Osmotic Pressure Pump

The simplest osmotic dosage form, ALZA Corporation s OROS elementary osmotic pump (Fig. 7), combines the dmg and sometimes an osmotic agent in a monolithic core and deflvers the dmg in solution (102). The mass dehvery rate with time dm df) of the dmg solution is described by equation 4, where is the hydrauHc permeabiUty of the membrane, a is the membrane reflection coefficient, Atz is the osmotic pressure gradient, APis the hydrostatic back pressure, A is the area of the membrane, C is the dissolved concentration of the dmg, and b is the membrane thickness. 

Osmotic Pinch Ejfect Feed is pumped into the membrane train, and as it flows through the membrane array, sensible pressure is lost due to fric tion effects. Simultaneously, as water permeates, leaving salts behind, osmotic pressure increases. There is no known practical alternative to having the lowest pressure and the highest salt concentration occur simultaneously at the exit of the train, the point where AP — AH is minimized. This point is known as the osmotic pinch, and it is the point backward from which hydrauhe design takes place. A corollary factor is that the permeate produced at the pinch is of the lowest quality anywhere in the array. Commonly, this permeate is below the required quahty, so the usual prac tice is to design around average-permeate quality, not incremental quahty. A I MPa overpressure at the pinch is preferred, but the minimum brine pressure tolerable is 1.1 times H. 

Let us consider the following case of removing an inorganic salt from an aqueous stream. It is desired to reduce the salt content of a 26 m /hr water stream (Qf) whose feed concentration, Cp, of 0.035 kmol/m (approximately 2,000 ppm). The feed osmotic pressure (rrp) is 1.57 atm. A 30 atm (Pp) booster pump is used to pressurize the feed. Sixteen hollow fiber modules are to be employed for separation. The modules are configured in parallel with the feed distributed equally among the units. The following properties are available for the HFRO modules ... 

Plastic membrane This is done by the use of a water permeable plastic membrane held deep enough under the sea so that the hydrostatic pressure is greater than the osmotic pressure of the seawater. The water distills out of the solution through the membrane and is pumped to the surface. Large areas of the membranes, mechanically supported to withstand the very high pressures are essential to make the process perform rapidly for the most economical production. 

Several mechanisms have evolved to prevent this catastrophe. In bacteria and plants, the plasma membrane is surrounded by a nonexpandable cell wall of sufficient rigidity and strength to resist osmotic pressure and prevent osmotic lysis. Certain freshwater protists that live in a highly hypotonic medium have an organelle (contractile vacuole) that pumps water out of the cell. In multicellular animals, blood plasma and interstitial fluid (the extracellular fluid of tissues) are maintained at an osmolarity close to that of the cytosol. The high concentration of albumin and other proteins in blood plasma contributes to its osmolarity. Cells also actively pump out ions such as Na+ into the interstitial fluid to stay in osmotic balance with their surroundings. 

Halorhodopsiti. In addition to bacteriorhodopsin there are three other retinal-containing proteins in membranes of halobacteria. From mutant strains lacking bacteriorhodopsin the second protein, halorhodopsin, has been isolated. It acts as a light-driven chloride ion pump, transporting Cl from outside to inside. Potassium ions follow, and the pump provides a means for these bacteria to accumulate KC1 to balance the high external osmotic pressure of the environment in which they live.578 The amino acid sequences of halorhodopsins from several species are very similar to those of bacteriorhodopsin as is the three-dimensional structure.589 However, the important proton-carrying residues D85 and D96 of bacteriorhodopsin are replaced by threonine and alanine, respectively, in halorhodopsin.590 Halorhodopsin (hR)... 

Theeuwes and Higuchi1 applied the principle of osmotic pressure to a new generation of controlled drug delivery devices with many advantages over other existing controlled drug delivery systems. The first of these devices, the elementary osmotic pump, is considered a typical delivery system that operates on osmotic principles. 

The osmotic pressure of the saturated salt solution is high, on the order of tens of atmospheres, and the small pressure required to pump the suspension of active agent is insignificant in comparison. Therefore, the rate of water permeation across the semipermeable membrane remains constant as long as sufficient solid salt is present in the salt chamber to maintain a saturated solution and hence a constant osmotic pressure driving force. 

Membrane distillation offers a number of advantages over alternative pressure-driven processes such as reverse osmosis. Because the process is driven by temperature gradients, low-grade waste heat can be used and expensive high-pressure pumps are not required. Membrane fluxes are comparable to reverse osmosis fluxes, so membrane areas are not excessive. Finally, the process is still effective with slightly reduced fluxes even for very concentrated solutions. This is an advantage over reverse osmosis, in which the feed solution osmotic pressure places a practical limit on the concentration of a salt in the feed solution to be processed. 

Pumps are intended for implantation. An osmotic pressure differential triggers drug release from a reservoir embraced by a semipermeable membrane [26]. 

Upon contact with water, the semipermeable membrane of an osmotic pump tablet absorbs water, and water diffuses through the membrane and dissolves water-soluble substances, resulting in a concentrated solution and high osmotic pressure... 

If there are solid drugs left in the osmotic pump tablet, the drug concentration becomes Cs, the solubility of the drug, and the osmotic pressure exerted by the dissolved drug is ns. Then the rate of drug release becomes zero order as given by ... 

Microporous osmotic pump systems (MPOPS) deliver drugs by osmotic pressure and diffusion. The rate of drug delivery is given by ... 

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