Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090008332 | NANOFILTRATION WATER-SOFTENING APPARATUS AND METHOD - An apparatus and methods for softening water is disclosed. In particular, an apparatus and method for softening water without the addition of ions the wastewater stream is disclosed. The apparatus generally includes at least one nanofiltration filter element configured and arranged to receive an input flow of hard water, discharge an output flow of permeate water comprising a portion of the input flow, and discharge an output flow of non-permeate water comprising a portion of the input flow. The nanofiltration filter element typically has an average pore size that permits the passage of water and monovalent ions but substantially prevents the passage of divalent ions. | 01-08-2009 |
20090050565 | System and Method for Removing Contaminants From Wastewater - A system may be used to remove contaminants such as blood proteins or manure from a wastewater stream. The system may include prefiltering the wastewater stream followed by passing the wastewater stream through a reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, or ultrafiltration membrane. The permeate may be further sanitized. The water output from such a system may meet drinking water standards or may be used for secondary uses such as dust prevention and the like. | 02-26-2009 |
20090187035 | Process for production of fatty acid alkyl esters - A system and method for producing fatty acid alkyl esters is provided. The method includes forming a reactant stream, which includes triacylglycerides, alkanol, basic transesterification catalyst and, optionally, glycerol, and mixing the reactant stream under high shear mixing conditions to provide a mixed stream comprising fatty acid alkyl ester. | 07-23-2009 |
20090306419 | Method for Degumming Triglyceride Oils - A system and method of degumming a plant derived oil comprising mixing a feed stream under ultrahigh shear conditions to provide a mixed stream, passing the mixed stream through a retention tank, and separating the mixed stream into an aqueous stream and an oil stream is disclosed. The feed stream comprises water, optional added acid(s), and triglyceride oil, such as a plant derived oil, having a relatively high phosphorous content and may also include metal impurities such as calcium, magnesium and/or iron ions. The process can provide a triglyceride oil stream with a phosphorous content of no more than about 10 to 20 ppm and no more than about 0.5 wt. % free fatty acids. In many instances, the triglyceride oil stream has phosphorous content which is no more than about 3% of the phosphorous content of the feed stream. The process also provides a wet gum stream, which may have an AI of 75 or higher. | 12-10-2009 |
20100018922 | Method and apparatus for processing vegetable oil miscella, method for conditioning a polymeric microfiltration membrane, membrane, and lecithin product - A method for processing vegetable oil miscella is provided. The method includes steps of feeding vegetable oil miscella to a conditioned polymeric microfiltration membrane, and recovering a permeate stream having a decreased weight percent of phospholipids compared with the weight percent of phospholipids provided in the miscella. The retentate stream can be further processed for the recovery of lecithin. The polymeric microfiltration membrane can be conditioned for the selective separation of phospholipids in the miscella. A method for conditioning a membrane for selective separation of phospholipids from vegetable oil miscella, and the resulting membrane, are provided. The membrane which can be conditioned can be characterized as having an average pore size of between about 0.1μ and about 2μ. | 01-28-2010 |