149 results about "Membrane cell" patented technology

A cell culture system related to extended in vitro culture of mature retinal cells and methods for preparing the cell culture system are provided. Also provided is a retinal cell culture stress model related to extended in vitro culture of mature retinal cells in the presence of a stressor and methods for using the cell culture stress model. The invention provides a cell culture system comprising a long-term culture of mature retinal cells, without requiring addition of other types of non-retinal cells such as purified glia, or cells isolated from ciliary bodies within the eye, and the addition of a stressor such as light, A2E, cigarette smoke condensate, glutamate, or hydrostatic pressure. Methods for identifying bioactive agents that alter viability, neurodegeneration, or survival of retinal cells using the retinal cell culture stress system are also provided.

The present invention relates to a novel economical on-site electrochemical based membrane cell based process with the capability of producing high strength sodium hypochlorite and / or elemental chlorine gas in any ratio as required by the needs of a water or wastewater treatment plant. The system is compact and modular, using membrane cell based electrolyzers and utilizing novel process modifications and sensors to allow for the unattended control and safe operation of the process. The process allows the operator to produce elemental chlorine gas and sodium hypochlorite in any product ratio, such that 5% to 100% of the total chlorine produced by the process can be converted to high strength bleach. The process has the flexibility to produce stable high quality, low to high strength sodium hypochlorite solutions in concentrations ranging from about 2 to 15% trade as NaOCl.

The invention relates to a proton exchange membrane cell metal bipolar plate which is composed of a cathode chamber monopole plate and an anode chamber monopole plate which are made of metal sheets; the front surface of each of the monopole plates is respectively provided with a cathode chamber and an anode chamber, and cooling water chambers are arranged at the back surfaces of the cathode chamber monopole plate and the anode chamber monopole plate; flow passages composed of concavo convex grooves are arranged at the front and back surfaces of the monopole plates, the concavo convex grooves arranged on the front and back surfaces are corresponding to each other, the bumps on the front surfaces are the concave grooves on the back surfaces, and the concave grooves on the front surfaces are the bumps on the back surfaces; the concavo convex grooves on the front surfaces respectively form the flow passages of the cathode and anode chambers, and the concavo convex grooves on the back surfaces respectively form the flow passages of the cooling water chambers. The proton exchange membrane cell metal bipolar plate has the advantages that the manufactured bipolar plate is thin, the flow bodies are strictly separated, the flow body distribution is good, the weight is light, the processing is simple and the processing cost is low.

A method for converting carbon dioxide in a gaseous environment, including air into useful materials by use of renewable energy sources which comprises:(1) extracting carbon dioxide from a gaseous source using a sorbent such as sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, or potassium hydroxide;(2) utilizing wind power, solar power, or other renewable energy sources to regenerate said sorbent by membrane cell electrolysis or other similar method, simultaneously producing hydrogen (H2) gas;(3) releasing carbon dioxide from said sorbent; and(4) utilizing the Fischer Tropsch process, Mobil process, ICI process, or related or similar processes to convert carbon oxides to a hydrocarbon concomittantly with or after effecting the reverse water-gas shift reaction to convert said CO2 and H2 gas into carbon monoxide for reaction in said Fischer Tropsch process, Mobil process or ICI process.

An improved electrochemical polymer electrolyte membrane cell stack is provided that includes one or more individual fuel cell cassettes, each fuel cell cassette having at least one membrane electrode assembly, fuel flow field and oxidant flow field. Within each fuel cell cassette, each membrane electrode assembly has at least one manifold opening for the passage of reactant manifolds through the cassette, all of which are bonded about the perimeter by a sealant, and each flow field has at least one manifold opening and any manifold openings on the flow fields which do not correspond to a manifold providing reactant for distribution to such flow field is bonded about its perimeter by a sealant. Each fuel cell cassette may also contain other typical components of a electrochemical polymer electrolyte membrane cell stack, such as separator plates or coolant flow fields, which also have manifold openings which may or may not be bonded about the perimeter. The membrane electrode assembly, flow fields, and other components are encapsulated along the peripheral edges by a resin such that the entire periphery of the fuel cell cassette is encapsulated by the resin.

