Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Purdue Research Foundation

Abhimanyu Das

Krishnaram Kenthapadi

Nina Mishra

David Martin Warsinger

Sandra Cordoba

Hamid Fattahijuybari

Harsharaj Parmar

An assembly for reverse osmotically desalinating water, including a source containing feed water to be desalinated, a high-pressure tank having a first portion and a second portion and a movable piston wall operationally connected therebetween, a first portion inlet operationally connected to the first portion and a second portion inlet operationally connected to the second portion, a first portion outlet operationally connected to the first portion and a second portion outlet operationally connected to the second portion, a first valve having a first first valve inlet, a second first valve inlet, a first first valve outlet in fluidic communication with the first portion inlet and a second first valve outlet in fluidic communication with the second portion inlet, a high-pressure pump operationally connected to the source and to the first first valve inlet, a second valve having a first second valve inlet in fluidic communication with the first portion outlet and a second second valve inlet in fluidic communication with the second portion outlet and a second valve outlet, at least one reverse osmosis module having at least one reverse osmosis module inlet connected in fluidic communication with the second valve outlet, at least one brine outlet and at least one desalinated water outlet, a circulation pump having a circulation pump inlet port connected in fluidic communication with the brine outlet and a circulation pump outlet connected in fluidic communication with the second first valve inlet, and an electronic controller operationally connected to the first valve, to the second valve, to the high-pressure pump and to the circulation pump.

Double-acting piston batch reverse osmosis desalination assembly and method

A desalination system, including a membrane distillation portion, a solar power concentration portion, and a thermal vapor compression portion operationally connected to the membrane distillation portion and to the solar power concentration portion. The membrane distillation portion includes a first vessel having a first portion and a second portion separated by a hydrophobic membrane operationally connected therebetween and oriented to pass water from the first portion to the second portion, wherein the hydrophobic membrane further comprises a hydrophilic membrane and an air blocking layer connected to the hydrophilic membrane and disposed in the first portion, a vacuum gap adjacent the hydrophobic membrane and disposed in the second portion, a first fluid inlet and a first fluid outlet operationally connected to the first portion, and a second fluid inlet and a second fluid outlet operationally connected to the second portion. The solar power concentration portion includes a pump having a pump outlet and a pump inlet operationally connected to a water line and to the vacuum gap, a linear Fresnel mirror collector for collecting and focusing sunlight, and an outlet line operationally connected to the pump outlet and positioned to receive focused sunlight from linear Fresnel mirror collector. The thermal vapor compression portion includes an ejector having an ejector inlet portion and an ejector outlet portion, wherein the ejector inlet portion is operationally connected to the outlet line and to the vacuum gap, a second vessel fluidically connected to the outlet portion and further including a heat exchanger operationally connected to the ejector outlet portion and to a water pipe, a feed spray operationally connected to the second outlet and positioned to spray into the heat exchanger, and a collection portion for receiving concentrated feed spray. The heat exchanger receives desalinated water from the ejector and from the feed spray. The water line carries desalinated water from the heat exchanger. The first outlet passes concentrated brine, and the first inlet receives feed water to be desalinated.

Thermal vapor compression membrane distillation hybrid using vapor selective membranes

Messages are collected and processed to determine topic identifiers that correspond to discussion groups. Queries are received and multiple discussion groups that are relevant to the query are determined based on the messages that are associated with the discussion groups and the topic identifiers associated with the discussion groups. The relevant discussion groups are ranked using a group preference model that simulates the behavior of a hypothetical seeker that considers discussion groups by selecting a message author who is an authority in a particular group, and exploring the discussion groups that are preferred by the selected author. The behavior of the seeker is simulated using a stationary Markov process and is used to generate a probability distribution that is used to rank the relevant discussion groups. The ranked relevant discussion groups are provided in response to the query.

Ranking relevant discussion groups

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Abhimanyu Das