Monthly Archives: August 2011

On September 1st a new web portal created specifically for water and wastewater management will officially launch to fill the industry’s need for a comprehensive database on water infrastructure in the United States. Dubbed WATERiD, this project is funded by Virginia Tech and it is the brainchild of Sunil Sinha, a National Science Foundation Career Award recipient for his work in sustainable water infrastructure management systems.

One of the biggest problems in water utility management is figuring out when to replace pipelines and equipment, before things break and cause serious problems. It’s estimated that at least 2 million miles of the nation’s infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life, and at present there is no singular resource for utilities to consult when making a decision on when to make replacements. This is the primary need WATERiD is looking to address. By collecting various technical papers, case studies, and research data this knowledge base can minimize the loss of institutional memory that occurs when a senior operator in a location leaves.

Over the past year Virginia Tech students and researchers have been busy visiting 87 different water and wastewater utilities around the country. So far they have compiled around 100 different case studies along with 300 technical descriptions and another 100 technology data sheets. All of this information will serve plant managers to make more informed decisions regarding their equipment and more efficiently manage their assets. Having a concentrated resource will especially benefit the smaller utilities that might otherwise be unable to gain such knowledge independently.

A key difference between WATERiD and other online databases is that the individual users will not have editing capabilities, a la Wikipedia. Instead, the information will be maintained by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science’s Center of Excellence in Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management (VTICTASCESWIM???). Users are still highly encouraged to share their experiences, and WATERiD will be completely free to all users.

Read Virginia Tech's announcement
Visit the official WATERiD site

More new product goodness arrives in the form of Disposable Vacuum Filters. These ready-to-use filters contain a PES membrane that provides high flow-rates and throughput for rapid filtration of tissue culture media, buffers, additives and aqueous biologicals. Consider using these filters when quick, cost-efficient filtration is of the utmost importance.

They are available now as bottle top only units or with a receiver flask (pictured here with receiver flask attached). Head over to the product page to view the full specs.

Sterlitech just made the Inc. Magazine list of America’s fastest-growing private companies! A big thank you to all of our customers for continuing to support us and making our growth possible! We’re very lucky to be serving the top companies and institutions in expanding fields like R&D, environmental science, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology, especially in these economic times.

Of course, we’re not done growing either…Expect more announcements in the future about new product lines as well as more customizable options for bench systems.

Drop us a comment to let us know what else you’d like to see from Sterlitech so we can make the list next year too! You can look over the complete list of Inc. Magazine’s 5000 fastest-growing companies here.

Western Biodiesel Inc. was fined $160,000 (Canadian dollars) yesterday by the Provincial Court of Alberta for releasing wastewater that contained methanol into the environment and for providing false or misleading statements to investigators. The fine is the outcome of an incident in October 2008 in which Western Biodiesel dumped around 16,000 liters of methanol-laced water onto its property.

Problems arose for Western Biodiesel the day after this release occurred when an unsuspecting welder accidentally ignited the wastewater with his torch, causing a fire that luckily yielded no injuries. In what had to be an incredibly gutsy and foolish move, the (now former) plant manager denied the release occurred when investigators showed up. He was later sentenced to four months house arrest.

So besides dumping it in a river and hoping nobody lights a match, what are the actual proper methods of methanol disposal? Methods for extracting methanol from biodiesel include: Vacuum stripping, flash evaporation, distillation, and water washing. Methanol and especially glycerol are high-value byproducts of biodiesel production, so facilities try to reclaim as much as possible for resale. Membrane separation is also used as an effective biodiesel purification method, particularly for removing glycerol particles.

Methanol is routinely used in biodiesel production during the transesterification reaction to turn plant or animal fats into fatty acids and glycerol. (Fun fact: Methanol is also a byproduct in liquor distillation and can cause blindness if ingested in large enough quantities!). European Standard 14214 specifies that biodiesel should contain no more than 0.2% methanol.