The invention discloses a platinum-based catalyst carrier of a proton exchange membrane cell (PEMFC) and a preparation method of the platinum-based catalyst carrier. The platinum-based catalyst carrier is a g-C3N4 nanosheet / quasi-graphene carbon composite material. The preparation method comprises steps as follows: (1), a g-C3N4 precursor and inorganic salt are weighed and mixed uniformly to obtain a mixture A; (2), the mixture A is put into nitrogen atmosphere of a tube furnace in a semi-sealed manner, is heated to 500-700 DEG C and remains at the temperature for 1-5 h to obtain a material B; (3), the material B is ground, then washed and filtered with super-pure water and subjected to vacuum drying to obtain a block-shaped g-C3N4 material C; (4), the g-C3N4 material is added to concentrated acid, subjected to ultrasonic-wave stirring, washed with super-pure water until the pH is neutral, and subjected to centrifugal drying to obtain a g-C3N4 nanosheet; (5), the g-C3N4 nanosheet and quasi-graphene carbon are weighed, added to an alcohol solution and subjected to ultrasonic dispersion, extraction filtration and freezing drying to obtain a composite material. The preparation method is simple and feasible, the precious metal carrying capacity of the platinum-based catalyst is promisingly reduced, and accordingly, the production cost of the fuel cell is reduced.

This invention relates to methods, systems and installations for concentrating depleted brine produced by the electrolytic decomposition of concentrated brine in chlor-alkali membrane cells and to the efficient use of power, steam and brine. More particularly, this invention relates to the use of depleted brine directly into evaporation systems, which are used to concentrate the brine for reuse in membrane cells or other processes. This invention employs the phenomena that a week unsaturated brine boiling under reduced pressure has a lower boiling point rise (BPR) than a saturated brine boiling at the same or higher pressure. The concentration of depleted brine at a lower boiling point rise improves the operating efficiency of either mechanical vapor recompression and / or steam jet thermocompression. Further, this invention allows for concentrating the depleted brine at temperatures low enough to utilize plastic materials of construction. The use of plastic materials of construction in place of metals in the major components of the installation eliminates or minimizes the metal contamination of the brine being concentrated.

The invention relates to a solid oxide fuel cell anode / electrolyte double-layer membrane and a preparation method thereof. The porous yttrium oxide stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode structure thick film green body is prepared by a tape casting method, and the screen printing method is used here. Thick-film deposited electrolyte layer, co-sintered at a certain temperature to obtain a porous YSZ structure skeleton / dense electrolyte double-layer film, using the impregnation method to deposit nano-electrocatalysts on the inner and outer surfaces of the anode structure skeleton, and calcining at a lower temperature. Anode / electrolyte bilayer membrane. The advantages of the present invention are that the formed porous anode support has a long-term structural stability in a reducing atmosphere, has high electronic conductivity, can withstand multiple oxidation-reduction cycles, is resistant to carbon deposition, and has sulfur resistance. Low cost and scalable preparation process, multilayer films of various sizes can be prepared, and have good industrialization prospects.

The invention relates to a preparing method and application of an amniotic membrane, in particular to a preparing method and application of an acellular amniotic membrane used for repairing skin wound difficult to heal. The preparing method specifically comprises the steps of isolating, cleaning and sterilizing an amniotic membrane tissue; arranging and drying the amniotic membrane tissue on a nitrocellulose membrane to manufacture an amniotic membrane paster; vibrating and digesting the amniotic membrane paster in mixed digestive fluid of 0.25%-0.5% of pancreatin and 0.2-0.5g / L EDTA.4Na for 10-30 minutes at a temperature of 37 DEG C; rinsing the amniotic membrane paster in TE buffer solution; vibrating overnight to fully remove amniotic membrane cells in TE-TritonX-100 solution; washing the amniotic membrane paster for three times in TE solution; vibrating and degrading the amniotic membrane paster for 2-4 hours in nucleic acid degrading solution at a temperature of 37 DEG C; washing the amniotic membrane paster for three times in the TE solution. The prepared acellular amniotic membrane paster can be stored for a long time after being refrigerated, dried, packed and sterilized by cobalt 60 irradiation and is a tissue engineering material which can be taken and used when needed. The acellular amniotic membrane paster can be easily separated from the nitrocellulose membrane to be used for repairing the skin wound after rewatered.

