General Electric Company

Dean David Marschke

Daniel Jason Erno

Todd Alan Anderson

Michael Kent Cueman

Philip Paul Beauchamp

Shyam Sivaramakrishnan

Matthew David d'Artenay

A liquid pumping system includes at least two water cylinders that are each controlled by a hydraulic piston. A rotary valve controls the hydraulic pistons. The rotary valve has an inner unit that rotates within an outer unit. Slots provided between the inner and outer units control the duration, rate and direction of hydraulic fluid supply to the hydraulic piston. A liquid pumping process comprises distributing an initial flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid between the hydraulic cylinders. The hydraulic cylinders move through a cycle in a phased relationship to provide a constant sum of flow rates from the liquid pumps. In a water treating process, feed water is pumped through the membrane unit. Brine from the membrane unit is returned to each liquid pump while that liquid pump is feeding water to the membrane unit.

Rotary control valve for reverse osmosis feed water pump with energy recovery

A method includes driving a fluid pumping unit having a plurality of pumping cylinders via a plurality of hydraulic cylinders respectively of a hydraulic power unit. The method further includes controlling activation of the hydraulic power unit such that each stroke of the corresponding piston assembly between the top dead center and the bottom dead center follows a corresponding trapezoidal velocity profile with respect to a time duration. Controlling activation includes controlling flow of a hydraulic fluid in the hydraulic power unit so as to control the corresponding trapezoidal velocity profile with respect to the time duration of the corresponding piston assembly to obtain a predefined flow rate of the fluid medium from the pumping unit.

System and method for controlling motion profile of pistons

A novel separator assembly for a spiral flow reverse osmosis apparatus is provided. In one embodiment, the separator assembly comprises a central core element comprising at least two permeate exhaust conduits and not comprising a concentrate exhaust conduit. Each permeate exhaust conduit defines an exhaust channel and one or more openings allowing fluid communication between an exterior surface of the permeate exhaust conduit and the exhaust channel, said permeate exhaust conduits independently defining a cavity between said conduits. The cavity is configured to accommodate a first portion of a membrane stack assembly comprising at least one feed carrier layer, at least two permeate carrier layers, and at least two membrane layers. A first portion of the membrane stack assembly is disposed within the cavity, and a second portion of the membrane stack assembly is wound around the central core element and forms a multilayer membrane assembly disposed around the central core element.

Separator assembly

A novel separator assembly for a spiral flow reverse osmosis apparatus is provided. In one embodiment, the separator assembly comprises a central core element comprising at least one permeate exhaust conduit and at least one concentrate exhaust conduit. Each exhaust conduit defines an exhaust channel and one or more openings allowing fluid communication between an exterior surface of the exhaust conduit and the exhaust channel, said exhaust conduits independently defining a cavity between said conduits. The cavity is configured to accommodate a first portion of a membrane stack assembly comprising at least one feed carrier layer, at least one permeate carrier layer, and at least one membrane layer. A first portion of the membrane stack assembly is disposed within the cavity, and a second portion of the membrane stack assembly is wound around the central core element and forms a multilayer membrane assembly disposed around the central core element.

The present disclosure describes an axial bypass sleeve for use with a spiral wound membrane element. The axial bypass sleeve has a protrusion and an opening that defines a flow path to provide fluid flow communication through the axial bypass sleeve. In use, the axial bypass sleeve is wrapped around a spiral wound membrane element and both are placed in a pressure housing. A pressurized feedstock is introduced into the pressure housing. A portion of the pressurized feedstock flows through the spiral wound membrane element to produce a permeate stream and a retentate stream. A portion of the pressurized feed stock flows around the spiral wound membrane element, called bypass flow. The protrusion extends into the annular space to restrict the bypass flow. A portion of the bypass flow passes through the opening and enters into the spiral wound membrane element to increase permeate production.

Axial bypass sleeve

Apparatus and method for collection of a target material from a liquid sample comprising target species that contain the target material. The apparatus comprises a fluid flow conduit in communication with a filter medium having a pore size adapted to retain target species thereon and pass, as filtrate, lysate containing the desired target material. A lysing agent conduit communicates with the fluid flow conduit and delivers lysing agent to the filter medium to lyse the target cells thereby releasing the desired intracellular target material. The lysing agent may be recirculated through the filter medium for a sufficient time to permit sufficient quantity of lysate to circulate through the system for lysate collection and subsequent assay.

Bacteria/RNA extraction device

The present invention provides a central core element for separator assemblies useful in the purification of fluids, for example separator assemblies useful for the desalination of seawater. The central core element provided by the present invention comprises at least two porous exhaust conduits wherein each porous exhaust conduit comprises an exhaust channel and one or more openings which allow fluid communication between an exterior surface of the porous exhaust conduit and the exhaust channel. The central core element defines a cavity into which may be disposed a first portion of a membrane stack assembly. In the preparation of a separator assembly comprising the central core element provided by the present invention, a second portion of the membrane stack assembly forms a multilayer membrane assembly disposed around the central core element. Also provided are central core elements for salt separator assemblies and spiral flow reverse osmosis devices.

Growing community of inventors

Eden Prairie, MN, United States of America

Dean David Marschke