A serial filtration system for liquid purification includes a preliminary-stage reverse-osmosis (RO) module and a first-stage, high-permeability, reverse-osmosis (HiRO) module. Both modules include (a) a chamber including an inlet, a retentate outlet, and a permeate outlet, and (b) at least one membrane separating the chamber into a retentate side on an upstream side of the membrane and a permeate side on a downstream side of the membrane. The membrane in the preliminary stage is an RO membrane, while the membrane in the first stage is an oxidized membrane. The first-stage inlet is in fluid communication with the preliminary-stage, retentate outlet; and the oxidized membrane in the first stage, comprises an oxidized polyamide active layer coated on a porous support, wherein the oxidized polyamide active layer has an atomic oxygen/nitrogen ratio of at least 1.5.

A method for reducing beverage loss during loading of beverage into an ethanol concentration system having a set of reverse osmosis pressure vessels, each pressure vessel having a feed inlet, a retentate outlet, and a permeate outlet. The method includes feeding deaerated water into the feed inlet of a first pressure vessel, feeding the beverage into the feed inlet of the first pressure vessel, monitoring an alcohol percentage at the retentate outlet of a second pressure vessel, the second pressure vessel coupled directly or indirectly to the first pressure vessel, and coupling a retentate from the retentate outlet of the second pressure vessel to a feed tank coupled to the feed inlet of the first pressure vessel when the alcohol percentage is within a first target range of 0.5 to 18% alcohol-by-volume (ABV).

Processes and systems for recovering hydrogen may include feeding a gas stream, comprising hydrogen and additional gases, to a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system and feeding a membrane permeate stream comprising hydrogen to the PSA system. In the PSA system, a portion of the hydrogen may be separated from the additional gases to recover a hydrogen product stream and a PSA tail gas stream comprising unseparated hydrogen and the additional gases. The PSA tail gas stream may be fed to a membrane separation unit for separating hydrogen from the additional gases and to recover (i) the membrane permeate stream comprising hydrogen fed to the PSA system and (ii) a membrane tail gas stream comprising the additional gases. Embodiments herein may additionally include a refrigeration system for partially condensing one or both of the feed gas stream and the PSA tail gas stream, enhancing the efficiency of the membrane separation unit.

Systems, methods and apparatuses to concentrate lithium containing solutions using forward osmosis units are provided, which, for example, can include providing at least one forward osmosis unit having at least one lithium containing solution chamber having at least one first inlet and at least one first outlet, at least one brine chamber having at least one second inlet and at least one second outlet, and at least one selectively permeable membrane positioned between the at least one lithium containing solution chamber and the at least one brine chamber, and conveying a lithium containing solution through the at least one lithium containing solution chamber and a concentrated brine solution through the at least one brine chamber, said conveying causing water from the lithium containing solution to be drawn through the at least one selectively permeable membrane and into the concentrated brine solution, such that a concentrated lithium containing solution exits through the first outlet and a less concentrated brine solution exits through the second outlet.

A precipitation system for precipitating the target component is provided. The precipitation system includes: a reverse osmosis module; a precipitation device; a membrane separation device that includes a semipermeable membrane module including a first chamber and a second chamber separated by a semipermeable membrane, and that makes the feed solution after precipitation of the target component in the precipitation device flow to each of the first chamber and the second chamber and pressurizes the feed solution in the first chamber to transfer water into the second chamber via the semipermeable membrane and thereby concentrate the feed solution in the first chamber and dilute the feed solution in the second chamber; first return means for returning the feed solution concentrated in the membrane separation device to the precipitation device; and second return means for returning the feed solution diluted in the membrane separation device to the reverse osmosis module.

A treatment of demineralization effluents, particularly recycling effluents, a method for demineralizing whey and treating the effluents, and a facility for implementation thereof. The treatment of whey demineralization effluents includes: i) supplying a whey demineralization effluent, ii) treating by reverse osmosis effluent recovered in i) to obtain a reverse osmosis permeate and retentate, iii) neutralizing the retentate pH, iv) treating the neutralized retentate by nanofiltration to obtain a permeate including monovalent ions and a retentate including divalent ions and residual organic materials, v) treating the permeate in iv) by electrodialysis with bipolar membrane to obtain acidic solution(s) and basic solution(s). Thus, it is possible to treat effluents, limit their environmental impact, generate solutions for the whey demineralization process, reduce the cost of whey demineralization because some process water from electrodialysis comes from treatment of the generated effluents, and reduce the total amount of effluent sent to the wastewater treatment plant.

A high recovery variable volume reverse osmosis system where the volume of concentrate cycled through the RO system is reduced in response to recovery levels increasing. By reducing the volume of concentrate cycled through the RO system, this reduces the cycle time of highly saturated concentrate passing through the RO system. Reducing the cycle time of concentrate passing through the RO system tends to minimize or reduce membrane scaling.

A system and method for producing from saline source water a product containing an increased ratio of multi-valent ions to mono-valent ions, which includes multiple nanofiltration units arranged to selectively remove mono-valent ions from the water fed into each nanofiltration stage in the nanofiltration permeate stream while retaining multi-valent ions in the nanofiltration reject stream. The rate at which the increase in the multi-valent ion- to mono-valent ion ratio is obtained may be enhanced by introduction of lower salinity water into the nanofiltration reject between stages, and by recirculating a portion of downstream nanofiltration reject flow into an upstream nanofiltration unit. The enhanced multi-valent ion product is suitable for multiple uses, including irrigation of plants and remineralization of desalinated water. The relative concentrations of the multi-valent ions in the product may be adjusted, for example by selection of nanofiltration membrane technologies which have higher or lower rejection for specific multi-valent ions.

The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems of purifying solvents. The purified solvents can be used for cleaning a semiconductor substrate in a multistep semiconductor manufacturing process.

The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems of purifying solvents. The purified solvents can be used for cleaning a semiconductor substrate in a multistep semiconductor manufacturing process.