The invention discloses an application of a nanogold-carbon nano tube-chitosan composite membrane cell sensor to detection of toxicity of food-borne pathogenic bacteria and belongs to the technical field of detection of toxicity of Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria. According to the application, a magnetic glassy carbon electrode is modified with nanogold-carbon nano tube-chitosan with a self-assembly method, mouse macrophages Ana-1 endocytosing magnetic nanoparticles are taken as a sensing medium and directly adsorbed by the modified electrode, and the sensor is constructed; finally, the sensor is applied to lipopolysaccharide toxicity evaluation of the Gram-negative bacteria, has the obvious toxic effect change with the lipopolysaccharide concentration in the concentration range of 1-5 mu g mL<-1>, and has the detection limit of 0.3 mu g mL<-1>. The toxicity of the Gram-negative bacteria is detected with the method efficiently, conveniently and quickly, defects of traditional toxicity detection methods of the pathogenic bacteria are overcome, and the obtained sensor is simple to prepare, convenient to operate and low in cost and has the bright application prospect in the aspect of evaluation of the toxicity of the pathogenic bacteria.

In one embodiment, a membrane of proton-electron conducting ceramics that is useful for the conversion of a hydrocarbon and steam to hydrogen has a porous support of M′-Sr1-z′M″z′Ce1-x′-y′Zrx′M′″y′O3-δ, Al2O3, mullite, ZrO2, CeO2 or any mixtures thereof where: M′ is Ni, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Zn, Pt, Ru, Rh, Pd, alloys thereof or mixtures thereof; M″ is Ba, Ca, Mg, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, or Yb; M′″ is Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, or Yb; z′ is 0 to about 0.5; x′ is 0 to about 0.5; y′ is 0 to about 0.5; and x′+y′>0; for example, Ni—SrCe1-x′Zrx′O3-δ, where x′ is about 0.1 to about 0.3. The porous support is coated with a film of a Perovskite-type oxide of the formula SrCe1-x-yZrxMyO3-δ where M is at least one of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb, x is 0 to about 0.15 and y is about 0.1 to about 0.3. By including the Zr and M in the oxide in place of Ce, the stability can be improved while maintaining sufficient hydrogen flux for efficient generation of hydrogen. In this manner, the conversion can be carried out by performing steam methane reforming (SMR) and / or water-gas shift reactions (WGS) at high temperature, where the conversion of CO to CO2 and H2 is driven by the removal of H2 to give high conversions. Methods of preparing the membrane cells and a system for use of the membrane cells to prepare hydrogen are presented. A method for sequestering CO2 by reaction with methane or other hydrocarbon catalyzed by the novel membrane to form a syngas is also presented.

Mesothelin can be used as an immunotherapeutic target. It induces a cytolytic T cell response. Portions of mesothelin which induce such responses are identified. Vaccines can be either polynucleotide- or polypeptide-based. Carriers for raising a cytolytic T cell response include bacteria and viruses. A mouse model for testing vaccines and other anti-tumor therapeutics and prophylactics comprises a strongly mesothelin-expressing, transformed peritoneal cell line.

The invention discloses a full-automatic microfiltration membrane aperture distribution tester as well as an automatic measuring method and application thereof. The full-automatic microfiltration membrane aperture distribution tester comprises a gas supply cylinder, a gas buffer tank and a test membrane cell for fixing and sealing a microfiltration membrane, wherein the gas supply cylinder, the gas accumulator tank and the test membrane cell are successively connected via a pipeline. The full-automatic microfiltration membrane aperture distribution tester is characterized in that a motor-driven flow regulating valve is arranged between the gas supply cylinder and the gas buffer tank; the gas buffer tank is provided with a pressure probe; an outlet on the microfiltration membrane penetration side of the test membrane cell is provided with a gas flow probe; the signal output end of the pressure probe and the signal output end of the gas flow probe are connected with a data acquisition module for collecting pressure and flow signals in real time; the signals are transmitted by the communication module and a computer controller; the signal output end of the computer controller is connected with the signal input end of the motor-driven flow regulating valve; and the motor-driven flow regulating valve is under real-time feedback control. According to the full-automatic microfiltration membrane aperture distribution tester, the measuring condition can be automatically controlled in real time, measuring data is collected, data is processed in real time, and the assessment requirement on the performance of various sieve-pore filtration membranes can be satisfied.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a cell-derived extracellular matrix membrane, more particularly, to a method for preparing a chondrocyte-derived ECM membrane, the method comprising the steps of forming a suitable thickness of ECM membrane by culturing chondrocytes derived from animal cartilage at a high concentration in vitro, and drying it after decellularization process. The cell-derived ECM membrane scaffold according to the present invention is composed of extracellular matrix secreted by chondrocytes so that the membrane has excellent biocompatibility as well as an immune-previlage effect specific to cartilage. Since the membrane also has a suitable compressive strength, it can be used to replace periosteum for cartilage regeneration or artificial collagen membrane and used as dura mater transplant material, a natural ECM membrane for treating skin loss, materials for cell transplantation and a growth factor delivery vehicle.

