This disclosure provides an integrated system and method for producing purified water, hydrogen, and oxygen from contaminated water. The contaminated water may be derived from regolith-based resources on the moon, Mars, near-Earth asteroids, or other destination in outer space. The integrated system and method utilize a cold trap to receive the contaminated water in a vapor phase and selectively freeze out water from one or more volatiles. A heat source increases temperature in the cold trap to vaporize the frozen contaminated water to produce a gas stream of water vapor and volatiles. A chemical scrubber may remove one or more volatiles. The integrated system and method utilize ionomer membrane technology to separate the water vapor from remaining volatiles. The water vapor is delivered for crew use or delivered to an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

Separation of carbon dioxide from the exhaust of an internal combustion engine, the production of hydrogen from water, and reformation of carbon dioxide and hydrogen into relatively high-octane fuel components.

Processes, systems, and associated control methodologies are disclosed that control the flow of biogas during the biogas cleanup process to create a more consistent flow of biogas through the digester, while also optimizing the output and efficiency of the overall renewable natural gas facility. In representative embodiments, a biogas buffer storage system may be used during the cleanup process to control the pressure and flow rate of biogas. The biogas buffer storage system may monitor and control the biogas flow rate to either bring down or increase the digester pressure, thereby maintaining a normalized biogas flow rate.

A device and method for carbon dioxide capture using circumscribed hollow membranes is disclosed. The device includes a hollow membrane unit having an inner conduit composed of a vapor membrane, and an outer conduit having an inside surface circumscribing the inner conduit forming a lumen. The outer conduit includes a CO.sub.2 pump membrane. The device also includes a mechanical pump maintaining a pressure differential between the lumen and the atmosphere, providing a product stream of CO.sub.2-rich gas from the lumen. The vapor membrane is sufficiently hydrophobic and porous to contain liquid water while also allowing water vapor formed by evaporation to pass through into the lumen. As water vapor passes from the lumen to the atmosphere through the CO.sub.2 pump membrane, a carbon concentration gradient is formed and maintained across the CO.sub.2 pump membrane. The carbon concentration gradient actively pumps CO.sub.2 out of the atmosphere and into the lumen.

A method and system for membrane-assisted production of high purity concentrated dimethyl carbonate by the reaction of carbon dioxide and methanol is provided. Carbon dioxide is recovered from flue gas or other dilute streams from industrial processes by a membrane and subsequent conversion takes place to an intermediate methyl carbamate by reacting of carbon dioxide with ammonia and methanol. For high-purity carbon dioxide obtained by one of the carbon capture technologies or by a process (such as, for example, ethanol fermentation process) the membrane reactor is replaced with a catalytic reactor for direct conversion of carbon dioxide to methyl carbamate by reacting with ammonia and methanol. The methyl carbamate is further reacted with methanol for conversion to dimethyl carbonate. An integrated reactive distillation process using side reactors is used for facilitating the catalytic reaction in the subject method for producing high purity dimethyl carbonate.

The invention relates to an internal combustion engine that comprises a first Brayton cycle comprising a mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) membrane that separates the O.sub.2 from the air such that the suctioned air current is free from N.sub.2; a second Brayton cycle combined in a binary manner with the first Brayton cycle and nested with a cycle selected from an Otto cycle and a diesel cycle performed by means of oxy-combustion. The second Brayton cycle transmits mechanical energy and thermal energy from exhaust gases to the first Brayton cycle. The first Brayton cycle provides to the second Brayton cycle compressed O.sub.2 from the MIEC membrane. By means of the present engine, the NOx emission into the atmosphere is prevented by the separation of N.sub.2 in the MIEC membrane.

A process for capturing carbon dioxide in which an exhaust stream containing carbon dioxide is cooled by a plurality of stages of indirect heat exchange to produce a cooled exhaust stream, compressed over a plurality of stages of compression, and separated to produce a CO2-enriched stream and a CO2-depleted stream. The CO2-enriched stream is dehydrated by contacting the CO2-enriched stream with a regenerated desiccant to produce a CO2 product stream and a spent desiccant. The CO2-depleted stream is heated by indirect heat exchange against the exhaust stream to produce a hot CO2-depleted stream, while a portion of the CO2-depleted stream is extracted from an interstage of the plurality of stages of indirect heat exchange to regenerate the spent desiccant. The hot CO2-depleted stream is expanded over a plurality of stages of expansion to drive the compression of the cooled exhaust, thereby producing an expanded CO2-depleted stream.

A filter assembly is disclosed that has a body defining a cavity and having a first side edge surface, a second side edge surface, a top edge surface, and a bottom edge surface forming a perimeter surface around the cavity. A porous flow face extends across the cavity and is coupled to the perimeter surface. The porous flow face arcs between the first side edge surface and the second side edge surface. An adsorbent is disposed in the cavity.

A method for removing ethylene from the atmosphere surrounding an agricultural product that is sensitive to ethylene, which promotes climacteric ripening and senescence, is disclosed. The method uses a membrane for selective ethylene permeation and removal from a container that is used to store, transport, and preserve the agricultural product.

An apparatus and method for flow management and CO.sub.2-recovery from a CO.sub.2 containing hydrocarbon flow stream, such as a post CO.sub.2-stimulation flowback stream. The apparatus including a flow control zone, a gas separation zone, a pretreatment zone, and a CO.sub.2-capture zone. The CO.sub.2-capture zone is in fluid communication with the pretreatment zone to provide CO.sub.2-capture from a pretreated flowback gas stream and output a captured CO.sub.2-flow stream. The CO.sub.2-capture zone includes a first CO.sub.2-enricher and at least one additional CO.sub.2 enricher disposed downstream of the first CO.sub.2 enricher and in cascading relationship to provide a CO.sub.2-rich permeate stream, the CO.sub.2-capture zone further including at least one condenser to condense the enriched CO.sub.2-stream and output the captured CO.sub.2-flow stream.