INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PROPRIETARY KNOW-HOW
Membrane Development Specialists over the years has accumulated a vast base of know-how in the form of proprietary processes, chemistries, proprietary membranes and materials to manufacture said membranes that are necessary to allow membrane technologies (referred to as IP) that have proven to be highly beneficial to the mining industry.
General descriptions of the MDS collection of IP:
- Modified Membranes to concentrate metals from acids.
- Modified Membranes to purify Lithium from Magnesium and Calcium.
- Proprietary feed spacers that mitigate membrane element fouling from calcium sulfate and calcium carbonate saturation found in most mining process and ARD waters.
- Chemistry in the form of proprietary antiscalants that compliment the spiral wound membrane elements construction to allow for operation in super saturated mining process and ARD streams.
- Proprietary materials and membrane element construction techniques that allow for the operation of spiral wound membranes at wide range of pH 0 to 14.
- Proprietary materials and and membrane element construction techniques that allow for the operation of spiral wound membrane elements to operate at up to 90°C.
- A custom membrane rolling facility that uses the materials described above to manufacture these unique spiral would membrane elements in a production setting.
PATENTS
Membrane Development Specialists have many patented inventions and processes. You are welcome to read through what Larry Lien has developed to advance the technology and process to create a better and more robust and stable environment for complex situations, from actual devices to ingenious processes. Here are a few of the patents with the abstracts to them and others:
- Parallel Feed Spacer for spiral wound elements
- Efficient permeate Carrier arrangement for high flow liquid and gas membranes
- Cleaning Calcium sulfate from elements using a 12% sodium chloride solution
- Purifying fuels and wet gas condensates using membranes (funded by US Gov. so government has rights to patent, I have all other private industry rights)
- Purifying 20% sodium chloride solutions for reuse by removing divalent cations and anions
- CO2 capture from flue gas as a feed to Microwave Reformation of CO2 and Methane into syngas
Patent #4802982: Spiral-wound membrane with improved permeate carrier
Abstract
Disclosed are spiral-wound membrane cartridge constructions for use in ultrafiltration and reverse-osmosis separation equipment. The membrane constructions include a membrane layer directly bonded to a permeate carrier layer characterized by a channel material having a plurality of parallel ribs extending in a transverse permeate-carrying direction, interconnected by a relatively thin matrix of smaller fibrils. It advantageously reduces resistance to permeate flow to a central collection point, and can be employed to separate both liquid and gaseous fluids.
Patent #4902417: Spiral-wound membrane cartridge with ribbed and spaced carrier layer
Abstract
Disclosed are spiral-wound membrane cartridge constructions for use in ultrafiltration and reverse-osmosis separation equipment, each of which include a feed layer, a membrane layer and a permeate carrier layer. By using a feed layer in the form of a channel material having a plurality of parallel ribs extending in an axial direction, interconnected by a matrix of smaller filaments which may be generally perpendicular thereto, this construction advantageously reduces resistance to liquid flow axially through the cartridge, registering only very low pressure drops. Such cartridges of 40 to 70 inches in length and 8 inches in diameter may be employed in series, even within a single outer casing or pressure vessel. Such constructions are especially useful in separating liquids having high levels of particulate contamination using ultrafiltration membranes where clogging of the cartridge is a common problem and also in concentrating solutions of fairly viscous water-soluble polymers.
Patent #5149433: US Navy Co-patent holder of device to purify diesel or gasoline of entrained water
Abstract
Apparatus for the supply of decontaminated fuel to a diesel engine including two filtering stages, the first being a spiral wound, cross flow ultrafiltration unit and the second being a spiral wound deadheaded ultrafiltration unit with a pressure operated alarm connected to respond to the build-up of contaminants in said second stage.
