The present invention is in the field of a high volume breeding and life cycle synchronization system for nematodes and a method for breeding such nematodes. An example of a nematode is Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). C. Elegans is a small, free-living soil nematode (roundworm) that lives in many parts of the world. It feeds mainly on microbes, primarily bacteria. C. Elegans is considered and used as an important model system for biological research in many fields including genomics, cell biology neuroscience and aging.

A multistage nanofiltration (NF) system for filtering a solute from a feed solution where a downstream NF stage is more permissive to the solute than an upstream NF stage. In some examples. the nanofiltration system includes a plurality of nanofiltration stages in series, where each nanofiltration stage is more permissive to the solute than the nanofiltration stage that is immediately upstream.

Lithium recovery processes are described using concentration and conversion techniques. A vaporizer or membrane can be used to concentrate lithium and precipitate impurities. A conversion process can be used to replace anions in lithium bearing streams by adding a second anion and precipitating lithium in a salt with the second anion. Rotary separation can be used to separate the precipitated lithium salt.

A membrane distillation (MD) system includes a sweep gas MD (SGMD) module and a knockout chamber. The MD module includes a feed inlet, a feed outlet, a condensing media inlet, and a condensing media outlet. The condensing media is sweep gas. The knockout chamber is positioned after the feed outlet. The knockout chamber includes a liquid inlet, a liquid outlet, and a vapor outlet. Direct gas phase stripping within the SGMD module leads to additional water evaporation at the knockout chamber and contributes to enhanced water or VOCs removal of the MD system.

A serial filtration system for liquid purification includes a preliminary-stage reverse-osmosis (RO) module and a first-stage, high-permeability, reverse-osmosis (HiRO) module. Both modules include (a) a chamber including an inlet, a retentate outlet, and a permeate outlet, and (b) at least one membrane separating the chamber into a retentate side on an upstream side of the membrane and a permeate side on a downstream side of the membrane. The membrane in the preliminary stage is an RO membrane, while the membrane in the first stage is an oxidized membrane. The first-stage inlet is in fluid communication with the preliminary-stage, retentate outlet; and the oxidized membrane in the first stage, comprises an oxidized polyamide active layer coated on a porous support, wherein the oxidized polyamide active layer has an atomic oxygen/nitrogen ratio of at least 1.5.

The disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatus for the efficient quantitative recovery of valuable biological fluids from filtration systems, more particularly to efficient quantitative recovery of valuable biological fluids from high precision separation systems suitable for use in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The disclosed subject matter relates to an automated CFF/TFF system that provides the operations of system treatment with a system treatment solution(such as buffer) and filtration of a solution (e.g., a biofluid) can be accomplished in succession without having to re-configure the system (such as re-routing the fluid conduits) that could compromise the integrity of the system. As a result, there will be reduced contamination risk, reduced volume of buffer required and will save time for the filtration process.

A system for treating high temperature produced water includes an electrocoagulation unit, a membrane distillation unit in communication with the outlet of the electrocoagulation unit having a hydrophobic membrane with a feed side for receiving the produced water stream and a product side for receiving a deionized water stream. A heat recovery heat exchanger is in communication with the membrane distillation unit for receiving two streams, one from each side of the hydrophobic membrane, such that heat is exchanged between the two streams. A line leaving the heat exchanger returns a heated stream from the heat exchanger to a location in a line upstream of the membrane distillation unit. A brine tank in communication with the membrane distillation unit receives a portion of a stream from the membrane product side and contains a concentrated brine solution containing the portion of the stream from the membrane product side and sodium chloride.

Some embodiments provide a water filtration system that is fluidly coupled to a water feed line and/or a water supply line and is designed to filter contaminates from the water supply, The water filtration system includes an outer housing, a front cover, a rear cover, a pump, a reverse osmosis (RO) element, a pre-filter cartridge, a post-filter cartridge, a permeate flush tank, RO manifold, and a sensor manifold. The water filtration system further includes a pump and at least one solenoid. When assembled, a RO housing, a pre-filter housing, and a post-filter housing surround the RO element, the pre-filter cartridge, and the post-filter cartridge, respectively. The filter cartridges hold replaceable filtration media in an interior cavity and contaminants and other impurities are removed as water flows through the filtration media of the filter cartridges.

An osmotic membrane comprises an active layer and a composite support layer. The active layer selectively allows passage of water molecules but rejects at least some dissolved ions. The composite support layer includes a side that is bonded to the active layer and comprises an electrospun-fiber sub-layer and a phase-inversion sub-layer.