This invention relates to desalination of sea water and ceramics membrane seawater pretreatment means in seawater purification. This invention is composed by multimedia filter, ceramic microstraining membrane cell and ceramic hyperfiltration membrane cell, adopt seawater that cloudiness is less than 15NTU, pressurize to 0.1 to 0.5 mpa, then in turn enter the sea-water to tandem multimedia filter, ceramic microstraining membrane cell and ceramic hyperfiltration membrane cell to proceed pretreatment. The seawater after pretreatment can be used for reverse osmosis seawater desalting technology. The invention adopts inorganic ceramics membrane and multimedia filter, ceramic microstraining membrane cell and ceramic hyperfiltration membrane cell adopt one group pump as power supply, ceramic membrane circumfluence adopts ejector mixed with inlet influnt, so greatly save power consumption. After treatment, the seawater SDI is no greater than 3, cloudiness is not greater than 0.3NTU, PH is 7.5 to 8.4, free chlorine is not greater than 0.1 milligrams per liter, farther better than reverse osmosis membrane influent standard BG / T19249 - 2003 (SDI<5).

The invention discloses a process for preparing alkali by a full-brine mechanical steam recompression method. The process comprises the steps as follows: refining the brine at the first time; refining the brine at the second time; separating and concentrating via a nanofiltration membrane; mixing the refined brine and light salt brine; preheating and heating the mixed saline; mechanically recompressing the mixed saline under steam so as to circularly evaporate; transferring the evaporated and concentrated saline into an ionic exchange membrane cell; taking out the light salt brine from the ionic exchange membrane cell; and carrying out dechlorinating and iodine removing on the light salt brine; and then mixing with the refined brine; and recycling. The invention also discloses a device for achieving the technology. Compared with the prior art, the alkali preparing process provided by the invention is low in cost, low in energy consumption, and long in service life of equipment.

A membrane module for the separation of hydrogen is configured for parallel flows and contains a plurality of planar membrane cells which respectively comprise two hydrogen-selective planar membranes respectively surrounded by a flat membrane frame. An air-permeable distancing layer is arranged between the membranes for removal of the permeate gas and a supply frame surrounding a supply area for the reformate gas. All membrane frames and supply frames have the same outer dimensions and form a stack with planar side surfaces. Two membrane frames of each membrane cell have protruding edges directed towards each other, enabling them to enter into contact with each other, except for at least one first opening towards a side surface of the stack. The supply frame is disposed, except for second and third openings towards the side surfaces of the stack, in a closely adjacent manner to the edges of the membrane frame of two neighboring membrane cells. The outsides of all membrane frames and supply frames, except for first, second and third openings, are welded or soldered to each other in a gas-tight manner.

A system for supplying chlorine to and recovering chlorine from a polysilicon plant may include a brine treatment system, at least one membrane cell, a chlorine drying system, a chlorine compression system, a hydrogen drying system, a hydrogen compression system, a hydrogen chloride synthesis / desorption system, a hydrogen chloride liquefaction system, a liquefied hydrogen chloride storage system, a hydrogen chloride vaporizer, and a waste conversion and filtration system. These systems may be operatively joined to generate hydrogen chloride gas for delivery to the polysilicon plant. A method for supplying chlorine to the polysilicon plant may include generating hydrogen gas and chlorine gas from recovered and raw salt, converting at least a portion of the hydrogen gas and at least a portion of the chlorine gas to hydrogen chloride, passing the hydrogen chloride through a cryogenic column, vaporizing the hydrogen chloride, and providing the vaporized hydrogen chloride to the polysilicon plant.

A system and a device that are used for liquid-gas phase mass transfer with elimination of contaminants. The systems includes a plurality of liquid membrane-producing cells. Upon contact, the liquid membranes collapse with a gas stream and the collapsed liquid material covers the suspended particles, and eliminates them by decantation. Moreover, the membrane cells increase the speed of the gas stream and cause the gas stream to hit the surface of the liquid at an incident angle of 45°, which serves to improve the transfer of vapor into the gas.

