A separation membrane complex includes a porous support, a dense part covering one surface of the support from a boundary position toward one side in a predetermined direction on the surface, and a separation membrane covering the surface from the boundary position toward the other side and covering the dense part in the vicinity of the boundary position. In a case where, in a cross section, within a specified range from the boundary position toward the one side in the predetermined direction up to 30 μm, a maximum angle among angles formed of the surface and lines connecting respective positions on a surface of the dense part on a side of the separation membrane and the boundary position is acquired as an evaluation angle, a maximum value of four evaluation angles at four measurement positions is not smaller than 5 degrees and not larger than 45 degrees.

Hydrogen-producing fuel processing systems and related methods. The systems include a hydrogen-producing region configured to produce a mixed gas stream from a feedstock stream, a hydrogen-separation membrane module having at least one hydrogen-selective membrane and configured to separate the mixed gas stream into a product hydrogen stream and a byproduct stream, and an oxidant delivery system configured to deliver an oxidant-containing stream to the hydrogen-separation membrane module in situ to increase hydrogen permeance of the hydrogen-selective membrane. The methods include operating a hydrogen-producing fuel processing system in a hydrogen-producing regime, and subsequently operating the hydrogen-producing fuel processing system in a restoration regime, in which an oxidant-containing stream is delivered to the hydrogen-separation membrane module in situ to expose the at least one hydrogen-selective membrane to the oxidant-containing stream to increase the hydrogen permeance of the at least one hydrogen-selective membrane.

The invention relates to porous polymeric cellulose prepared via cellulose crosslinking. The porous polymeric cellulose can be incorporated into membranes and/or hydrogels. In preferred embodiments, the membranes and/or hydrogels can provide high dynamic binding capacity at high flow rates. Membranes and/or hydrogels comprising the porous polymeric cellulose are particularly suitable for filtration, separation, and/or functionalization media.

The present invention relates to a process for producing a fluoropolymer article having a high surface roughness and high coarseness which comprises the following steps: a) forming a paste comprising a fluoropolymer into a paste-formed fluoropolymer product at a temperature lower than 50° C., b) densifying the paste-formed product, and c) stretching the densified paste-formed fluoropolymer product in at least one direction. The present invention further relates to a fluoropolymer article obtainable by a process according to the invention. The present invention furthermore relates to a fiber comprising, or consisting of, a fluoropolymer having a surface roughness expressed as a peak to valley distance (Rt) greater than 10 micrometer and/or an average surface roughness (Ra) greater than 1.5 micrometer. The present invention furthermore relates to a membrane comprising, or consisting of, a fluoropolymer having a coarseness index ρ/EBP of at least 0.3, an air permeability of 15 ft.sup.3/ft.sup.2/min or higher and a node aspect ratio of below 25.

Provided is a spiral membrane element that has a restricted outer diameter and is capable of being decreased in operation energy therefor. The element is a spiral membrane element including plural membrane leaves in each of which a permeation-side flow-channel member is interposed between opposed separation membranes a supply-side flow-channel member interposed between any two of the membrane leaves a perforated central pipe on which the membrane leaves and the supply-side flow-channel member are wound and a sealing part that prevents a supply-side flow-channel member from being mixed with a permeation-side flow-channel member. This element has an efficiency index E of 0.005 to 0.10, and the thickness of the supply-side flow-channel member is from 10 to 110 mil.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a separating membrane mainly comprising a thermoplastic resin having high permeability. The present invention relates to a separating membrane including a thermoplastic resin, wherein the width of voids in the separating membrane is at least equal to 1 nm and at most equal to 1000 nm, and the curvature rate of the voids is at least equal to 1.0 and at most equal to 6.0.

A concentration membrane for use in concentrating biological particles, including: a hydrophilic composite porous membrane including: a porous substrate; and a hydrophilic resin with which at least one main surface and inner surfaces of pores of the porous substrate are coated, the hydrophilic composite porous membrane having a ratio t/x of a membrane thickness t (m) to an average pore diameter x (m), as measured with a perm porometer, of from 50 to 630. A concentration device 10 for biological particles 50 including: a housing 20 having an inlet 21 and an outlet 22, in which, due to a differential pressure between the inlet 21 and the outlet 22, a liquid to be treated 40 containing biological particles 50 and water is injected from the inlet 21 and discharged from the outlet 22; a concentration membrane 30 provided to separate the inlet 21 and the outlet 22 from each other in the housing 20, the concentration membrane 30 being a hydrophilic porous membrane onto which the biological particles 50 are not adsorbed, the concentration membrane 30 allowing an effluent 42, which is a liquid having a concentration that is a concentration of the biological particles 50 subtracted from a concentration of the liquid to be treated 40, to permeate from a surface on a side of the inlet 21 to a surface on a side of the outlet 22; and a concentration space portion 24 which is a space on an upstream side of the concentration membrane 30 in the housing 20 and stores a concentrated liquid 41 which is a liquid having a concentration that is a concentration of the biological particles 50 added to a concentration of the liquid to be treated 40 by the concentration membrane 30.

The present invention relates to a dialysate regeneration method that reduces a urea concentration of a urea-containing aqueous solution, the method including a reverse osmosis process of obtaining, from the urea-containing aqueous solution, a concentrate having a higher urea concentration and a permeate having a lower urea concentration by using a reverse osmosis membrane element at an operating pressure of 0.5 MPa or more and 2.0 MPa or less, in which the urea concentration of the urea-containing aqueous solution is 0.5 g/L or more, the reverse osmosis membrane element includes a reverse osmosis membrane, and the reverse osmosis membrane has a pore diameter of 7.0 Å or less as measured by a positron annihilation lifetime measurement method.

A porous membrane, The porous membrane includes a triblock copolymer of the formula ABC, the porous membrane comprising a plurality of pores; wherein the A block has a T.sub.g of 90 degrees Celsius or greater and is present in an amount ranging from 30% to 80% by weight, inclusive, of the total block copolymer; wherein the B block has a T.sub.g of 25 degrees Celsius or less and is present in an amount ranging from 10% to 40% by weight, inclusive, of the total block copolymer and wherein the C block is a water miscible hydrogen-bonding block immiscible with each of the A block and the B block; wherein the porous membrane comprising a first major surface and an opposed second major surface, wherein the first major surface is a nanostructured surface.

A thin micro-porous membrane sheet and filtering device using it is presented. The membrane sheet includes a thin porous metal sheet of thickness between 20 and 200 μm with a porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 25 μm on at least one of its surfaces. The porous metal sheet has mean pore sizes at micro and sub-micrometer level and has a surface substantially free of pores greater than 10 micrometers. The ceramic coating layer may be made of particles with a mean particle size in a range of 10 to 300 nm and contains certain sintering promoters. The ceramic coating is sintered with the metal sheet in non-oxidizing environment at lower temperatures than typical ceramic membranes. The thin membrane sheet is used to filter fine particulates from micrometers to nanometers from a liquid or gas stream. The thin membrane sheet may be assembled into a filter device having high surface area packing density and straight mini-flow channels.