According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a desalination system includes a latent heat exchanger, a hydroclone, a compressor, and a quiescent vertical column. The latent heat exchanger is configured to receive saltwater. The latent heat exchanger includes tubes with an interior that are configured to circulate supersaturated brine with suspended salts. The hydroclone is configured to receive a flow from the latent heat exchanger. And, the hydrocodone has a flow that is substantially steam exiting the top and a flow that is substantially liquid exiting the bottom. The compressor that receives at least a portion of the flow that is substantially steam exiting the top of the hydroclone. An output of the compressor recirculating at least a portion of the flow back to the latent heat exchanger.

A trap system adapted to trap polyimide or other vapors exiting from a process chamber. The vapors are routed from the process chamber through a heated exit line at low pressure and then cooled, resulting in condensation at a selected location. The condensed vapors accumulate in a liquid trap. A method of condensing polymer vapors in vacuum exit lines of process chambers, where the flow which may have vaporized polymer vapor is cooled to enhance condensation at a chosen location. The liquid trap can be emptied and replaced, resulting in the removal of the condensed liquid. The chamber exit lines are protected from condensation build up.

The system for preparing silica aerogel comprises a raw material supply part transferring at least one raw material of de-ionized water, water glass, a surface modifier, an inorganic acid, and an organic solvent to a mixing part, the mixing part mixing the raw materials transferred from the raw material supply part to produce silica wet gel, a separating part separating at least one raw material of the raw materials from the mixture containing the silica wet gel transferred from the mixing part, a drying part drying the silica wet gel transferred from the separating part to produce the silica aerogel, a recovery part recovering a portion of the vaporized raw material of the raw materials used in at least one of the mixing part and the drying part, and a heat transfer part transferring heat to at least one of the mixing part and the drying part.

The present invention relates to a device and also to a method for separating and recovering a cyclic diester, in particular dilactide or glycolide from polymer melts which include the cyclic diester as impurity. The device and also the method according to the invention allow recovery of the cyclic diester with a high yield and at the same time high purity.

An apparatus, system, and method for the extraction of water molecules from the air includes a combination of electrical mechanisms and materials engineering. With the help of hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials on an array of thermally conductive and electrically insulated materials, the extraction of water from the air is significantly increased. A combination of hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials and an electric field gradient moves the water molecules towards the collection system thus speeding up the water formation process. This also inhibits the re evaporation of the water droplets.

A process for obtaining free fatty acid and/or free fatty acid ester, including separating a liquid mixture containing the free fatty acid and/or the fatty acid ester by contacting a vapor of the liquid mixture in a column of a distillation apparatus with condensate formed from the vapor running downward. Heat and mass transfer takes place between the vapor and the condensate on column internals. The column has at least 10 theoretical plates and the separation is conducted with a pressure drop between the top and bottom of the column of p of 3.3 mbars. Appropriately, the liquid mixture, contains polyunsaturated fatty acid, preferably omega-6 or omega-3 fatty acid and/or alkyl monoesters and/or glycerol monoesters. In one embodiment the column has at least 30 theoretical plates and the separation is conducted with a pressure drop p between 3.5 mbar and 6 mbar.

The disclosure relates to a method for fermentation integrated with separation and purification of acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) or butanol alone, comprising the following steps: 1) obtaining ABE by fermentation using an acetone-butanol-producing bacterium or obtaining butanol using a butanol-producing bacterium; 2) using a vapor-stripping-vapor-permeation method (briefly VSVP) for online separation and purification of ABE or purifying butanol from the fermentation broth; wherein the VSVP method comprises the following steps: introducing a gas bubble into the fermentation broth comprising active cells for fermentation to vaporize ABE or Butanol; subjecting the gas along with the vaporized ABE or Butanol to a membrane separation unit to pass through the membrane; recovering ABE or Butanol, or subjecting ABE or Butanol to a next separation device. By using the disclosed method, production, separation, and purification efficiency of ABE or butanol are improved with saved energy consumption and without increasing equipment investment.

The invention is directed to a process for recovering/purifying (meth)acrylic acid which does not use azeotropic solvent and is based on the use of two columns for purifying a reaction mixture comprising (meth)acrylic acid. The process according to the invention includes a dry vacuum pump condensation system, which makes it possible to reduce the amount of final aqueous discharges.

The present disclosure provides processes and systems for heat integration in ethanol production. In one embodiment, a feed mixture is distilled with one or more distillation units to remove at least a portion of the water, and form a distillation unit bottom stream, a vaporous overhead stream, and a fusel oil stream. Molecular sieve units are regenerated by vacuum or a combination of vacuum and optionally a portion of the product stream to form one or more regenerate streams. A feed tank is configured to receive at least one selected from a condensed portion of the regenerate streams and a portion of a vaporous depressure stream, to form a feed stream. The energy contained in the depressure vapor is recovered by the depressure vapor contacting the feed tank and heating up at least one stream forwarded into the feed tank.

The process of producing concentrated maple sap can include concentrating the maple sap using membrane filtration to a sugar content of approximately 30? Brix, circulating the maple through a maple sap passage of a membrane, wherein the membrane contains the maple sap in a vacuum cavity, and evaporating the water from the maple sap across the membrane into the cavity. The concentrated maple sap having a sugar content above 50? Brix.