A method and an apparatus (10) for filtering and separating flow medium (11) by means of membranes (13), in a substantially pressuretight housing (14), at least one inlet (15) for the flow medium (11) to be separated, and at least one outlet (16) for permeate (18) discharge and an outlet (17) for discharged retentate (19), is described. The membranes (13) being embodied as membrane cushions, which have an opening region (131) for emergence of permeate (18) collecting in the membrane interior (137). Various partial sets of the set of membranes (13), which form a membrane stack (12), utilize different separation techniques based on the flow medium (11) so that a respective partial set are each operated with a predetermined, different pressure of the medium (11) to be separated or with a different vacuum on the permeate side of the membranes (13).

A heat-pipe membrane module belongs to a heat recycle device. The heat-pipe membrane module is composed of a membrane module and heat pipes. The whole heat pipe is placed in the membrane module where there is heat can be recycled; or one end of heat pipe is placed in the membrane module where there is heat can be recycled and the other end of heat pipe is outside the membrane module. Here, the heat pipe comprises a metal tube, wick and the working fluid, wherein, both ends of the metal tube have covers; the wick is evenly distributed in the inner surface of metal tube, which has a capillary effect; the working fluid fills the wick. The heat-pipe membrane module mentioned above is simple, cheap, and heat efficiency.

A heat-pipe membrane module belongs to a heat recycle device. The heat-pipe membrane module is composed of a membrane module and heat pipes. The whole heat pipe is placed in the membrane module where there is heat can be recycled; or one end of heat pipe is placed in the membrane module where there is heat can be recycled and the other end of heat pipe is outside the membrane module. Here, the heat pipe comprises a metal tube, wick and the working fluid, wherein, both ends of the metal tube have covers; the wick is evenly distributed in the inner surface of metal tube, which has a capillary effect; the working fluid fills the wick. The heat-pipe membrane module mentioned above is simple, cheap, and heat efficiency.

A method for synthesizing a supported molecular sieve membrane by microwaves includes the steps of aging, heating and synthesizing. The aging step is to make a support in contact with a synthetic liquid at 25 C. to 70 C. for 10 hours to 24 hours; the heating step is to raise a temperature of an aged system from an aging temperature to a synthesis temperature within 1 minute to 10 minutes; and the synthesizing step is to synthesize at 80 C. to 120 C. for 2 minutes to 15 minutes. The steps of heating and synthesizing are powered by microwaves.

A system for separating a solvent includes a first mixing tank comprising a waste solvent feed and a reactant feed; a first filter comprising a nanofiltration membrane; a distillation column or an evaporator; a condenser or cooler; and a pervaporation membrane. A method for separating a solvent includes mixing a waste solvent with a reactant to cause precipitation or complexing and forming a mixture; filtering the mixture using a nanofiltration membrane and forming a permeate; distilling or evaporating the permeate to form a concentrated solvent; condensing or cooling the concentrated solvent to below a boiling point of solvents in the concentrated solvent; and filtering the concentrated solvent using pervaporation to form a purified solvent. The system and method may be used to separate and purify a solvent without creating thermal degradation products.

Provided is a method of producing piperylene from a hydrocarbon mixture derived from a petroleum fraction having a carbon number of 5. The hydrocarbon mixture has a piperylene proportional content of not less than 60 mass % and not more than 80 mass % and has a cyclic hydrocarbon proportional content of not less than 20 mass % and not more than 40 mass %. The method of producing piperylene includes a membrane separation step of performing membrane separation of the hydrocarbon mixture using a zeolite membrane to obtain a separated product in which piperylene is enriched.

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.

Process for separating a highly pure propylene product from a liquefied petroleum gas stream is disclosed, which eliminates a C3 splitter having over 120 trays and the additional equipment that a C3 splitter requires. The process includes passing a feed stream to a dividing wall column to produce an overhead stream, a first side draw stream, a second side draw stream, and a product stream. The first side draw stream is passed to a treatment unit to produce a treated stream. The treated stream is passed to a membrane unit and a permeate stream is passed from the membrane unit to produce a polymer grade propylene stream.

Methods and systems are provided herein utilizing a membrane cascade to separate a hydrocarbon feed into boiling point fractions. Also provided herein are methods for selecting membranes for said cascades to achieve the desired boiling point fraction separation.

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.