A dehydration method is a dehydration method for selectively separating water from a mixture that contains water, using a zeolite membrane having an AFX structure, and the method includes a step of supplying the mixture to a supply side space of the zeolite membrane having an AFX structure, and a step of making a pressure difference between the supply side space and a permeation side space of the zeolite membrane having an AFX structure.

Hydrophobic flat membrane made from a vinylidene fluoride polymer with a wall, a first surface, and a second surface. The membrane has on its first surface a network structure with open pores and on its second surface a continuous skin in which pores are formed, and adjacent to the skin of the second surface a supporting layer with an isotropic pore structure across the wall thickness, wherein the supporting layer extends over at least 80% of the wall thickness and wherein the pores of the supporting layer have an average diameter of less than 1 μm. The weight average of the molecular weight M.sub.W of the vinylidene fluoride polymer lies in the range from 300 000 to 500 000 daltons, and the polydispersivity M.sub.W/M.sub.N is greater than 5.5.

The pores in the skin of the second surface have a closed perimeter in the plane of the skin and an average ratio of the extension in the direction of the longest axis thereof to the extension in the direction of the shortest axis thereof of at most 5. The pores in the first surface and second surface have an essentially isotropic distribution of their orientation. The porosity of the membrane lies in the range from 50 to 90 vol. % and the wall thickness in the range from 50 to 300 μm. The membrane has a maximum separating pore diameter d.sub.max in the range from 0.05 to 1.5 μm.

The present invention relates to synthetic membranes and use of these synthetic membranes for isolation of volatile organic compounds and purification of water. The synthetic membrane includes a hydrophobic polymer layer located on a polymeric membrane support layer. The invention includes a method of isolating volatile organic compounds with the synthetic membrane by contacting a volatile organic mixture with the hydrophobic polymer layer of the synthetic membrane and removing volatile organic compounds from the polymeric membrane support layer of the synthetic membrane by a process of pervaporation. The invention also includes a method of purifying water with the synthetic membrane by contacting an ionic solution with the hydrophobic polymer layer of the synthetic membrane and removing water from the polymeric membrane support layer of the synthetic membrane by a process of reverse osmosis. The invention also relates to methods of isolating non-polar gases by gas fractionation.

A multi-stage submerged membrane distillation water treatment apparatus including: a plurality of raw water tanks arranged in multiple stages ranging from a first stage to an n-th stage and storing raw water, the raw water flowing sequentially from the first stage to the n-th stage; membrane distillation (MD) modules submerged in the respective raw water tanks and discharging a portion of the raw water as vapor; heat exchangers submerged in the respective raw water tanks and maintaining the raw water at a predetermined temperature by performing heat exchange between the raw water and vapor supplied from the respective previous-stage MD modules; a vapor generator generating and supplying high-temperature vapor to the first-stage heat exchanger; a condenser condensing vapor supplied by the n-th-stage MD module; and a raw water feeder feeding low-temperature raw water to the first-stage raw water tank via the condenser.

A separation module including at least one separation leaf that includes two porous composite membranes and a permeate mesh spacer sandwiched therebetween with and an edge-seal bond that adheres the membranes and spacer together.

A separation module including at least one separation leaf that includes two porous composite membranes and a permeate mesh spacer sandwiched therebetween with and an edge-seal bond that adheres the membranes and spacer together.

A membrane distillation apparatus includes a housing and an impeller. The housing includes a hot medium compartment, a cold medium compartment, an air gap compartment, a membrane, and a thermally conductive plate. The hot medium compartment includes a hot medium inlet configured to receive a hot medium stream including water. The cold medium compartment includes a cold medium inlet configured to receive a cold medium stream. The membrane defines pores that are sized to allow water vapor originating from the hot medium stream to pass from the hot medium compartment through the membrane to the air gap compartment. The thermally conductive plate and the cold medium stream are cooperatively configured to condense the water vapor from the hot medium stream. The air gap compartment is substantially filled with air and includes a permeate outlet configured to discharge the condensed water vapor. The impeller is disposed within the air gap compartment.

A separation module that includes a porous membrane, where the porous membrane includes a poly(phenylene ether) copolymer containing 10 to 40 mole percent repeat units derived from 2-methyl-6-phenylphenol and 60 to 90 mole percent repeat units derived from 2,6-dimethylphenol; and a block copolymer containing backbone or pendant blocks of poly(C.sub.2-4 alkylene oxide). The separation module can be used in devices for wastewater treatment, water purification, desalination, separating water-insoluble oil from oil-containing wastewater, membrane distillation, sugar purification, protein concentration, enzyme recovery, dialysis, liver dialysis, or blood oxygenation.

A process for continuous purification of high-purity trimethylaluminum is provided. The process includes preparing a membrane separator, which is placed vertically for use, and arranging a condenser tube inside of the membrane separator and a heating tube outside of the membrane separator, and a disperser at the top of the membrane separator for dispersing a liquid. The liquid naturally flows down along the inner wall of the heating tube by gravity to form a membrane. The process further includes concentrating liquid components having a low boiling point which are collected by the condenser at different stages and concentrating liquid components having a high boiling point which are collected by the heating wall.

A humidifier comprises hollow shell and humidifier core. The humidifier core includes a transfer sheet, a plurality of first channels, and a plurality of second channels. The transfer sheet comprises a permeable material having a plurality of sections and a plurality of layers of spacing materials. The plurality of first channels are configured to allow air flow in a first direction and to prevent airflow in a second direction that is different from the first direction. The plurality of second channels are configured to allow air flow in the second direction and to prevent airflow in the first direction. The humidifier comprises a stack of alternating first channels and second channels, and the first channels are configured to transfer liquid from air flowing in at least one of the first channels to air flowing in at least one of the second channels. The humidifier is suitable for use in fuel cell stack.