Methods and compositions for the adsorptive removal of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) from contaminated water sources and systems. The compositions contain carbon fly ash doped with silver nanoparticles at specific mass ratios. Methods of preparing and characterizing the adsorbents are also provided.

The present invention relates to the use of a particulate mineral material being functionalized with one or more reducing agents for lowering the amount of heavy metal contaminants ions from an aqueous medium. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a corresponding process for lowering the amount of heavy metal contaminants from an aqueous medium as well as to a functionalized particulate mineral material. Additionally, the present invention relates to a process for preparing a functionalized particulate mineral material and to a scavenging complex.

To provide a porous silica which is capable of effectively eliminating odors of methyl mercaptan, hydrogen sulfide, nonenal and the like, said odors being difficult to be eliminated by a silica porous material that contains no metal. A porous silica containing particles that are provided with primary pores, wherein the particles contain a metal containing substance complex having a particle size of 1-100 nm. This porous silica has a specific surface area of 500 m.sup.2/g or more.

A xenon adsorbent capable of efficiently adsorbing xenon, even at a low concentration, from a mixture gas is Provided. A xenon adsorbent comprising a zeolite having a pore size in the range of 3.5 to 5 Å and a silica alumina molar ratio in the range of 10 to 30.

A Biorefinery System (BIOSYS) that effectively treats all human activity-derived waste (black water, grey water, and food waste streams) using biological systems and that produces as process by-products: recovered potable water, liberated free oxygen, edible protein cake (with and without lipids), soil amendments, and machinery lube oils. Additionally, the system captures and chemically binds carbon dioxide into microbial cells and associated by-products, thus producing recovered usable returned cabin air.

Dangerous, toxic, and/or radioactive volatiles are produced from nuclear fission, nuclear decay, and/or as a byproduct from vitrification of radioactive wastes. Such volatiles are treated during and after vitrification of the radioactive waste, to be converted into fixed-chemicals, that are retained in, on, and/or proximate to a cold-cap located vertically above vitrified melt. The cold-cap may have one or more volatile fixing additives (VFAs) for retaining the fixed-chemicals. The VFAs are located in and/or the cold-cap. The vitrification may occur within at least one human-made cavern. The human-made cavern may be located within a deep geologic rock formation. The deep geologic rock formation may be located at least 2,000 feet below a terrestrial surface of the Earth. The human-made cavern may be formed by first drilling a wellbore from the terrestrial surface to the deep geologic rock formation and then underreaming the wellbore into the deep geologic rock formation.

A Biorefinery System (BIOSYS) that effectively treats all human activity-derived waste (black water, grey water, and food waste streams) using biological systems and that produces as process by-products: recovered potable water, liberated free oxygen, edible protein cake (with and without lipids), soil amendments, and machinery lube oils. Additionally, the system captures and chemically binds carbon dioxide into microbial cells and associated by-products, thus producing recovered usable returned cabin air.

Presented are an apparatus and method for fluid evacuation. An exemplary fluid evacuation system includes a surgical apparatus having a fluid conduit therethrough. The fluid conduit includes a gaseous fluid sorbent material. Additionally, the fluid conduit is fluidly coupled with a vacuum tube fluidly coupled with a vacuum source, wherein the vacuum source is operable to create a flow of fluid through the surgical apparatus fluid conduit and the vacuum tube.

Nanotube compositions may be employed in many different forms alone, and/or with surfactants, with antiviral metals, with antigens, and/or with various drugs to control pathogens like viruses e.g., SARS COVID-2, bacteria, mold, fungi, chemical or biological agents etc in masks or other personal protection equipment. The personal protection equipment such as masks reduce, control, absorb, deactivate, detoxify, and/or kill the pathogens such that a pathogen or pathogens deleterious effects are reduced and/or eliminated to a user of the mask.

This invention discloses an approach is improve the strength and reproducibility of the signal generated in FTAs using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) through the design of an approach to generate the plasmonically-enhanced signal for SERS, surface-enhanced infrared (SEIRA), and other enhanced spectroscopies. The design incorporates: (1) a particle-particle coupling strategy that is triggered by the selective capture of an analyte to a particle that has been immobilized on a membrane and has been modified to act as a capture substrate; (2) the selective tagging of the captured analyte by a nanoparticle also designed to generate an amplified plasmonic signal upon tagging; and (3) the incorporation of an internal nanoparticle standard to account for fluctuations in flow rates and flow paths. Collectively, these developments improve the accuracy and precision of the analysis as well as the SPME analysis accurately, improving the ease-of-use for a number of different SPME-based measurements, including, for example, those focused on disease markers using immunoassays and a range of other assay formats.