An integrated system for producing high purity silicon dioxide comprising: a) a source of an oxygen-containing feed gas containing at least one impurity, b) an oxygen transport membrane cell containing an oxygen-selective transport membrane that has a cathode side and an opposing anode side, the membrane being at an elevated temperature effective for separation of oxygen in the feed gas from the impurity by transporting oxygen ions from the oxygen-containing feed gas through the membrane to the anode to form a purified oxygen permeate on the anodeside, while retaining an essentially oxygen-depleted, impurity-containing retentate on the cathode side, c) a passageway from the source (a) to the cathode side of the membrane cell, d) a silicon source, and e) a silicon oxidation furnace, in communication with the anode side of the membrane cell, for reaction of the purified oxygen permeate with silicon from the silicon source, at an elevated reaction temperature effective for the reaction, in order to produce the high purity silicon dioxide.

The invention discloses a biofilm biological sewage treatment device, which relates to the technical field of sewage treatment equipment and solves the technical problems in the prior art that the environmental temperature will affect the sewage treatment efficiency and cannot continue to work during an emergency power failure. It includes an MBR membrane pool , adsorption filter pool, constant temperature control room, lifting hook, cover plate, exhaust window, the adsorption filter pool is welded on the right side of the MBR membrane pool, the constant temperature control room is welded on the right side of the adsorption filter pool, and the inside of the MBR membrane pool A heating net is provided, an activated carbon filter layer is provided in the adsorption filter tank, a storage battery is provided in the constant temperature control room, the lifting hook is provided on the top of the biofilm sewage treatment device, and the top cover plate of the biofilm sewage treatment device is set as solar energy solar panels. The biomembrane biological sewage treatment device of the invention has the advantages of high sewage treatment efficiency, convenient installation and transportation, and the ability to continue working after emergency power failure.

This invention relates to methods and installations for producing ultra pure sodium chloride salt crystals primarily for use in saturating depleted brine resulting from the electrolytic decomposition of saturated brine in chlor alkali membrane cells for the production of chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen. More particularly, this invention relates to the production of ultra pure sodium chloride salt crystals by processing primary treated brine by first acidifying the primary treated brine, then stripping the carbonic acid produced by acidification as carbon dioxide, and then returning the brine to a pH of about 6 or higher which is sufficient for processing it in evaporation equipment where the ultra pure salt crystals are produced.

In one embodiment, a membrane of proton-electron conducting ceramics that is useful for the conversion of a hydrocarbon and steam to hydrogen has a porous support of M′-Sr1-z′M″z′Ce1-x′-y′Zrx′M′″y′O3-δ, Al2O3, mullite, ZrO2, CeO2 or any mixtures thereof where: M′ is Ni, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Zn, Pt, Ru, Rh, Pd, alloys thereof or mixtures thereof; M″ is Ba, Ca, Mg, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, or Yb; M′″ is Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, or Yb; z′ is 0 to about 0.5; x′ is 0 to about 0.5; y′ is 0 to about 0.5; and x′+y′>0; for example, Ni—SrCe1-x′Zrx′O3-δ, where x′ is about 0.1 to about 0.3. The porous support is coated with a film of a Perovskite-type oxide of the formula SrCe1-x-yZrxMyO3-δ where M is at least one of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, W, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb, x is 0 to about 0.15 and y is about 0.1 to about 0.3. By including the Zr and M in the oxide in place of Ce, the stability can be improved while maintaining sufficient hydrogen flux for efficient generation of hydrogen. In this manner, the conversion can be carried out by performing steam methane reforming (SMR) and / or water-gas shift reactions (WGS) at high temperature, where the conversion of CO to CO2 and H2 is driven by the removal of H2 to give high conversions. Methods of preparing the membrane cells and a system for use of the membrane cells to prepare hydrogen are presented. A method for sequestering CO2 by reaction with methane or other hydrocarbon catalyzed by the novel membrane to form a syngas is also presented.

