A method of obtaining water from a liquid composition comprising water, the method comprising: (a) providing a sorbent material; (b) contacting the sorbent material with the liquid composition comprising water; (c) separating the sorbent material and the liquid composition comprising water; and (d) desorbing water from the sorbent material; wherein the sorbent material is a metal-organic material.

Polymer-based membranes and methods for fabricating membranes are described. The methods include forming a casting solution featuring a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based solvent and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-based modifying agent, dispersing the casting solution to form a first element, generating a plurality of active sites on a surface of the first element, and forming a polymer-based membrane by exposing the surface of the first element to a fluorosilane composition to form a fluorosilane layer on the surface, where the fluorosilane composition includes a silane compound having at least one alkyl substituent that includes between 9 and 21 fluorine atoms.

Provided are nanonets comprising a) a surfactant aggregate having an average aggregate diameter; and b) a polymer having an average particle diameter which average particle diameter is the same or smaller than the average aggregate diameter, wherein the nanonet has a diameter larger than the average particle diameter. Also provided are kits therefor and methods for sequestering non-water moieties from aqueous solutions using nanonets.

In this disclosure, a process of recycling acid, base and the salt reagents required in the Li recovery process is introduced. A membrane electrolysis cell which incorporates an oxygen depolarized cathode is implemented to generate the required chemicals onsite. The system can utilize a portion of the salar brine or other lithium-containing brine or solid waste to generate hydrochloric or sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide and carbonate salts. Simultaneous generation of acid and base allows for taking advantage of both chemicals during the conventional Li recovery from brines and mineral rocks. The desalinated water can also be used for the washing steps on the recovery process or returned into the evaporation ponds. The method also can be used for the direct conversion of lithium salts to the high value LiOH product. The method does not produce any solid effluent which makes it easy-to-adopt for use in existing industrial Li recovery plants.

A water treatment device includes: a water electrolyzer configured to produce oxygen gas by electrolyzing water; a pressurization mechanism pressurizing raw water by being supplied with the oxygen gas produced in the water electrolyzer; and a processor to which the raw water pressurized by the pressurization mechanism is supplied, the processor including a reverse osmosis membrane.

The Biopowerplant is a system that integrates the generation of carbon-neutral energy through the cultivation and conversion of microalgal biomass, with sewage sanitation and environmental carbon recovery, with the additional and secondary production of biofertilizer, biofuel, water for reuse. This system integrates a suboptimal anaerobic digestion subsystem focused on the generation of biogas, the processing of the resulting digestate through a microalgal consortium culture subsystem with biofilm induction and smooth decreasing gradient of light radiation, and the transformation of the generated microalgal biomass into syngas through a subsystem of evaporation, torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion in separate chambers. The syngas and methane from the biogas are subsequently used as fuel in an electric power generator capable of operating with mixed gases. The biogas generation process is enriched through the recirculation of the microalgal biomass supernatant, the residual heat from the syngas generation subsystem, and the heat transferred from the combustion gases of the electric generator. The residual sludge from the biogas generation subsystem is recirculated towards a longitudinal biopile subsystem, where it acts as an anaerobic medium compared to the aerobic medium that constitutes the concentrated microalgal biomass, and both streams are mixed to be transformed into the syngas generation subsystem. Input inflows for system operation are mainly sewage, and optionally seawater and/or leachate. The inflows must be bioaugmented with a microalgal consortium dosed automatically by a Compact in situ bioaugmentation system, preferably more than 3 kilometers before the inflow enters the system.

A biocide-generating device including a housing having an inlet and an outlet. The biocide-generating device additionally including a strainer basket that mounts within an interior of the housing including parallel electrode plates positioned within an interior of the strainer basket. The biocide generating device additionally including a protective dielectric sleeve in which the electrode plates are received. The protective dielectric sleeve is positioned between the electrode plates and the strainer basket.

An apparatus and a method for treating saltwater and removing chlorine in water to make a variety of sodium-based byproducts and chlorine gas is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a feed tank for receiving water. The feed tank is coupled to a plurality of Radio frequency (RF) chambers. Each of the RF chambers comprises an inlet and an outlet. The outlet is coupled to a treated water effluent manifold. Further, each RF chamber is coupled to a vacuum manifold. Each RF chamber comprises a recirculation pipe to pump water back into the feed tank. The RF chamber comprises a RF system used for bombarding RF energy at predefined frequencies on the water in order to liberate chlorine isotope. Additionally, the RF system bombards RF energy to stretch hydrogen bond in the saltwater to a point of breaking a molecule by applying low pressure. The hydrogen bond captures chlorine. Subsequently, the water is sent through the outlet to the treated water effluent manifold.

Provided is a feed spacer having a three-layer structure, in which a set forming the feed spacer is formed in a three-layer structure, so that the set, which is in contact with a reverse osmosis membrane, convects raw water to a center of the structure of the feed spacer and a laminar flow velocity gradient is generated at the center to decrease a polarization phenomenon of a reverse osmosis filter module and minimize pressure loss, and a reverse osmosis membrane filter module including the feed spacer.

The invention relates to chemical-based methods and products for mitigating the impact of an oil spill, that act via mechanisms which include reducing adhesiveness, herding, thickening and gelling. N-fatty acid amino acid (FA-AA) conjugates display oil-herding behavior when formulated as a salt, or the free acid in water-miscible organic solvents. Various salts of FA-AA conjugates are water soluble and can herd oils and increase the thickness of the oil layer. Replacement of the acid group of fatty acid α-amino acid conjugates with other groups that act as hydrogen bond donors and acceptors results in potent phase selective organo gellants. The oil thickeners or gellants include can be prepared from biobased feedstocks, have low toxicity, high capacity for oil and reduction of the need to use an organic solvent to apply the thickener or gellant to an oil and water mixture in order to gel the oil phase. ##STR00001##