University of California

Other

Yoram Cohen

Anditya Rahardianto

Gregory Todd Lewis

Han Gu

Panagiotis D Christofides

Larry Xingming Gao

Myung-Man Kim

Nancy Hsiao-Yu Lin

Tae Kyung Lee

Michal Uchymiak

Alex R Bartman

Aihua Zhu

An apparatus includes 1) a filtration device including a filtration module to generate a filtrate from an input stream; 2) a desalination device fluidly connected to the filtration device; and 3) a controller configured to direct operation of the filtration device and the desalination device. In a first mode of operation, the filtration module is configured to perform filtration as part of generating the filtrate. In a second mode of operation, the filtration module is configured to receive an output from the desalination device such that the output backwashes the filtration module. The controller is configured to monitor a change in membrane resistance of the filtration module during the first mode of operation, and is configured to trigger the filtration module to enter the second mode of operation based on the change in membrane resistance.

Self-adaptive control and optimization of membrane filtration

A membrane process unit (MPU) is configured to receive a feed stream, subject the feed stream to membrane purification to generate a product stream and a concentrate stream, and subject the concentrate stream to energy recovery to provide at least a portion of energy for membrane purification. A concentrate recycle unit (CRU) is configured to receive the concentrate stream from the MPU, subject the concentrate stream to flow regulation to generate a waste stream and a recycled concentrate stream, and combine the recycled concentrate stream with a raw feed stream to generate the feed stream which is supplied to the MPU. At least one of a flow rate of the raw feed stream, a flow rate of the waste stream, or a flow rate of the recycled concentrate stream is varied, while each of a flow rate of the feed stream, a flow rate of the product stream, and a flow rate of the concentrate stream is maintained substantially fixed.

System and method for flexible low-energy membrane-based liquid purification

An apparatus includes a filtration skid configured to generate a filtrate through at least one of microfiltration and ultrafiltration. The apparatus further includes a desalination skid fluidly connected to the filtration skid. The desalination skid is configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to generate a permeate, where the filtrate travels from the filtration skid to the desalination skid without traversing a storage tank. In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a controller, where the filtration skid and the desalination skid are integrated to provide self-adaptive operation of the filtration skid and the desalination skid in response to control by at least one of a supervisory controller and a local controller. In one embodiment, the control responds to at least one of temporal variability of feed water quality, a permeate production capacity target, and a permeate quality target.

Apparatus, system and method for integrated filtration and reverse osmosis desalination

A method of modifying a polymeric, inorganic, or organic-functionalized substrate surface is provided. In one embodiment, an atmospheric pressure (AP) plasma stream is directed at a substrate surface, leading to the formation of surface-bound active sites that function as polymerization initiators. When contacted with a monomer or monomer solution, the active sites facilitate formation of a dense array of graft polymers covalently bound to the substrate surface. In another embodiment, an inorganic substrate is cleaned, conditioned in a humidity chamber, treated with an AP plasma, and contacted with a monomer or monomer solution to facilitate formation and growth of graft polymers on the substrate surface.

Atmospheric pressure plasma-induced graft polymerization

In one embodiment, a method of modifying a surface of a membrane includes exposing the surface to an impinging atmospheric pressure plasma source to produce an activated surface, and exposing the activated surface to a solution including a vinyl monomer. In another embodiment, a method of manufacturing a desalination membrane includes treating a surface of the membrane with an impinging atmospheric plasma source for an optimal period of time and rf power, and exposing the surface to an aqueous solution containing a vinyl monomer. In another embodiment, an apparatus includes a membrane having a surface, and polymer chains terminally grafted onto the surface of the membrane.

Fouling and scaling resistant nano-structured reverse osmosis membranes

A monitoring system and a method for monitoring a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane in an RO unit is capable of detecting the formation of mineral salt crystals on the surface of the RO membrane. The monitoring system includes a reverse osmosis monitoring cell coupled to the RO unit so as to receive a sample stream taken from either the feed stream to, or the concentrate stream from, the RO unit. The cell has a visually observable RO membrane that is visible to an imaging system that creates and collects images of the visually-observable RO membrane, and that conveys an image data signal to a data processing system that is operable to translate the image data signal into visual images for display, and to correlate the data in the image data signal with a scaling condition on the RO membrane in the RO unit.

Method and system for monitoring reverse osmosis membranes

A ceramic-supported polymer membrane is disclosed where a porous ceramic membrane support of average pore size no larger than 500 &angst; is activated by attaching a vinyl terminated lower alkoxy silane to the surface of the ceramic membrane pores. The resulting membrane retains at least 10 micromoles of the vinyl terminated loweralkoxy silane per square meter of the ceramic membrane surface. A method for optimizing the amount of vinyl loweralkoxy silane reacted with the ceramic support surface is also disclosed. The large amount of vinyl terminated loweralkoxy silane which is chemically bonded to the surface of the ceramic porous support produces activated ceramic membrane support surface which is useful for graft polymerization of vinyl monomers onto the porous ceramic membrane support surface. A vinyl monomer is then graft polymerized onto the activated membrane. The resulting ceramic-supported polymer membrane is useful for pervaporation separation of liquids mixtures that are sufficiently different in their vapor pressure.

Ceramic-supported polymer (CSP) pervaporation membrane

Separation resins are disclosed where silica particles are surface activated by attaching a vinyl terminated lower alkoxy silane to the silica particle and then hydrolyzing the particles. The resulting hydrolyzed particles are hydrophilic and retain at least 10 micromoles of the hydrolyzed vinyl terminated lower alkoxy silane per square centimeter of the silica. A water soluble polymer is then graft polymerized onto the activated and hydrolyzed silica particles. The large amount of hydrolyzed vinyl terminated lower alkoxy silane which remains on the silica along with the hydrophilic nature of the hydrolyzed silica produces an activated particle which is useful for graft polymerization of water soluble polymers onto the particles in large amounts not previously possible. A method for preparing the separation resins is also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Yoram Cohen