A device and method are described for the treatment of blood, which device may be used in conjunction with or in place of a failed Kidney. The device includes an ultrafiltration unit to remove proteins, red and white blood cells and other high molecular weight components, a nanofiltration unit to remove glucose, at least one electrodeionization unit to transport ions from the blood stream, and a reverse osmosis unit to modulate the flow of water, to both the blood and urine streams. In one embodiment, a specialized electrodeionization unit is provided having multiple chambers defining multiple dilute fluid channels, each channel filled with an ion specific resin wafer, and electrodes at the extremity of the device and proximate each of the resin filled dilute channels. By selective application of voltages to these electrodes, the ion transport functionality of a given dilute channel can be turned on or off.

An electrochlorination system includes an electrolyzer fluidically connectable between a source of feed fluid and a product fluid outlet, and a sub-system configured to one of increase a pH of the feed fluid, or increase a ratio of monovalent to divalent ions in the feed fluid, upstream of the electrolyzer.

Membranes for electrochemical technologies that operate at non-extreme acidic or basic conditions are described herein. The membrane can be a bipolar membrane having an anion-exchange layer, a cation-exchange layer, and a polymer layer containing a catalyst juxtaposed between the two layers. The catalyst can improve the rate for water dissociation and water formation at low applied bias thereby decreasing the overpotential and resistance for overall ion transport, especially when unequal pH values are used between the catholyte and anolyte.

Methods and apparatus for onsite generation of acid and base solutions for cleaning purposes through the utilization of bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPED) are described. The methods eliminate the need to s store large quantities of acids and bases onsite or to transport the acid and base solutions to the cleaning site. A method of recycling substantially neutralized waste salt solutions into acid and base solutions for additional cleaning, thus decreasing the amount of waste salt discharged to the environment, also is described.

There are provided processes comprising submitting an aqueous composition comprising lithium sulphate and/or bisulfate to an electrolysis or an electrodialysis for converting at least a portion of said sulphate into lithium hydroxide. During electrolysis or electrodialysis, the aqueous composition is at least substantially maintained at a pH having a value of about 1 to about 4; and converting said lithium hydroxide into lithium carbonate. Alternatively, lithium sulfate and/or lithium bisulfate can be submitted to a first electromembrane process that comprises a two-compartment membrane process for conversion of lithium sulfate and/or lithium bisulfate to lithium hydroxide, and obtaining a first lithium-reduced aqueous stream and a first lithium hydroxide-enriched aqueous stream; and submitting said first lithium-reduced aqueous stream to a second electromembrane process comprising a three-compartment membrane process to prepare at least a further portion of lithium hydroxide and obtaining a second lithium-reduced aqueous stream and a second lithium-hydroxide enriched aqueous stream.

The present disclosure provides devices and methods of using same for cleansing a solution (e.g., a salt or used dialysis solution) of urea via electrooxidation, and more specifically to cleansing a renal therapy solution/dialysis solution of urea via electrooxidation so that the renal therapy solution/dialysis solution can be used or reused for treatment of a patient. In an embodiment, a device for the removal of urea from a fluid having urea to produce a cleansed fluid includes a urea decomposition unit and an electrodialysis unit.

An integrated, membrane-based process to produce purified water and conversion of salt to high value chemicals from oil and gas well produced water is described. A liquid stream including water and dissolved salt is flowed through pretreatment units and one or more desalination and concentration units which remove at least a portion of the water to form a brine enriched in dissolved salt. The purified high-density brine may be subjected to electrically-enforced salt dissociation techniques to produce chemicals from oil and gas produced water.

A bipolar membrane BP characterized in that particles 5 of a basic metal chloride are distributed in the interface between a cation-exchange membrane 1 and an anion-exchange membrane 3.

There are provided processes for preparing a metal hydroxide comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium and aluminum, the process comprising reacting a metal sulfate comprising (i) at least one metal chosen from nickel and cobalt and optionally (ii) at least one metal chosen from manganese, lithium and aluminum with lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide and optionally a chelating agent in order to obtain a solid comprising the metal hydroxide and a liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate: separating the liquid and the solid from one another to obtain the metal hydroxide; submitting the liquid comprising lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate to an electromembrane process for converting the lithium sulfate, sodium sulfate and/or potassium sulfate into lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide respectively; reusing the sodium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate; and reusing the lithium hydroxide obtained by the electromembrane process for reacting with the metal sulfate and/or with the metal hydroxide.

The present invention relates to a method for producing lithium phosphate, comprising: passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent, passing the distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution, and putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate