A dual-purpose household water purifier includes a main unit and an expansion unit which can be detachably connected. When the main unit is connected with the expansion unit, a booster pump can pressurize tap water entering a filter assembly. In the dual-purpose household water purifier, the main unit can be used as a non-electric drive water purifier. After the tap water enters the filter assembly and is filtered. The purified water flows into the purified water chamber of the pressure bucket, and the user takes the purified water. It is further provided an expansion unit. When the main unit is connected to the expansion unit, the booster pump can pressurize the pipeline, reducing application environmental restrictions on the water purifier. Through arrangement of the expansion unit, the water purifier can be operated in two operation modes of non-electric drive mode and electric drive mode.

A method and a system (10a) comprising an integrated water purifying apparatus (110) with a pre-filter circuit (402) including a particle filter and an activated carbon filter arranged to produce pre-treated water; a fluid circuit (404) arranged to receive pre-treated water from the pre-filter circuit (402), the fluid circuit (404) includes an RO-pump (450) and a Reverse Osmosis, RO, device, (301) arranged to produce purified water; a heating device (302) arranged to heat purified water from the RO device (301) to a temperature above 65°; the water purifying apparatus (110) is further arranged to heat disinfect the fluid circuit (404) using the heated purified water. The system (1) further comprises a line set (40) connected to the purified water outlet connector (128) at a water line connector (68) of the line set (40), wherein the line set (40) includes at least one sterile sterilizing grade filter (70a, 70b) arranged to filter the purified water into sterile purified water.

The present invention relates to a water treatment system comprising a pre-filtering device receiving water, such as waste water, to be treated and providing a filtrate, and a biological treatment device being fluidic connectable to or in fluidic connection with the pre-filtering device for receiving the filtrate from the pre-filtering device. The biological treatment device is adapted to perform a biological treatment of the filtrate and to provide sludge solids. The pre-filtering device is a cake filtration device having a filtration cake wherein the filtration cake is being provided by deposition of solids from the sludge formed in the biological treatment device. A water treatment process employing the system and a method of forming a filter cake are also described.

A method for treating wastewater, comprising: (i) injecting a hydrate-forming gas (e.g., propane) into the wastewater under conditions of elevated pressure and reduced temperature to form a solid hydrate composed of the hydrate-forming gas and water from the wastewater; and (ii) separating the solid hydrate from the wastewater to result in removal of water from the wastewater, thereby resulting in partially dewatered wastewater, and optionally, (iii) lowering the pressure and/or raising the temperature of the solid hydrate to decompose the solid hydrate into reformed hydrate-forming gas and reformed water, and further optionally, recycling the reformed hydrate-forming gas for use in step (i) and/or capturing the reformed water from step (iii) and further decontaminating until suitable for release into waterway or for use in a process. The invention is also directed to an apparatus for practicing the method described above.

A method of reducing leakage current from a patient to a ground potential through an applied part of a medical device includes defining a maximum permissible leakage current A.sub.max from the patient to the ground potential when the patient is energized to an electric potential V and supplying the medical device with water having a resistivity value ρ through a fluid line having a length L and an inner diameter ID. The value of L and ID is selected to cause the fluid conduit filled with water of resistivity ρ to have a resistance of R high enough to maintain the leakage current from the patient to the ground potential below A.sub.max.

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, a 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.

Vacuumed gap membrane distillation (VAGMED) modules, and multi-stage VAGMED systems and processes using the modules are provided. In an embodiment, the membrane distillation modules can comprise: a) a condenser including a condensation surface; b) a first passageway having an inlet for receiving a first feed stream and an outlet through which the first stream can pass out of the first passageway, the first passageway configured to bring the first feed stream into thermal communication with the condensation surface; c) an evaporator including a permeable evaporation surface allowing condensable gas to pass there through; d) a second passageway having an inlet for receiving a second feed stream and an outlet through which the second feed stream can pass out of the second passageway, the second passageway configured to bring the second feed stream into communication with the permeable evaporation surface; and e) an enclosure providing a vacuum compartment within which the condenser, the evaporator and the first and second passageways of the module are contained.

A desalination system that can comprise an inlet, an optional preheating stage, multiple evaporation chambers and optional demisters, product condensers, a waste outlet, one or more product outlets, a nested configuration that facilitates heat transfer and recovery and a control system. The control system can permit operation of the purification system continuously with minimal user intervention or cleaning. The desalination system can operate with any number of pre-treatment methods for descaling, and with degassing systems to eliminate or reduce hydrocarbons and dissolved gases. The system is capable of removing, from a contaminated water sample, a plurality of contaminant types including microbiological contaminants, radiological contaminants, metals, and salts.

A membrane sorbent is described, which comprises 1-6 wt % silicon carbide nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer matrix. The polymer matrix may comprise polysulfone and polyvinylpyrrolidone. The membrane sorbent is used for separating oil from a contaminated water mixture. The silicon carbide nanoparticles of the membrane sorbent may be made from rice husk ash.

A system and method for collecting and purifying rainwater. The system includes a humidifier including a heat exchanger for preheating collected rainwater. The preheated water is output to a heater. The heater heats the water to between about 80 degrees C. and about 100 degrees C. The humidifier also includes a nozzle coupled to an outlet of the heater. The nozzle injects water vapor into the humidifier. The humidifier also includes a fan capable of circulating the water vapor in an inner volume of the humidifier. The water vapor condenses on an outer surface of the heat exchanger. The system also includes a collector for collecting the condensed potable water from the outer surface of the heat exchanger and a delivery system for delivering the potable water.