A method of separately producing tert-butanol and sec-butanol, comprising the steps of introducing a mixed butenes stream to a tube side of a reaction membrane unit, introducing a TBA reactor water feed to the tube side of the reaction membrane unit, introducing a sweep gas to a shell side of the reaction membrane unit, introducing an SBA reactor water feed to the shell side, allowing the mixed butenes stream to contact the tube side of a such that selective gases in the mixed butenes stream permeate through the membrane to the shell side, allowing the selective gases that permeate through the membrane to react with water to produce sec-butanol, allowing retentate gases that fail to permeate through the membrane to react with water to produce tert-butanol, collecting the tert-butanol in a TBA reactor effluent, and collecting the sec-butanol in a SBA reactor effluent.

Composite polyether block amide (PEBA) copolymer tubes incorporate an ultra-thin PEBA layer that enables rapid moisture transfer and exchange through the tube. A composite PEBA film may include a porous scaffold support and may be formed or incorporated into the composite PEBA tube. A porous scaffold support may be coated or imbibed with PEBA to form a composite PEBA film. A composite PEBA film may be wrapped on a mandrel or over a porous scaffold support to form a composite PEBA tube. A film layer may be applied over a wrapped composite PEBA film to secure the layers together. The film layer by applied by dipping, spraying or painting.

A low cost, high selectivity asymmetric polyimide/polyethersulfone (PES) blend hollow fiber membrane, a method of making the membrane and its use for a variety of liquid, gas, and vapor separations such as deep desulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuels, ethanol/water separations, pervaporation dehydration of aqueous/organic mixtures, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, O.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, olefin/paraffin, iso/normal paraffins separations, and other light gas mixture separations. The polyimide/PES blend hollow fiber membrane is fabricated from a blend of a polyimide polymer and PES and showed surprisingly unique gas separation property with higher selectivities than either the polyimide hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer or the PES hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer for gas separations such as for H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 separations.

A dual-layer membrane and a method for preparing thereof. By adding a modifying monomer containing an active group and a characteristic group to a dope solution or spinning solution during the preparation of the dual-layer membrane, the grafting reaction occurs between the active group of the monomer and the polymer in the dope solution or spinning solution, and the intermolecular interaction with other polymers is enhanced by the characteristic group of the monomer, to improve the miscibility between the polymers. The method is suitable for preparing both a dual-layer flat sheet membrane and a dual-layer hollow fiber membrane, and can realize the preparation of a dual-layer membrane with an interpenetrated structure at the interface under mild preparation conditions.

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a defect structure in a chabazite (CHA) zeolite membrane, the CHA zeolite membrane having a controlled defect structure by the method and a method of separating CO.sub.2, H.sub.2, or He and water from a mixture of water and an organic solvent using the CHA zeolite membrane, and more particularly, to a method of controlling a defect structure in a CHA zeolite membrane that improves the separation performance by reducing the amount and size of defects formed in the CHA membrane structure when removing organic-structure-directing agents in the membrane through calcination at a low temperature using ozone.

Separation of linear and branched alkane isomers via selective permeation through a composite membrane is disclosed. The separation layer in the composite membrane is fabricated from a blend of at least two different fluoropolymer compositions, A and B, in which composition A has a normal-alkane isomer permeability that is greater than composition B. Composition B has a normal alkane to branched-alkane isomer selectivity that is equal or greater than composition A. The separation layer in the composite membrane has a normal-alkane permeability that is greater than composition B and a normal-alkane to branched alkane isomer selectivity that is greater than composition A.

A membrane device and separation process are presented to enable removal of water from water-containing mixtures at high throughput and high energy efficiency. The membrane device is made of thin H.sub.2O-selective molecular sieve membrane sheets with small feed channels and small permeate channels. The thin membrane sheet provides H.sub.2O-molecular specificity and allows H.sub.2O molecule to permeate through while blocking the other molecules. The membrane device provides large membrane area per unit volume and reduces mass transfer and flow resistance. Water is removed from the mixture by flowing the water-containing mixture through the feed channels of the device at a pressure above atmospheric pressure and removing the permeated water vapor from the permeate channels in the device under vacuum.

The invention relates to the extraction of organic compounds from mixtures of said compounds with water, using a nanoporous carbon membrane. The invention can be used in any field where it is desired to separate an organic compound of interest from water, such as the drying of alcohols or alkanes.

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe polymer blend membranes comprising a layer including a polymer blend of regenerated cellulose and polydimethylsiloxane and a support in contact with the layer. Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods of preparing a polymer blend membrane comprising contacting a cellulose precursor and a PDMS precursor in a solvent to form a polymer blend solution, depositing the polymer blend solution on a surface of a suitable support, curing the PDMS precursor of the polymer blend solution to form PDMS, and converting the cellulose precursor to cellulose to form a polymer blend membrane including cellulose and PDMS. Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods of separating chemical species by one or more of organic solvent nanofiltration and pervaporation.

A method of creating a hydrophobic polymer membrane surface includes depositing a polymer material onto a heated carrier, using the heated carrier, transporting the polymer material past an electrode field generator, generating an electric field adjacent the carrier, using the electric field to form a pattern in the polymer material to form a patterned polymer membrane, rinsing the patterned polymer membrane in a first bath, and setting the pattern into the patterned polymer membrane in a second bath.