Patents Examined by Ana M. Fortuna
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Patent number: 11014035Abstract: A tunable nanofiber filter device can include a filter housing defining an interior space, the housing having defined therein and inlet and an outlet, each in fluid communication with the interior space, and a plurality of filter laminas disposed within the interior space, each filter lamina including an upper surface, a lower surface, and an aperture defined therethrough. The plurality of filter laminas can be arranged in a stack wherein the opposing surfaces of adjacent filter laminas define a portion of an interlaminar flow space extending between the opposing surfaces. The flow space can be in fluid communication with the apertures of corresponding adjacent filter laminas to form a continuous flow passage extending through the lamina stack from the inlet to the outlet. An array nanofibers can extend into the flow passage from a portion of each filter lamina such that a fluid flowed through the flow passage flows across a portion of said array.Type: GrantFiled: November 9, 2018Date of Patent: May 25, 2021Assignee: ULTRA SMALL FIBERS, LLCInventors: William Hudson Hofmeister, Robert A. Van Wyk, Keith Allen Holloway
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Patent number: 11001645Abstract: The present disclosure relates to charge-bearing polymeric materials and methods of their use for purifying fluid samples from micropollutants, such as anionic micropollutants.Type: GrantFiled: March 26, 2020Date of Patent: May 11, 2021Assignee: CycloPure, Inc.Inventors: Gokhan Barin, Jason M. Spruell, Moira Brown, Shan Li
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Patent number: 10994230Abstract: An apparatus for separating out and removing screenings from wastewater includes a screening device having a screen surface through which the wastewater flows during operation of the screening device and screenings carried along in the wastewater are at least intermittently retained. The apparatus includes a sensor and a controller. The sensor monitors the screenings in the area upstream from the screen surface and/or in the area of the screen surface. The controller outputs a message when the screenings have one or several properties which have been defined and have been recognized by the sensor. In addition, a method for operating the apparatus and a system including the apparatus are provided.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2018Date of Patent: May 4, 2021Assignee: HUBER SEInventors: Nikica Starcevic, Juergen Kerschensteiner, Anton Neger
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Patent number: 10995425Abstract: A method and apparatus for fabricating multifunction membranes comprising cross-aligned nanofiber in an electrospinning device, the method comprising providing a multiple segment collector including at least a first segment, a second segment, and an intermediate segment to collectively present an elongated cylindrical structure; electrically charging an edge conductor circumferentially resident on the first segment and on the second segment; rotating the elongated cylindrical structure on a drive unit around a longitudinal axis; the elongated cylindrical structure holding electrospun fiber substantially aligned with the longitudinal axis when the edge conductors are excited with a charge of opposite polarity relative to charged fiber, and attracting electrospun fiber on to its surface around the longitudinal axis at least when the edge conductors are absent a charge or grounded and a charged electrode is positioned opposite a fiber emitter; and repeating the process multiple times to form layers of nanofibersType: GrantFiled: June 23, 2020Date of Patent: May 4, 2021Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMAInventor: Maurice Haff
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Patent number: 10994224Abstract: A tank system may be conventional and fixed, or mobile, such as a fracking fluid or other tank trailer. A drain port thereof is fitted with an adapter connecting a snorkel system to drain liquids from near the top of the liquid level in the tank. A snorkel head at the extreme distal end of a tube near the longitudinal center of the tank is suspended by a system of buoys. A flow field controller plate resists formation of vortices near the snorkel head, so it can operate as near the surface as possible, withdrawing the highest grade oil efficiently. At its exit, the proximal end of the tube drains oil through an inner conduit of an adapter at a penetration in the wall of the tank. The adapter forms an annulus around the inner conduit draining tank bottoms directly from the tank.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2018Date of Patent: May 4, 2021Assignee: THOUGHT PRESERVE, LLCInventors: David A. Bell, C. Michael Miller, Kristen Tucker, John Michael Higley
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Patent number: 10993008Abstract: A composite multilayer filtering construction for use in filtering applications requiring a high filtering efficiency for particles of the order of microns and a high permeability of the filtering medium, and for use as a sub-component within acoustic and electronic products, in particular microphones and speakers, comprises at least a first layer of polymeric nanoporous membrane and at least a second layer of a synthetic monofilament precision fabric, the first polymeric nanoporous membrane layer being coupled to the second precision fabric layer thereby providing an integral filtering medium adapted to prevent a passage therethrough of particles even of 1-2 ?m and of pressurized liquids.Type: GrantFiled: May 24, 2016Date of Patent: April 27, 2021Assignee: SAATI S.P.A.Inventors: Carmine Lucignano, Anna Muzyczuk, Elisa Grimoldi, Marco Mietta, Paolo Canonico