For more information you can check out the official statement from the Government of Alberta and this publication on biodiesel production from the University of Idaho.

No summer weather in Seattle means no summer break for us! We’re continuing our hectic schedule by adding a pair of new products to our catalog. First up is the Hollow Fiber Membranes for rapid clarification of small volumes. This unique line from WaterSep Bioseparations is made with a polyethersulfone (PES) membrane and comes in a variety of molecular weight cut-offs for different applications like cell harvesting or protein concentration. Consider these hollow fiber membranes when you need to perform a simple crossflow filtration.

The other new product we added is a series of Spin Columns to easily concentrate, separate, or purify samples in the ultrafiltration range. We have reusable and disposable units available depending what you need. What makes them even easier to use is that they are compatible with our UF flat sheet membranes, so you can get all your equipment in the same place!

Some of our more astute visitors may have noticed that our wishlist feature went away this week. What gives? Well, we decided to revamp our shopping cart in an effort to make it easier for people to share carts. The best part is that now you don’t have to be logged in to an account anymore in order to create a shopping cart and email it off to someone else. Just add the item(s) you want to your cart and click on the “Send Cart” button under My Cart and voila! The recipient gets an email a moment later with all the product information and the option to quickly complete the order.

This should especially help out the universities and large companies that have to bounce ordering information around between purchasing and other departments. Now someone in the lab can select the supplies they want and the purchasing person can easily place the order with just a few clicks!

Coal miners could be at greater risk to lung ailments caused by air-borne contaminants such as crystalline silica, according to a new NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) publication. After reviewing information that had been published over the last 15 years the agency determined that miners may face increased exposure to these harmful materials as the more productive seams of coal are mined out, forcing them to dig deeper into thinner mining seams. The result is longer working hours in environments that have denser concentrations of crystalline silica, creating respiratory and pulmonary disease.

NIOSH is responsible for setting guidelines on exposure levels of damaging substances like crystalline silica as well as recommending the sampling procedures for these toxic particles. The NIOSH sample technique for crystalline silica involves redepositing the sample onto a 0.45 micron, 25 mm silver membrane filter for analysis by x-ray diffraction. Testing for air-borne contaminants is one of the most common applications for our silver membranes. NIOSH did not make any changes to the sampling method in their new report. In fact, these new findings strengthen their concerns about the respiratory health effects caused by coal mine dust.

On the surface (no pun intended) the DK and DL series of nanofiltration (NF) membranes appear identical. They’re both thin-film membranes from Osmonics, and they are used for the same applications, such as dye concentration and acid purification, so why the separate designations?

In actuality, the difference is that the DL series has a higher flow rate, while the DK series provides higher rejection. If you look at our NF specifications page, you can see that the DK series has a rejection size of 98% -MgSO4, compared to 96% for DL. Conversely, DL has a Typical Flux/PSI of 31/100 (GFD@PSI), whereas DK rates at 22/100.

So there you have it, a small distinction perhaps, but hopefully it helps you pick the best possible item for your needs!

If you've ever worked with a Polyamide flat sheet membrane, there's a good probability that you may have noticed some slight discoloration on the active layer side of the filter, as seen below:

And additionally, this may have caused some uneasy speculation; is it mold? contamination? time to purchase a new membrane?

The good folks at Toray Membranes were able to shed some light on this common concern... literally.

Brown discoloration can be due to small amounts of residual amine from the manufacturing process.  The amine, (one of the building block compounds used to create the polymer constituting  the polyamide membrane family),  can turn brown with exposure to sunlight.

This effect doesn't make for a pretty membrane,  but it does not affect the performance of the membrane in any way.

Note: if it is in fact mold that you're seeing, you can try irrigating the area with dechlorinated water with a laboratory wash bottle to see if it lifts off.  Any rubbing of the membrane surface should be kept to an absolute minimum, as there is the possibility to scratch or damage the integrity of the membrane layer. And again, while not pretty, the mold shouldn't affect the integrity of the membrane.