A bipolar membrane comprising a cation exchange mat of one or more cation exchange polymers, an anion exchange mat of one or more anion exchange polymers, and an internal 3D bipolar interface, disposed between the cation and anion exchange layers, including a mixture of at least one cation exchange polymer and at least one anion exchange polymer, such that an interface of the at least one cation exchange polymer and the at least one anion exchange polymer is the internal 3D bipolar interface that has a large area, and the at least one cation exchange polymer in the 3D bipolar interface is connected to the one or more cation exchange polymers of the cation exchange layer, and the at least one anion exchange polymer in the 3D bipolar interface is connected to the one or more anion exchange polymers of the anion exchange layer.

An oil-water separation membrane is described. The oil-water separation membrane comprises a porous metal sheet with a photocatalyst layer on one side and a layer of nanoparticles and a surfactant on the other side. The layer of nanoparticles and surfactant create a superoleophobic and superhydrophilic coating that allows passage of an aqueous phase and rejection of an oil phase. The photocatalyst layer, combined with UV irradiation, enables degradation of organic contaminants in the aqueous phase. The oil-water separation membrane may be used as part of an oil-water separation system, and a filtered water product may be recycled through the membrane to increase the removal of organic contaminants.

A reinforced oil-absorptive membrane material, includes: a tubular support (101) and an oil absorbing layer (102) provided on a surface of the tubular support (101), wherein a plurality of holes are provided on the tubular support (101); and the oil absorbing layer (102) is a piece of nonwoven fabric with a polymer layer provided thereon. The reinforced oil-absorptive membrane material has an excellent oil-absorbing and supportive performance, and is capable of being utilized continuously in a negative pressure suction manner and thus shows high oil absorption efficiency. A method for manufacturing the reinforced oil-absorptive membrane material including pre-treating the nonwoven fabrics by aqueous alkali, covering a membrane casting solution including a solvent, a graphene, polyvinylidene fluoride, pore-forming agent and inorganic particle, and then solidifying and extracting to obtain the oil-absorbing layer.

A transfer line between the outlet of a steam cracker and the inlet for the quench system has metallic or ceramic inserts having a pore size from about 0.001 to about 0.5 microns inside the line forming a gas tight barrier with the inner surface of the line and having a vent for the resulting gas tight pocket are used to separate H.sub.2, CH.sub.4, CO and CO.sub.2 from cracked gases reducing the load on the down-stream separation train of the steam cracker.

A carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane having improved separation characteristics for separating olefins from their corresponding paraffins is comprised of carbon with at most trace amounts of sulfur and a transition metal, wherein the transition metal is one or more of a group 4-10 and 12 transition metal. The CMS membrane may be made by pyrolyzing a precursor polymer devoid of sulfur in which the precursor polymer has had a transition metal incorporated into it. The pyrolyzing for the precursor having the transition metal incorporated into it is performed in a nonoxidizing atmosphere and at a heating rate and temperature such that the metal has a valence greater than zero (i.e., not metal bonded) to a valence desirably closer to its maximum valence.

An artificial, extracorporeal system for liver replacement and/or assistance, comprises a liver dialysis device for conducting hemodialysis on a patient suffering from liver failure. The liver dialysis device comprises a first standard hollow fiber membrane dialyzer which does not allow passage of an essential amount of albumin over the membrane wall and which is perfused with the patient's blood, and a second hollow fiber membrane dialyzer which allows the passage of essential but defined amounts of albumin over the membrane wall and which receives the blood of the first standard hemodialyzer. The filtrate space is closed off from the lumen space of the hollow fibers and is populated by adsorbent material which may comprise one or more different adsorbents.

Training equipment is configured for targeted muscle actuation. The training equipment contains a muscle-powered actuating element and a damping system having two components that can move in relation to one another. One of the components is operatively connected to the actuating element, such that a movement of the actuating element can be damped. A field-sensitive rheological medium and a field generation system are associated with the damping system, in order to generate and control the field strength. A damping characteristic can be influenced by the field generation system. A control system is suited and configured to control the field generation system in a targeted manner in accordance with a training parameter, such that the movement of the actuating element can be damped taking into account the training parameter.

A stable high performance facilitated transport membrane comprising an asymmetric integrally-skinned polymeric membrane wherein the pores on the relatively porous, thin, dense skin layer of the membrane comprises a hydrophilic polymer such as chitosan or sodium alginate, a metal salt such as silver nitrate, or a mixture of a metal salt such as silver nitrate and hydrogen peroxide and the asymmetric integrally-skinned polymeric membrane comprises a relatively porous, thin, dense skin layer as characterized by a CO.sub.2 permeance of at least 200 GPU and a CO.sub.2 over CH.sub.4 selectivity between 1.1 and 10 at 50? C. under 50-1000 psig, 10% CO.sub.2/90% CH.sub.4 mixed gas feed pressure. The present invention further includes a method of making these membranes and their use for olefin/paraffin separations, particularly for propylene/propane and ethylene/ethane separations.

The purpose of this invention is to prepare lanthanum (La) supported tin oxide-titania (SnO.sub.2TiO.sub.2) nanoparticles in the presence of three different solvents (Ethyl acetate, Benzyl alcohol, Ethylene glycol) as directing medium, through sol-gel followed by hydrothermal method for nanofiltration system.

The present disclosure in general relates to a process for (1) reducing impurities, i.e. undesirable natural components such as waxes and undesirable synthetic materials such as agrochemicals and other environmental pollutants, or (2) fractionation of natural components present in an essential oil using at least one selective membrane.