A water treatment system includes: EDI having deionization chamber that deionizes water that contains boron and concentration chambers in which concentrated water flows; and a cooler to cool the water supplied to deionization chamber or the concentrated water supplied to concentration chambers. Alternatively, water treatment system includes EDI having deionization chamber that deionizes water that contains boron, concentration chambers in which concentrated water flows, and electrode chambers in which electrode water flows; a cooler that adjusts temperature of the water or temperature of the concentrated water supplied to concentration chamber; and a controller that controls the cooler such that the cooler adjusts the temperature of the water supplied to deionization chamber or the temperature of the concentrated water supplied to the concentration chambers within a range of 10-23° C., based on the temperature of the water, temperature of treated water of EDI, the temperature of the concentrated water, or temperature of the electrode water.

A process to treat water includes adding a salt-forming base to the water thereby producing saline water, or thereby forming a salt in the water which is different from a salt that the water started out with, if the water started out as saline. The saline water is treated, at a temperature T1 which is above the saturation temperature of the saline water, in a first membrane separation stage to provide clean water and a first brine, the salinity of the first brine being higher than the salinity of the saline water. The first brine is cooled to a temperature T2 to precipitate some of the salt from the first brine and the precipitated salt is separated from the first brine producing a second brine, the temperature T2 being below the temperature T1 but above the freezing temperature of the first brine. The second brine is treated at a temperature T3 above the saturation temperature of the second brine in a second membrane separation stage to provide clean water and a third brine. The salt-forming base, the temperature T1 and the temperature T2 are selected so that the salt which is formed in the saline water has a solubility in water at the temperature T1 which is at least 1.5 times the solubility of the salt in water at the temperature T2.

Described herein are membrane processes for separating CO.sub.2 from flue gas. An exemplary process involves passing a fluid stream including the flue gas across a membrane permeable to CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2O, removing treated gas from a feed side of the membrane that has less CO.sub.2 than the flue gas, and removing permeate from a permeate side of the membrane comprising CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2O. Suitably, the permeate is removed at a sub-atmospheric vacuum pressure. The permeate is then cooled to remove at least some of the H.sub.2O from the permeate and form a smaller volume of H.sub.2O-depleted, CO.sub.2 enriched permeate.

A water treatment apparatus including: a forward osmosis device configured to allow a diluted draw solution to flow out and to discharge a water-containing solution; a heater configured to heat the diluted draw solution; a water separator configured to separate the diluted draw solution heated by the heater into a water-rich solution and the draw solution having water content lower than that of the water-rich solution; a cooler configured to cool a liquid and allow the liquid to flow out as a coolant; an inflow side heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between the coolant flowed out from the cooler and the draw solution flowed out from the water separator; and an outflow side heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between the diluted draw solution flowed out from the forward osmosis device and the water-rich solution flowed out from the water separator.

Disclosed herein is a solar thermal osmosis desalination system comprising a forward osmosis subsystem and a reverse osmosis subsystem where the forward osmosis subsystem is configured to receive solar thermal heat and generate power that can be used to operate the reverse osmosis subsystem.

A process to treat water includes adding a salt-forming base to the water thereby producing saline water, or thereby forming a salt in the water which is different from a salt that the water started out with, if the water started out as saline. The saline water is treated, at a temperature T1 which is above the saturation temperature of the saline water, in a first membrane separation stage to provide clean water and a first brine, the salinity of the first brine being higher than the salinity of the saline water. The first brine is cooled to a temperature T2 to precipitate some of the salt from the first brine and the precipitated salt is separated from the first brine producing a second brine, the temperature T2 being below the temperature T1 but above the freezing temperature of the first brine. The second brine is treated at a temperature T3 above the saturation temperature of the second brine in a second membrane separation stage to provide clean water and a third brine. The salt-forming base, the temperature T1 and the temperature T2 are selected so that the salt which is formed in the saline water has a solubility in water at the temperature T1 which is at least 1.5 times the solubility of the salt in water at the temperature T2.

This disclosure relates to a multistage distillation system for concentrating a feed liquid, the system including at least one module being assembled by a stack of frame elements, wherein each module includes at least one stage, such that the system includes in total a plurality of stages configured to be flowed through in series by a main feed liquid. Each stage of the plurality of stages is configured to generate steam and feed the steam to a subsequent stage. The first stage of the plurality of stages is configured to heat the main feed liquid and/or to be fed with heated main feed liquid. The system further includes an intermediate cooling device configured to cool the heated main feed liquid before flowing to at least one of the second to last stages of the plurality of serial stages.

A plant and a process may be utilized to isolate a carboxylic acid from a fermentation broth. The process may involve separating a biomass from the fermentation broth containing a salt of the carboxylic acid to produce a low-biomass solution. The separation of the biomass may be performed in a first step by centrifugation, separation, precoat filtration, or microfiltration, and in a second step by ultrafiltration. The process may further involve concentrating the salt of the carboxylic acid in the low-biomass solution. The concentrated solution may then be acidified. Further, precipitation of the carboxylic acid may be obtained by acidification.

Disclosed herein is a solar thermal osmosis desalination system comprising a forward osmosis subsystem and a reverse osmosis subsystem where the forward osmosis subsystem is configured to receive solar thermal heat and generate power that can be used to operate the reverse osmosis subsystem.