The invention relates to a preparation method for a lithium ion membrane electrode. The preparation method comprises the following steps: firstly, a positive electrode slurry and a negative electrode slurry are prepared, the solid content of the prepared positive electrode slurry is 20%-35% and the solid content of the prepared negative electrode slurry is 20%-40%; secondly, the prepared positive electrode slurry and the prepared negative electrode slurry in the first step are subjected to static coating, and an electrode membrane is obtained; thirdly, the electrode membrane obtained in the second step is dried and finally a membrane electrode is obtained. The invention also provides a membrane electrode prepared through the provided method and a cell comprising the electrode. The prepared membrane electrode has good performances, the thickness of the membrane electrode is from a submicron order to 15 micrometers, requirements of preparation of a membrane cell with a capacity of 4 microAh / cm<2>-100 microAh / cm<2> can be met, and the membrane electrode has wide applications.

The present invent discloses a preparation method of gold potassium cyanide. Potassium cyanide and gold are raw material. Every gram of gold matches 930-980 grams of potassium cyanide. The procedure is: 1) pressing gold, i.e. rolling gold into thin foil electrode, 2) electrolysis, i.e. using gold foil as anode, stainless steel plate as cathode, potassium cyanide solution as electrolyte, electrolysis reaction is carried out in a membrane cell and the anode gold foil is gradually dissolved as Au(CN)2 during electrolysis, 3) purification, i.e. when the gold is totally dissolved out, low temperature cooling crystallization is adopted to purify the product gold potassium cyanide and separating residual potassium cyanide, 4) condensation,5) repeating purification ,6) condensation, 7) oven drying, i.e. baking the gold potassium cyanide crystal in a vacuum oven to obtain end product. Adopting the present invention technology, electrolysis time is shortened, repeating times of purification are decreased, quality and yield rate are increased.

The invention discloses a fuel cell bipolar plate and a preparation method of titanium thin films on surfaces thereof, and belongs to the field of a fuel cell. The bipolar plate comprises a substrate and titanium nanometer composite thin film layers, wherein the titanium nanometer composite thin film layers are arranged at two side surfaces of the substrate and are deposited and formed on the surfaces of the substrate by employing an arc ion plating technology, and the bipolar plate plated with the titanium thin films is obtained by controlling a film coating parameter during the deposition process of the titanium thin films. By the bipolar plate, the corrosion resistance is improved by three orders of magnitude under a voltage of 0.6V in a fuel cell simulation environment and is improved by two orders of magnitude under 1.36V, the contact resistance is reduced to 0.5 milliohm.cm<2> or below (pressure of 0.2MPa), the bipolar plate has favorable corrosion resistance and excellent conductivity after test on corrosion resistance of the cell simulation environment for a long time, and the long-term running requirement of a regenerative fuel cell sectem and a proton exchange membrane cell are met.

Provided are filtration systems that can be referred to as Pneumatic Alternating Cell Separator (PACS), useful components thereof in the form of assemblies or kits of parts that can be used to build the system, and use of the system for filtering fluids, for instance, in cell culture perfusion systems comprising a filter-containing chamber, an expansion chamber and a gas flow controller.

An improved electrochemical polymer electrolyte membrane cell stack is provided that includes one or more individual fuel cell cassettes, each fuel cell cassette having at least one membrane electrode assembly, fuel flow field and oxidant flow field. Within each fuel cell cassette, each membrane electrode assembly has at least one manifold opening for the passage of reactant manifolds through the cassette, all of which are bonded about the perimeter by a sealant, and each flow field has at least one manifold opening and any manifold openings on the flow fields which do not correspond to a manifold providing reactant for distribution to such flow field is bonded about its perimeter by a sealant. Each fuel cell cassette may also contain other typical components of a electrochemical polymer electrolyte membrane cell stack, such as separator plates or coolant flow fields, which also have manifold openings which may or may not be bonded about the perimeter. The membrane electrode assembly, flow fields, and other components are encapsulated along the peripheral edges by a resin such that the entire periphery of the fuel cell cassette is encapsulated by the resin.

The invention provides a measuring apparatus of a membrane fouling index and a measuring method using the same. The measuring apparatus comprises: a filter membrane cell accommodating a filter membrane to filter raw water the membrane fouling index of which is to be measured; a calculation and control part measuring a time (T0) required for filtering first raw water by the filter membrane at predetermined pressure and a predetermined flow rate, a predetermined time (T) required for supplementally filtering the raw water after the raw water is filtered as the first raw water, and a time (T1) required for filtering second raw water by the filter membrane at the predetermined pressure and flow rate, and calculating the fouling index of the filter membrane on the basis of the measured times (T0, T, T1); and a washing part to wash the filter membrane so that the filter membrane can be used repeatedly.