Semiconductor equipment company operations

The design of the first commercial modules has allowed the commercial application of membrane contactors for some specific operations. This is the case of the Membrana-Charlotte Company (USA) that developed the LiquiCel modules, equipped with polypropylene hollow fibers, for the water deoxygenation for the semiconductor industry. LiquiCel modules have been also applied to the bubble-free carbonation of Pepsi, in the bottling plant of West Virginia [18], and to the concentrations of fruit and vegetable juices in an osmotic distillation pilot plant at Melbourne [19]. Other commercial applications of LiquiCel are the dissolved-gases removal from water, the decarbonation and nitrogenation in breweries, and the ammonia removal from wastewater [20]. 

The first silicon solar battery was developed in 1954 at the American company Bell. Due to its high production costs, which could not compete with production costs for electric energy produced in conventional thermal power plants, this new device at first drew little attention from the scientific community. In 1954 began the era of artificial earth satelites. The first satelites were equipped with electrochemical batteries, which allowed only for a limited operational time. Soon it was realized that semiconductor solar batteries are the only alternative for the power supply of satelites (and later spaceships) with an extended operational lifetime, and extended research and development (R D) work was started in this field. In 1958 the first sattelite with a silicon solar battery Vanguard 1 was launched. The conversion efficiency of its solar battery was 10%. The battery remained operable for about 8 years. 

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