LIVERMORE, CA -- A nanotube membrane on a silicon chip the size of a quarter may offer a cheaper way to remove salt from water. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a membrane made of carbon nanotubes and silicon that may offer, among many possible applications, a less expensive desalination.

The nanotubes, special molecules made of carbon atoms in a unique arrangement, are hollow and more than 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Billions of these tubes act as the pores in the membrane. The super smooth inside of the nanotubes allow liquids and gases to rapidly flow through, while the tiny pore size can block larger molecules. This previously unobserved phenomenon opens a vast array of possible applications.

The team was able to measure flows of liquids and gases by making a membrane on a silicon chip with carbon nanotube pores making up the holes of the membrane. The membrane is created by filling the gaps between aligned carbon nanotubes with a ceramic matrix material. The pores are so small that only six water molecules could fit across their diameter.

“The gas and water flows that we measured are 100 to 10,000 times faster than what classical models predict,” said Olgica Bakajin, the Livermore scientist who led the research. “This is like having a garden hose that can deliver as much water in the same amount of time as a fire hose that is ten times larger.”

The research resulted from collaboration between Olgica Bakajin and Aleksandr Noy, who were both recruited to Lawrence Livermore Lab as “Lawrence Fellows” – the Laboratory’s initiative to bring in talented young scientists. The principal contributors to the work are postdoctoral researcher Jason Holt and Hyung Gyu Park, a UC Berkeley mechanical engineering graduate student and student employee at Livermore. Other LLNL co-authors included Yinmin Wang, staff scientist, Michael Stadermann, postdoctoral researcher, and Alexander Artyukhin, graduate student employee. The team collaborated with UC Berkeley’s professor of mechanical engineering Costas Grigoropoulos. David Eaglesham, now at Applied Materials, also contributed in the early stages of this work.

Membranes that have carbon nanotubes as pores could be used in desalination and demineralization. Salt removal from water, commonly performed through reverse osmosis, uses less permeable membranes, requires large amounts of pressure and is quite expensive. However, these more permeable nanotube membranes could reduce the energy costs of desalination by up to 75 percent compared to conventional membranes used in reverse osmosis.

Carbon nanotubes are a unique platform for studying molecular transport and nanofluidics. Their nanometer-size, atomically smooth surfaces and similarity to cellular water transport channels make them exceptionally suited for this purpose.

“Since water does not wet the outside surface of carbon nanotubes, we were skeptical that water would enter into them, let alone flow really fast,” Bakajin said. “But the molecular dynamics simulations in the literature predicted fast flow, so we wanted to test the predictions.”

“The first time we set up an experiment with water, we left it overnight thinking that the water level above the membrane would not budge,” Park said. “Instead, we came back in the morning and there was a little puddle on the floor under the membrane.”

Holt added: “The first thing that came to mind was that the membrane broke, but fortunately it didn’t. The membrane allowed water through and blocked gold nanoparticles that were just a bit larger than the nanotube pores.”

Simulations of gas and water transport through carbon nanotubes predict that each should flow rapidly. Gas molecules should bounce off its atomically smooth surface like billiard balls. Water molecules should slide through either because of the “slipperiness” of the carbon nanotube surface or due to molecular ordering induced by spatial confinement. The experiments performed by the LLNL team demonstrated these predicted rapid flows of gas and water through carbon nanotubes, but further research is needed to determine the exact transport mechanisms.

Another potential application for the membranes is in gas separation. The high gas permeability and its affinity to hydrocarbons may allow for lower-energy, industrial-gas separations. “Though our membranes have an order of magnitude smaller pore size, the enhanced flow rate per pore and the high pore density makes them superior in both air and water permeability compared to conventional polycarbonate membranes,” Bakajin said.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Web site: http://www.llnl.gov/

GL&V to Acquire Enviroquip Inc.

Montreal, Canada -- Management of Groupe Laperriere & Verreault Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of an exclusive letter of intent with Enviroquip Inc. to acquire all the Austin, Texas based company's outstanding share capital subject to certain conditions. With annual sales of approximately $25 million, Enviroquip produces water and wastewater treatment equipment, mainly for municipalities.

In addition to various aeration, filter underdrain, aerobic digestion, belt filter press and clarifier systems, Enviroquip holds the exclusive U.S. municipal market license for the Submerged Membrane Unit developed by the Japanese multinational Kubota. This wastewater treatment technology is increasingly in demand by North American municipalities. The combination of Enviroquip's products and Kubota's membrane provides it with an edge in the marketplace, as it enables it to offer municipalities complete high-performance and cost-effective solutions. It should be noted that GL&V has been the exclusive Kubota membrane licensee in Canada since 2004.

This acquisition, when concluded, will be the fourth to be realized by GL&V's Water Treatment Group (Eimco Water Technologies) within the past fourteen months. Richard Verreault, President and Chief Operating Officer of GL&V, indicated that the Enviroquip acquisition will bring a significant strategic value since it will enable Eimco Water Technologies to establish its presence in a market segment experiencing faster growth than the wastewater treatment industry as a whole, but where there are considerable barriers to entry due to numerous existing patents.

"The addition of this relatively new technology to our current selection of technologies will strengthen GL&V's existing and future positioning in the North American municipal market." As for Enviroquip, a private company owned by its management and employees, being combined into a group of GL&V's size will provide greater leverage and growth potential in this market segment currently undergoing a consolidation movement by some multinationals.

