A fractal flow device comprising at least one fractal pack. The at least one fractal pack comprises at least two fractal cells, where each fractal cell comprises a fractal distributor, a chamber adjacent the fractal distributor, and a fractal collector adjacent the chamber. Methods of using the fractal flow device are also disclosed.

A method for treating wastewater having one or more of suspended solids, dissolved solids, biological oxygen demand includes solids filtration followed by a bi-polar/bi-directional flow through ionic module fitted with anionically/cationically charged plates followed by a sub-sonic resonance module followed by another bi-polar/bi-directional flow through ionic module followed by a ultra-sonic resonance module followed by one or more anion/cation collection membrane modules. Recycle is provided in each step, wherein each step may be repeated, and wherein one or more of the steps can be bypassed.

The methods and systems disclosed here relate to treating water. In certain embodiments, a treatment system comprises an electrochemical water treatment device, a recirculating concentrate stream in fluid communication with the electrochemical water treatment device, a flow control device in fluid communication with a first flow path comprising acidic water and configured to be in fluid communication with the recirculating concentrate stream, and a second flow path comprising feed water and configured to be in fluid communication with the recirculating concentrate stream, and a control system in communication with the flow control device. The treatment system may further comprise a recirculating dilution stream in fluid communication with a second inlet and a second outlet of the electrochemical water treatment device.

The invention relates to a method of producing monodisperse amidomethylated vinylaromatic bead polymers, to ion exchangers prepared from these monodisperse amidomethylated vinylaromatic bead polymers by alkaline hydrolysis, to the method of using said monodisperse amidomethylated vinylaromatic bead polymers in the manufacture of ion exchangers and chelating resins, and also to the method of using these ion exchangers in the removal of heavy metals and noble metals from aqueous solutions or gases.

A recursive fractal system provides low cost, high throughput removal of contaminants, selected compounds, and elements from a flowable medium. This includes low energy desalination of saltwater, and removal contaminants from waste water. A series of concatenated, self-similar, co-axially aligned fractal stages are provided for defining a flow path for receiving the flowable medium, such as salt water. The configuration of self similar fractal stages as a succession of venturis recursively accelerates and separates flow vectors at each stage without the need for pumping. The series of venturis have been found to accelerate the water to such an extent that an electro hydrodynamic field interaction is magnified at each successive stage, such that contaminants, heavy metals, salt, or other selected compounds are aggregated by an electromagnetic field signature, separated and extracted from the flowable medium.

A softening apparatus in which resistance applied between electrodes is decreased to reduce power consumption. The softening apparatus includes a regeneration unit and a softening unit. The regeneration unit includes at least one anode and cathode in a first space which generate regeneration water containing hydrogen ions (H+). The softening unit is disposed in a second space partitioned from the first space and includes an ion exchange body regenerated by the regeneration water.

A method for treating a waste stream from a copper CMP process including dissolved copper and abrasive particles having a number weighted mean size of less than 0.75 μm includes introducing the waste stream into a feed tank, flowing the waste stream from the feed tank into an ultrafiltration module, filtering the waste stream through a membrane of the ultrafiltration module to form a solids-lean filtrate, directing the solids-lean filtrate from the ultrafiltration module through an ion exchange unit to remove dissolved copper and produce a treated aqueous solution having a lower copper concentration than the copper concentration of the waste stream, backwashing the membrane ultrafiltration module to remove the slurry solids from the membrane of the ultrafiltration module, and combining the removed slurry solids with the treated aqueous solution to form a combined discharge stream having a copper concentration suitable for discharge into the environment.

The present invention is directed to a ligated metal-organic framework (MOF) for use in removing both anionic and cationic species from a liquid or liquid stream. The present invention also provides methods for placing the MOF on a substrate to form a MOF-containing product that can be used in the removal of certain species from a given fluid. The MOF may be a Zr-based MOF, such as NU-1000, for removal of certain anions, such as oxy-anions, or having an attached thiosulfonyl-thiol (—SO.sub.2—S—R.sub.2—SH, where R.sub.2 is an alkyl group) ligand for complexation with certain cationic species in addition to the anions. The substrate may be any substrate to which a given MOF may be attached, including inert polypropylene polymer resin beads, a macroscopic fabric such as a mesh material or mesh filter, and a molecular fabric.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for producing ultrapure water of extremely high purity that sufficiently meets the requirement for its quality at low production cost with reduced footprint. The apparatus for producing ultrapure water includes a pretreatment system, a primary water purification system, and a subsystem, wherein the primary water purification system includes a high-pressure reverse osmotic membrane separation unit, a degassing unit, an ultraviolet oxidation unit, and an ion-exchange unit in this order.

A method for producing an ionized water product for coffee comprises the steps of introducing source water to an ionization system, passing the source water through one or more reaction vessels, wherein one or more ionic species are introduced into the source water, and combining products of one or more reaction vessels to produce the ionized water product having between about 10 ppm to about 40 ppm magnesium ions, about 10 ppm to about 40 ppm calcium ions, and about 40 ppm to about 90 ppm total of bicarbonate and carbonate ions.