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Patent number: 10987614Abstract: A no filter no filter no nm attachment is disclosed. A shell defines a fluid passage from an upstream fluid aperture at a first end for fluid receiving communication with a filtration cartridge to a downstream fluid aperture at a corresponding second end sized and shaped for coupling to a fluid pump inlet. The shell further defines a pin aperture at the first end sized to receive a pin from the filtration cartridge. A divider segments the fluid passage into an upstream portion that comprises the upstream fluid aperture and the pin aperture and a downstream portion that comprises the downstream fluid aperture. The divider also defines an internal aperture that allows fluid communication between the upstream portion and the downstream portion. A ball is disposed in the upstream portion in fluid flow receiving communication with the upstream fluid aperture, and is sized to have a greater diameter than the internal aperture.Type: GrantFiled: March 7, 2017Date of Patent: April 27, 2021Assignee: CUMMINS FILTRATION IP, INC.Inventors: Pravin Shantinath Kadam, Sudhindra Palaxa Arakeri, Kevin C. South, Ismail C. Bagci
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Patent number: 10981117Abstract: A thermoplastic blended potting resin, a blended resin potted membrane, a membrane separation module, a fluid separation device, a method of making and a method of using the membrane separation module and the fluid separation device are described herein. The blended thermoplastic potting resin comprises at least one polar membrane having two end regions and a middle region; and a blended resin comprising a non-polar thermoplastic polymer and a polar thermoplastic polymer; wherein at least one of the two ends regions is coated with the blended potting resin to form a fluid-tight seal between the end regions and the open middle region, and wherein the polar thermoplastic polymer is 1% or greater by weight of blended resin.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2016Date of Patent: April 20, 2021Assignee: ENTEGRIS, INC.Inventors: Ganapathysubramanian Iyer, Cha Doh
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Patent number: 10974171Abstract: A tank system may be conventional and fixed, or mobile, such as a fracking fluid or other tank trailer. A drain port thereof is fitted with an adapter connecting a snorkel system to drain liquids from near the top of the liquid level in the tank. A snorkel head at the extreme distal end of a tube near the longitudinal center of the tank is suspended by a system of buoys. A flow field controller resists formation of vortices near the snorkel head, so it can operate as near the surface as possible, withdrawing the highest grade oil efficiently without entrainment of overlying gases and vapors, nor the second liquid layered therebelow. All are configured to fit into the tank without requiring any personnel to enter the tank. Oil, water, and sludge may drain through the system to exit the tank.Type: GrantFiled: November 5, 2019Date of Patent: April 13, 2021Assignee: THOUGHT PRESERVE, LLCInventor: David A. Bell
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Patent number: 10974204Abstract: A porous membrane has a thickness of 150 ?m or greater. The pore diameters of a first surface are smaller than the pore diameters of a second surface. The average value of the pore diameters of the first surface is 60 nm or less, and the coefficient of variation of the pore diameters is 10% or greater and 50% or less.Type: GrantFiled: June 14, 2017Date of Patent: April 13, 2021Assignee: ASAHI KASEI KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Yuki Miki, Daisuke Okamura, Hirokazu Fujimura, Masatoshi Hashino
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Patent number: 10968130Abstract: The invention relates to a method for treating organically contaminated wastewater and/or organically contaminated wet waste, in particular for treating sanitary wastewater (15) in trains. According to the invention, the method comprises the following steps: a) purifying the organically contaminated wastewater and/or the organically contaminated wet waste, in particular the sanitary wastewater (15) in trains, in a bioreactor (20), b) feeding the wastewater (24) at least partially purified in the bioreactor (20) into a conditioning plant (30), c) at least partial phase separation of the partially purified wastewater (24) in the conditioning plant (30), d) obtaining a liquid portion and a solid portion of the at least partially purified wastewater (24).Type: GrantFiled: May 29, 2017Date of Patent: April 6, 2021Assignee: AKW A+V PROTEC HOLDING GMBHInventors: Daniel Siess, Josef Schärtl
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Patent number: 10960360Abstract: By having a coating layer, this composite semipermeable membrane has fouling resistance easily maintainable before and after contact with acid, and enables stable operation over a long period of time. This composite semipermeable membrane comprises a porous support layer, a separation function layer arranged on the porous support layer, and a coating layer arranged on the separation function layer, wherein the separation function layer contains a crosslinked aromatic polyamide which is a polycondensate of polyfunctional aromatic amines and polyfunctional aromatic acid chloride, and the coating layer contains an aliphatic polymer having the structure (I) in the description.Type: GrantFiled: February 28, 2019Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.Inventors: Harutoki Shimura, Yoshiki Nishiguchi, Yohei Adachi, Takahiro Tokuyama, Kohei Kuraoka
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Patent number: 10960358Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the production of a positively charged membrane. Furthermore the present invention relates to a positively charged membrane obtainable by the methods of present invention and the use of these positively charged membranes.Type: GrantFiled: August 18, 2016Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: NX Filtration Holding B.V.Inventors: Hendrik Dirk Willem Roesink, Joris De Grooth
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Patent number: 10946337Abstract: Disclosed is a water treatment apparatus which can extract clean water by means of the pressure of raw water. The disclosed water treatment apparatus comprises: a filter part which filters raw water; a storage part which stores clean water filtered by passing through at least a part of the filter part, the storage part having a first chamber and a second chamber of which the volume changes according to a change in the volume of the first chamber; an extraction part which is installed so as to provide the filtered clean water to a user; and an air supply part which is installed on a flow path connected to the storage part in order to supply air to either one of the first chamber or the second chamber of the storage part.Type: GrantFiled: December 29, 2015Date of Patent: March 16, 2021Inventors: Jong-Hwan Lee, Jung-Hwan Lee, Hyun-Soo Shin, Tae-Seong Kwon, Hyoung-Min Moon, Jung-Hun Lee, In-Du Choi, Sang-Hyeon Kang
