the vessel each having at least one porous UF or MF membrane, feed fluid passageways, a permeate fluid passageway, a concentrate removal port, and a biocontactor within the vessel that has biogrowth surfaces surrounding flow paths through the biocontactor. The flow paths have a median ratio of surface area to volume which exceeds 15 cm.sup.1. The pressure vessel also contains a pressure plate with holes which separates the vessel into two chambers, a first chamber containing membrane elements and a second chamber that contains the biocontactor. A sealing means contacting the pressure plate prevents fluid flow between the first chamber and second chamber except through the porous membranes.

A cleaning-in-place method for cleaning a membrane filter module, the membrane filter module including a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side and being configured to filter a fluid passing through the membrane from the feed side to the permeate side; wherein the method comprises performing a sequence of process cycles, the sequence comprising at least one monitored process cycle, the monitored process cycle comprising: providing a flow of a liquid through the membrane and/or across the feed side of the membrane; monitoring at least one hydraulic parameter associated with the provided flow of the liquid; and terminating the flow of the liquid, when the at least one monitored hydraulic parameter meets a predetermined cycle completion criterion.

A process for using acid to leach metals from metal silicate, oxide, or oxide-hydroxide feedstock with subsequent alkalinization of the leach liquor, thereby bringing target metal ions into solution and separating the metals as hydroxides, oxides, or oxide-hydroxides. Electrodialysis is used to recycle acid and base in the process. Configurations of the electrochemical cell and means of combining cells in stacks and in series are provided that enable production of acid at high concentration allowing for decreased reactor volumes for leaching and precipitation and improved solid/liquid separation characteristics of the leached slurry.

Disclosed herein are ultrafiltration/diafiltration (UF/DF) methods comprising the use of diafiltration buffer concentrates, as well as UF/DF methods in which a composition comprising a recombinant protein is concentrated by an ultrafiltration step to a recombinant protein concentration above an intended concentration following a subsequent diafiltration step.

A method (100) of filtering solids (41) from a solution (44) derived from blood plasma is disclosed. The method (100) comprises feeding (102) the solution (44) into a hollow fibre filter (12) at a feed rate, the hollow fibre filter (12) comprising a plurality of hollow fibres (38), each hollow fibre (38) comprising a membrane (36) defining an elongate hollow fibre channel (32). The method (100) further comprises filtering (104) the solution (44) using the hollow fibre filter (12) to produce a permeate (46) and a retentate (45), the permeate (46) passing through pores (37) of the membrane (36) at a trans-membrane pressure and the retentate (45) flowing from respective outlets of the elongate hollow fibre channels (32), wherein the permeate (46) has a reduced solids content with respect to the solution (44) fed into the hollow fibre filter (12).

The present disclosure provides methods of monitoring and controlling biocides in an aqueous medium, methods of manufacturing compositions containing the biocides, and various oxidizing biocide compositions suitable for use in aqueous medium treatment processes. Methods include adding first and second oxidizing biocides upstream of a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane inlet and measuring a free residual oxidant concentration and/or an oxidation-reduction potential downstream of the biocide addition but upstream of the RO membrane inlet. A reducing agent may optionally be added upstream of the RO membrane. The amount of biocide being added may be adjusted based on the free residual oxidant concentration and/or oxidation-reduction potential measurement.

A water treatment method includes: adding a chemical to water to be treated to obtain water to be treated which contains iodine and is provided with oxidizing power; and supplying the water to be treated that has undergone the chemical addition to an electrodeionization device (EDI device) to treat the water to be treated in the EDI device. At least a part of an ion exchanger filled in a deionization chamber of the EDI device is an anion exchanger.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods for treating porous membranes. In an embodiment, a method of treating a porous membrane is provided. The method includes flushing the membrane with a first fluid comprising a hydroxide ion and hypochlorite ion, flushing the membrane with water, flushing the membrane with a second fluid comprising an organic peroxide, organic peroxide ion, or both, and flushing the membrane with water.

The present invention relates to a chemical product and process for cleaning nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes, based on enzymatic action aiming to remove biofouling and inorganic scale quickly. The product mentioned in present invention also proposes elimination of the neutralization step of the chemical product used, given that the enzymatic action allows an adequate pH for disposal to be maintained, which fact increases the speed and efficiency of the process.

Cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems utilize membrane filters for purifying liquid substances in many industries, including but not limited to, the dairy industry, breweries, pharmaceutical industry, and the food industry. These membrane filters undergo a rigorous cleaning process that despite cleaning can leave foulants on the membranes which hamper filter effectiveness. In addition to the cleaning, enzymes can be applied to the membranes to remove foulants and restore filtering effectiveness. However, introduction of enzymes into these CIP systems can be problematic if enzymes remain after cleaning. This disclosure provides a system and methods to mimic the membrane modules and verify that a correct inactivation procedure occurred. The systems and methods include a separate membrane sample so that no membrane modules need be removed to verify full enzyme inactivation.