Page 6 - Emerging Technologies
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May 16, 2017The use of polymeric membranes for filtration of non-aqueous solutions started around 1960 and has been developed significantly since then [1]. Today, non-aqueous membrane filtration applications in chemical and pharmaceutical processing account for more than 25% of the global total polymeric membrane market [2].
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May 16, 2017As we grow in understanding the significance different organisms have in the ecology of an environment, it helps tremendously if we know which organisms inhabit that environment – whether they’re supposed to be there or not. One method that is gaining widespread use, and relies on a simple filtration method, is the analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) from local waterways.
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April 12, 2017How about a nice tall glass of ice-cold beer… made from recycled sewage water? Did you hesitate? Well, now let’s think about it: most breweries use some combination of hops, malted barley, yeast, and…. well… clean water! But beer from recycled wastewater? That’s exactly what took place March 19-10 at the 2017 WateReuse California Annual Conference in San Diego.
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March 13, 2017Sterlitech Corporation’s unique track-etch polycarbonate membrane filters are helping MIT Researchers pioneer a faster and less expensive means of identifying key genes turned on in response to infection or diseases, as featured in the February 13 issue of Nature Methods from the Shalek and Love Labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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February 02, 2017Did you know that the potable water on board the International Space Station (ISS) is up to 80% recycled from astronauts’ sweat, urine and other reclaimed wastewater sources?
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November 02, 2016
We are thrilled to offer our congratulations to David J. Thouless at the University of Washington (just a few miles up the road from Sterlitech!), F. Duncan M. Haldane at Princeton University, and J. Michael Kosterlitz at Brown University. They collectively revealed the secrets of exotic states of matter!
This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. The scientists have utilized advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Entrepeneurs and scientists alike are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics.
The three Laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to
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October 12, 2016
Parasites have met their match. Sterlitech, an industry leader in unique micro and sub-micron filtration products, announced today that its Kato-Katz Technique Diagnostic Kit is now available for immediate use in the field. The kit was developed in response to the unanimous difficulty among research groups, control programs, and health organizations to source a fecal-sample-based test kit. This kit enables field scientists to identify the presence of eggs from parasitic Soil-Transmitted Helminth (STH) worms in infected patients.
This is the first time that the kit has been made available from a source in the United States. Until now, research groups and health organizations alike had to rely on a limited availability of kits. Schistosome infections continue to be common where poverty prevails and hygiene behavior, water supply, and sanitation are often deficient. The worms live in the intestine of infected people and can cause a range of gastrointestinal and reproductive complications,
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October 05, 2016
Numerous industries have a necessity to keep things clean and sanitary. Filters are an efficient and cost effective way to keep dirt, dust, bacteria, viruses and other small particulates out. The variety of applications are endless, and hundreds of product manufacturers employ filtration to keep things clean: from medication, to automobiles, to even your home.
Within the life sciences, it is often critical for researchers to keep the growth environments of key cells sterile for production of significant compounds. Contamination could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of product. At university labs, cell biologists and clinical researchers alike utilize small vent filters and devices to keep their cell growth devices and growth media free of any bacteria or molds that could damage their cell lines in their ongoing research. Sterlitech offers standard syringe-filter type vents, custom syringe filter vents, and custom adhesive-backed vent discs in a variety of sizes
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May 09, 2016
Forward Osmosis has been known and exploited as a separation process for a variety of applications including water and wastewater treatment, food processing, and power generation since the early 1960’s. Can this process also be applied for air de-humidification? Recent publications and patents have demonstrated that combining capillary condensation with osmosis separation through a semi-permeable membrane, introduced as Osmotic Membrane Dehumidification process, can be an efficient de-humidification method.
In the Osmotic Membrane Dehumidification process, a humid air stream is brought into contact with a semi-permeable membrane, which separates the air stream from an osmotic solution, i.e. draw solution (draw solution is generally a salt solution). Water vapors in the air stream condense by capillary condensation in the pores of the membrane and the condensed water is transferred into the draw solution by osmosis.
Unlike the conventional de-humidification processes, in this process there
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February 17, 2011Scientists at Northern Illinois University recently published a new approach for fabricating hydrogen gas sensors by depositing palladium onto commercially available filtration membranes. This creates networks of ultrasmall palladium nanowires without the traditional obstacles of nanofabrication (tedious production, potential contamination). Palladium, besides poisoning Iron Man, is highly selective to Hydrogen gas and therefore commonly used in room-temperature solid-state Hydrogen sensors.
The new method involves a network of ultrasmall palladium nanowires (<10nm) being placed on 60 micron thick membranes with a nominal filtration pore diameter of 20nm. The end result is that this new type of fabrication method outperformed traditional hydrogen sensors, such as continuous reference film, by providing higher sensitivity and shorter response times. Better hydrogen sensing can lead to greater efficiency in areas such as steel manufacturing and clean energy research.