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Patent number: 10940438Abstract: The present invention provides an omniphobic membrane and application thereof. The omniphobic membrane comprises a porous substrate which has a pore size between 0.4 and 2 ?m, a top coat, and an interface layer between the porous substrate and the top coat, and the omniphobic membrane has a carbon/silicon ratio between 40 and 60, and a hierarchical re-entrant structure. Furthermore, both of a process for fabricating the omniphobic membrane and a method for desalination of a liquid by membrane distillation are provided in the present invention.Type: GrantFiled: November 16, 2018Date of Patent: March 9, 2021Assignee: NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITYInventors: Kuo-Lun Tung, Allen Huang, Liang-Hsun Chen, Yi-Rui Chen, Chien-Hua Chen, Che-Chen Hsu, Feng-Yu Tsai
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Patent number: 10940444Abstract: Systems and methods for treating a membrane are described. The method includes causing a nanomaterial to contact at least a portion of a wall of at least on channel extending through a membrane, and causing the nanomaterial to adhere to the portion of the wall of the at least one channel. A fluid filtration system is also described. The filtration system includes a housing and a filter membrane. The housing may have a reservoir and a filter compartment. The filter membrane may have a channel extending therethrough. The channel may have a plurality of micropores along a wall thereof. The filter compartment may be configured to receive the filter membrane therein, the filter membrane configured to guide fluid thereacross to remove substances from the fluid or to modify substances in the fluid.Type: GrantFiled: March 16, 2018Date of Patent: March 9, 2021Assignee: University of Maryland, College ParkInventors: Liangbing Hu, Fengjuan Chen, Amy Gong
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Patent number: 10919000Abstract: The present invention belongs to the membrane separation area, which provides an MXene material based composite nanofiltration membrane and corresponding method. The mentioned membrane is flat membrane, which has supporting layer and functional separation layer and supporting layer is under the functional separation layer. The functional separation layer is a kind of dense ultra-thin layer, no more than 50 ?m, prepared with MXene and crosslinking agent. This invention is about a flat composite nanofiltration membrane which has excellent separation performance, thermal resistance and chemical stability because of the novel MXene in the functional separation layer. It can be used in the treatment of the waste water with heavy metal ions, organic solvents or other highly oxidizing solution.Type: GrantFiled: May 17, 2017Date of Patent: February 16, 2021Assignee: Dalian University of TechnologyInventor: Runlin Han
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Patent number: 10918780Abstract: A computer-implemented method for controlling fluid flow rates during a biological fluid procedure, comprising providing a membrane separator configured to separate a biological fluid into filtrate and retentate, wherein concentration of retentate exiting the membrane separator is controllable by altering a flow rate of the retentate exiting the membrane separator. The computer-implemented method also comprises detecting a change of attenuated retentate particles within the filtrate, comparing the change of attenuated retentate particles within the filtrate with a threshold level, and providing a response action comprising altering the concentration of retentate exiting the membrane separator if the change of attenuated retentate particles within the filtrate exceeds the threshold level.Type: GrantFiled: August 22, 2018Date of Patent: February 16, 2021Assignee: Fenwal, Inc.Inventor: Benjamin E. Kusters
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Patent number: 10913034Abstract: A separation membrane (10) of the present disclosure includes: a separation functional layer (30) composed of a polyamide containing, as a monomer unit, at least one selected from the group consisting of piperazine and a piperazine derivative; and a coating (40) covering the separation functional layer (30) and containing a polymer having a repeating unit represented by the following formula (1). In the formula (1), N+ is a nitrogen atom constituting a quaternary ammonium cation, and R1 and R2 are each independently a substituent containing a carbon atom bonded to the nitrogen atom.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2019Date of Patent: February 9, 2021Assignee: NITTO DENKO CORPORATIONInventors: Tomotsugu Miyabe, Atsuhito Komoto
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Patent number: 10913031Abstract: The present invention concerns an electronic safety system for an RO device which is configured to be used with at least one dialysis device (e.g., a hemodialysis or a peritoneal dialysis device). The system comprises the RO device, which is configured for the production of ultrapure water and which includes a sensor unit for collecting sensor data and whereby the RO device comprises an electronic data interface in order to send the sensor data collected by the sensor unit; and it also comprises an analysis unit which is configured to analyze a water sample with regards to safety requirements and for example with regard to contamination and to generate result data whereby the analysis unit also includes an analysis interface in order to send the generated result data in electronic form; and a network for the data exchange between the medical entities, for example between the RO device and the analysis unit.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2018Date of Patent: February 9, 2021Assignee: Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbHInventors: Christian Ruff, Thomas Pohl, Michael Wild