Kubota has already given its basic consent to the transaction which, however, remains subject to certain conditions, including the satisfaction of a due diligence review by GL&V, and the obtaining of all required approvals.

About GL&V

Founded in 1975, GL&V is a world leader in liquid/solid separation technologies used in a large number of industrial, municipal and environmental processes. Its Process Group (Dorr-Oliver Eimco) offers a broad range of products and services intended for metal and ore processing, as well as industrial and environmental processes used in various other sectors such as chemicals and petrochemicals, food processing, pulp and paper and energy. The Water Treatment Group (Eimco Water Technologies) is focused on the development and worldwide marketing of process equipment in the treatment of drinking water and wastewater.

Web site: http://www.glv.com/

London, UK -- Close Brothers Private Equity (CBPE) today announces the acquisition of the industrial water chemicals business from US listed Chemtura Corporation for an acquisition price of $85M. The business will be renamed BWA Water Additives (BWA).

BWA is a global supplier of niche specialty chemicals used in a wide range of industrial water treatment applications including the fast growing desalination sector. Key brands in BWA’s portfolio include Belgard® and Flocon® for desalination, Belclene® for industrial scale control as well as BromiCide® and Bellasol®.

BWA’s chemical treatments are used by customers on sites ranging from oil refineries and breweries to air conditioning in office buildings. It supplies ‘scale control’ and ‘biocides’ products to over 80 countries world-wide and is the world leader in treating desalination units where drinking water is produced from seawater. Its products are also used in the prevention of microbiological growth and build-up of lime scale in industrial plants ranging from large cooling towers to smaller air conditioning units.

The business, established in 1973 is headquartered in Trafford Park, Manchester with offices in Atlanta, USA, Japan, Singapore and Dubai. It has revenues of c.$80m and has approximately 40 employees.

As part of the deal, CBPE has acquired the sales, marketing, technology and supply chain assets from Chemtura. The transaction does not include the manufacturing operations or facilities which will continue to operated by Chemtura.  The proceeds of CBPE’s funding will be used to expand BWA’s product range as well as new product research and development.

BWA represents the latest in a series of deals by CBPE in the chemicals sector. Iain Slater, a partner at CBPE commented.

“BWA is an excellent investment for CBPE. We are investing in a business with a long established track record of delivering innovation, product quality and customer service to its clients. Several of the markets it operates in, such as desalination and oilfield chemicals, have significant growth potential and we believe BWA is extremely well positioned to capitalize on this particularly with the benefit of its market leading brands such as Belgard for desalination and Belclene for industrial scale control”.

David Cartmell, who becomes Chief Executive of BWA with immediate effect, said, “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to return to the company and play a leading role in the next stage of our growth after previously working for the business for over 20 years. The business is committed to continuing to meet our customer needs with leading edge technology products and services.”

For further information visit: http://www.cbpel.com/

. Krohne Introduces WaterFlux Water Meter Battery powered meter transmits flow rates to internet or cellular telephone.

Watts Water Acquires ATS Expansion Group
Watts Water Technologies, Inc. announced that it has acquired ATS Expansion Group in a stock purchase transaction.
 

New SPX DuCoNite Corrosive-Duty Pump Watson-Marlow Bredel, the leading manufacturer of peristaltic pumps, launches its corrosive-duty SPX DuCoNite pump, ideal for industrial processing applications.

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Mr. Whittenburg needs help latex paint washout water:

I need suggestions on how to separate latex paint from latex paint washout water and end up with these levels.

I've been told that there is a chemical that could be added to the latex paint washout water, then agitated for a short time and it will encapsulate the latex paint, causing it to settle to the bottom of the tank so the water could be drained off and at the same time satisfy the above levels?
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Thank you,
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Five Star
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Ms. Vik needs help with WWTP:

We are about to build WWTP (tertiary treatment) in our town.  The data, what we now have are not relevant;  BOD-231 mg/l; COD 512 mg/l; SS 272 mg/l; Nitrogen 40 mg/l; phosphorous 9 mg/l, average wastewater dry weather flow 242 l/sec; industrial wastewater 5,809 m3/day, others including infiltration (about 35%, 12,588 m3/day) for about 60,000 inhabitants.

Legal standards required for the effluent from WWTP according to EU regulations are: 70-90% BOD; 75% COD; 90% SS; 70-80% Total Nitrogen; 80% Total Phosphorous.

According to this data was calculated that our future WWTP will be for 100.000 EP (we think is too much).  Before the tender procedure starts we are trying to investigate our discharges and also industries (quality and quantity of waste water) so we will have more accurate data.

Can somebody, please help us in following:
1. What would be the best technology to use (good results on outlet, low maintenance, operation and construction cost).
2. We would also like to have gas production and sludge management (compost production). (Click here to post a reply)

Thank you very much for your answers,
Tanja Vik
u2carpediem@hotmail.com

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This week's photo is of a Vaughan chopper pump handling raw screenings at the headworks at the Lott WWTP in Olympia, WA. The screenings are chopped and pumped up to the screw centrifuge for dewatering before trucking to the landfill.

Photo courtesy John Hayes of
Vaughan Company, Inc.

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