Durable asymmetric composite membranes comprising of a film of cross-linked poly(ether ether ketone) adhered to a sheet of hydrophilicitized microporous polyolefin are disclosed. The membranes are suitable for use in the recovery or removal of water from feed streams where repeated clean-in-place protocols are required such as in the processing of dairy products. The membranes are also suitable for use in the preparation of durable asymmetric composite membranes with improved rejection characteristics.

A filter medium including: a porous first support; nanofiber webs respectively stacked at the upper and lower parts of the first support, and made of a plurality of nanofibers of which the diameters have a standard deviation of 300 nm or less; and a porous second support interposed between the first support and the nanofiber web. The filter medium is implemented by fibers having uniform diameters, and thus is easily manufactured to have a predetermined pore diameter and simultaneously has excellent uniformity of the pore diameters, thereby having excellent filtering efficiency and being more suitable when selectively separating specific objects. Backwashing is enabled at uniform pressure during backwashing such that high cleaning power is obtained. The filter medium has excellent water permeability and excellent mechanical strength so as to minimize the shape and structural deformation and damage of the filter medium.

The embodiments described herein relate to agarose ultrafiltration membrane composites and methods for making and using the same.

The problem is to provide a porous membrane with a reduced phenomenon in which membranes firmly adhere to one another during production of the porous membrane (membrane adhesion). The problem is solved by a porous membrane comprising a hydrophobic polymer and a hydrophilic polymer, wherein an average value T of ratios of the number of counts of ions derived from the hydrophilic polymer to the number of counts of ions derived from the hydrophobic polymer is 1.0 or more when a surface of the porous membrane is measured by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS).

One embodiment of the present invention provides a hydrophilic composite porous membrane including: a polyolefin microporous membrane, and an olefin/vinyl alcohol-based resin with which at least one main surface and inner surfaces of pores of the polyolefin microporous membrane are coated, in which a ratio t/x of a membrane thickness t (μm) to an average pore diameter x (μm), as measured with a perm porometer, is from 50 to 630.

A method of assessing a membrane, including calculating fluid dynamic characteristics of at least one of a membrane and a material to be passed through the membrane, where the material comprises particles; obtaining characteristic of at least one force acting on the particles of the material to be passed through the membrane due to the interaction between the particles and the membrane, the at least one force being an intermolecular force; combining the calculated fluid dynamic characteristic and the obtained characteristics to assess the flow of the material through the membrane; and optimizing at least one characteristics of the membrane in relation to the material. The membrane includes a plurality of rows and a plurality of teardrop structures arranged in the plurality of rows. The teardrop structures in each row are arranged at substantially the same angle with respect to an anticipated direction of flow through the membrane.

A desalination system, including a membrane distillation portion, a solar power concentration portion, and a thermal vapor compression portion operationally connected to the membrane distillation portion and to the solar power concentration portion. The membrane distillation portion includes a first vessel having a first portion and a second portion separated by a hydrophobic membrane operationally connected therebetween and oriented to pass water from the first portion to the second portion, wherein the hydrophobic membrane further comprises a hydrophilic membrane and an air blocking layer connected to the hydrophilic membrane and disposed in the first portion, a vacuum gap adjacent the hydrophobic membrane and disposed in the second portion, a first fluid inlet and a first fluid outlet operationally connected to the first portion, and a second fluid inlet and a second fluid outlet operationally connected to the second portion. The solar power concentration portion includes a pump having a pump outlet and a pump inlet operationally connected to a water line and to the vacuum gap, a linear Fresnel mirror collector for collecting and focusing sunlight, and an outlet line operationally connected to the pump outlet and positioned to receive focused sunlight from linear Fresnel mirror collector. The thermal vapor compression portion includes an ejector having an ejector inlet portion and an ejector outlet portion, wherein the ejector inlet portion is operationally connected to the outlet line and to the vacuum gap, a second vessel fluidically connected to the outlet portion and further including a heat exchanger operationally connected to the ejector outlet portion and to a water pipe, a feed spray operationally connected to the second outlet and positioned to spray into the heat exchanger, and a collection portion for receiving concentrated feed spray. The heat exchanger receives desalinated water from the ejector and from the feed spray. The water line carries desalinated water from the heat exchanger. The first outlet passes concentrated brine, and the first inlet receives feed water to be desalinated.

The object of the present invention is to provide a porous membrane by which a useful component can be recovered while suppressing the clogging during filtration of a protein solution and from which only a small amount of an eluate is eluted even when an aqueous solution is filtered. The present invention provides 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.

Provided is a method for removing CO.sub.2 comprising: supplying a gas to be processed containing CO.sub.2, N.sub.2 and O.sub.2 to a feed side of a CO.sub.2/O.sub.2 selective permeation membrane within a temperature range of 15° C. to 50° C.; generating water vapor and supplying the water vapor to the CO.sub.2/O.sub.2 selective permeation membrane; selectively removing CO.sub.2 from the gas to be processed by permeating CO.sub.2 in the gas to be processed from the feed side to a permeate side of the CO.sub.2 selective permeation membrane selectively to O.sub.2 and N.sub.2 in the gas to be processed; and using a CO.sub.2 facilitated transport membrane having CO.sub.2/O.sub.2 selectivity and CO.sub.2/N.sub.2 selectivity within the temperature range as the CO.sub.2 selective permeation membrane, the CO.sub.2 facilitated transport membrane being configured with a hydrophilic polymer containing an amino acid and a deprotonating agent for preventing protonation of an amino group of the amino acid supported by a porous membrane, wherein a CO.sub.2 concentration in the gas to be processed is 3 mol % or less on a dry basis.

The present invention relates to a hydrophilic separation membrane polymer composition containing a sulfonated graphene oxide and a sulfonated carbon nanotube, and a hydrophilic separation membrane fabricated therefrom. A hydrophilic separation membrane according to the present invention has the advantage of being very high in water permeability and excellent in anti-fouling properties.