The present disclosure relates to semipermeable membranes which are suitable for blood purification, e.g. by hemodialysis, which have an increased ability to remove larger molecules while at the same time effectively retaining albumin. The membranes are characterized by a molecular retention onset (MWRO) of between 9.0 kD and 14.5 kD and a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of between 55 kD and 130 kD as determined by dextran sieving curves and can be prepared by industrially feasible processes excluding a treatment with salt before drying. The invention therefore also relates to a process for the production of the membranes and to their use in medical applications.

The present disclosure relates to a dialyzer comprising a bundle of semipermeable hollow fiber membranes which is suitable for blood purification, wherein the dialyzer has an increased ability to remove larger molecules while at the same time it is able to effectively remove small uremic toxins and efficiently retain albumin and larger proteins. The invention also relates to using said dialyzer in hemodialysis.

The present invention is directed to methods of treating a hydrocarbon-containing waste stream to form a hydrocarbon-containing retentate and an aqueous permeate which is substantially free of hydrocarbon. The method includes passing the hydrocarbon-containing waste stream through a microporous membrane to yield the hydrocarbon-containing retentate and the aqueous permeate. The membrane comprises a substantially hydrophobic, polymeric matrix and substantially hydrophilic, finely divided, particulate filler distributed throughout the matrix. The polymeric matrix has pores with a volume average diameter less than 1.0 micron, and at least 50 percent of the pores have a mean diameter of less than 0.35 micron.

A ceramic membrane including a feed flow inlet, a retentate flow outlet, a permeate flow outlet, a membrane interface portion. The membrane interface portion include a feed flow channel fluidly coupled to the feed flow inlet and to the retentate flow outlet and permeate flow channel fluidly coupled to the retentate flow outlet, wherein the membrane interface portion is operable to allow for fluid communication between the feed flow channels and the permeate flow channels through a membrane portion, and wherein the ceramic membrane has an open porosity of at least 10%. Also provided is a process for preparing the ceramic membrane by additive manufacture.

A process for preparing an ion-exchange membrane having a textured surface profile comprising the steps (i) and (ii): (i) screen-printing a radiation-curable composition onto a membrane in a patterned manner; and (ii) irradiating and thereby curing the printed, radiation-curable composition; wherein the radiation-curable composition has a viscosity of at least 30 Pa.Math.s when measured at a shear rate of 0.1 s.sup.1 at 20 C.

An asymmetric membrane having a substantially non-porous surface layer is made by a method including: dissolving a poly(phenylene ether) copolymer in a solvent mixture including a first solvent and a second solvent to provide a membrane-forming composition; and phase-inverting the membrane forming composition in a first non-solvent to form the membrane comprising a substantially non-porous surface layer. The first solvent is a water-miscible polar aprotic solvent, and the second solvent is a polar solvent having two to eight carbon atoms.

The present invention is directed to methods of separating a fluid emulsion stream into a hydrocarbon stream and an aqueous stream, by contacting the stream with a microporous membrane to yield a hydrocarbon product stream and an aqueous product stream. The membrane comprises a substantially hydrophobic, polymeric matrix, and substantially hydrophilic, finely divided, particulate, substantially water-insoluble filler distributed throughout the matrix. The polymeric matrix has a mean pore size less than 1.0 micron, and the purities of the product streams are independent of the flux rate of the aqueous product stream and the pore size of the membrane.

The invention relates to a mechanically stable ultrafiltration membrane and to a method for producing such an ultrafiltration membrane.

A porous membrane containing a hydrophobic polymer and a water-insoluble hydrophilic polymer, the porous membrane having a dense layer in the downstream portion of filtration in the membrane, having a gradient asymmetric structure in which the average pore diameter of fine pores increases from the downstream portion of filtration toward the upstream portion of filtration, and having a gradient index of the average pore diameter from the dense layer to the coarse layer of 0.5 to 12.0.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) membrane having a predetermined porosity via salt dilution induced phase separation, in which a liquid polymer solution (P) containing polyanions (A) and polycations (C) dissolved in an aqueous medium at an overcritical salt concentration is exposed to an aqueous medium.