Patent #4780211: Method of dewatering using PTFE membrane
Abstract
Membranes of highly crystalline PTFE having an average pore size between about 0.01 micron and about 0.5 micron ordinarily reject any passage of water while allowing an organic nonpolar liquid to flow therethrough. By thoroughly wetting an expanded polytetrafluroethylene membrane with isopropyl alcohol, such a membrane will selectively allow the passage of a polar liquid, for example water, therethrough while rejecting other components, including nonpolar organic liquids, such as oil, kerosene or the like, and dissolved components of fairly large molecular size. Such IPA-wetted membranes are used to separate oil-water mixtures by allowing the water to selectively permeate through the membrane. The membrane may include a 5 mil thick backing layer of nonwoven synthetic fibers. The mixture is supplied to the membrane at a pressure not greater than about 90 psig., and often very low pressures of about 5-20 psig. can be used.
Patent #6004464: Spent brine reclamation
Abstract
A method of reclaiming spent aqueous brine solutions used in the regeneration of water-softening resins. An aqueous solution chloride or other brine is acidified with HCl to a pH of between about 0.5 and 6 and a soluble sulfate salt, preferably Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4 is added, together with a precipitation inhibitor of the type polyacrylamide. Following such treatment, the spent brine is pumped at high pressure axially through a spirally-wound nanofiltration-type membrane device which is effective to remove at least about 90% of the divalent hardness while allowing passage therethrough of at least about 90% of the monovalent cations. As a result of such treatment, about 90 to 95% of the volume of spent brine can be efficiently and effectively reclaimed in a form in which it is suitable for use again in regenerating water-softening resins or the like.
Patent #6955222: Method for secondary oil recovery
Abstract
A method and a system for treating seawater to facilitate secondary recovery of petroleum from a location below a body of saline water by flooding a permeable stratum with the treated water. The system utilizes a spirally-wound cross flow semipermeable membrane cartridge incorporating a three layer membrane arrangement preferably having nanofiltration characteristics which facilitates treatment of open ocean water by a single pass without any chemical or mechanical pretreatment to result in a liquid stream of desired character that can have greater ionic strength than the input seawater, e.g. at least about 18,000 ppm of chloride ion and less than 50 ppm of sulfate ion. This surprising objective is obtained even at high operating temperatures, e.g. as high as about 70.degree. C., through the combination of the construction of the feed spacer and the nanofiltration character of the three layer membrane arrangement.
Patent Application #2008/0128354 A1: Method for Washing Filtration Membranes
Abstract
A membrane filter washing method is provided using a wash solution containing a determined concentration of a leaching agent.
Patent Application #2013/0131199 A1: CO2 Capture-Microwave Reformation (with methane added) Issued 2013
Abstract
Streams (11) of natural gas contaminated with significant amounts of carbon dioxide can be efficiently and economically processed to create Syngas (16). An available source (1) of flue gas that might otherwise be dispersed into the atmosphere in conjunction with such a CO2-laden natural gas stream (11) renders the process even more economical and efficient through the creation of multiple feedstreams (14, 27, 34) that are combined to deliver a composite near equal mixture of methane and CO2 to a plasma reactor (15) or the like that will generate Syngas. When coupled With a Fischer-Tropsch reactor (40), the overall process provides a partlcularly efficient and economical process for producing synthetic liquid hydrocarbons.
Patent #9649591: Method and system for producing pipeline quality natural gas
Abstract
A method and system for recovering natural gas liquids (NGLs) from hydrocarbon mixtures and for producing a pipeline quality natural gas (NG) stream from a NG stream with a BTU content greater than about 1100 BTU per standard cubic foot. An NG or petroleum gas stream containing NGLs is delivered to a crossflow semipermeable membrane filtration apparatus wherein the semipermeable membrane is wetted with an organic liquid to render the membrane oleophilic. The NG stream is delivered at a pressure of at least about 150 psig. NGLs permeate through the wetted oleophilic membrane at a backpressure of at least 120 psig and maintain the desirable membrane characteristics; they are collected as liquids at a pressure of at least about 15 psig. A pipeline quality, primarily methane retentate stream of not greater than about 1050 BTU/scf is produced.
Membrane Development Specialists
921 "A" S Andreasen Drive
Escondido, CA 92029
Phone: (619) 857-7930