In some embodiments, the present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for distilling a fluid by exposing the fluid to a porous membrane that includes a surface capable of generating heat. In some embodiments, the heat generated at the surface propagates the distilling of the fluid by converting the fluid to a vapor that flows through the porous membrane and condenses to a distillate. In some embodiments, the surface capable of generating heat is associated with a photo-thermal composition that generates the heat at the surface by converting light energy from a light source to thermal energy. In some embodiments, the photo-thermal composition includes, without limitation, noble metals, semiconducting materials, dielectric materials, carbon-based materials, composite materials, nanocomposite materials, nanoparticles, hydrophilic materials, polymers, fibers, meshes, fiber meshes, hydrogels, hydrogel meshes, nanomaterials, and combinations thereof. Further embodiments pertain to methods of making the porous membranes of the present disclosure.

A process for the absorption of a target gaseous component from a gas stream comprising the steps of: contacting the gas stream with an absorber comprising an liquid absorbent for absorbing the target gaseous component to produce a rich liquid absorbent stream and a non target gaseous component, said non target gaseous component including water vapour; treating the rich liquid absorbent stream in a desorber to thereby release the target gaseous component and a water vapour component into a desorber gas stream and produce a lean liquid absorbent stream; and forming a recovered water stream from the output of a water separator for separating the water vapour from the target gaseous component, said water separator forming part of the absorber and/or the desorber. The lean liquid absorbent stream exiting the desorber is treated with a forward osmosis (FO) membrane unit comprising a water permeable membrane, wherein the membrane unit transfers water from a salt water stream through the water permeable membrane to the lean liquid absorbent stream, thereby replenishing at least part of the water removed in the process.

This invention discloses a hollow fiber membrane and its preparation method and application, belonging to the field of membrane separation. The preparation method adopts a spinning device with a triple-orifice spinneret, including the casting solution, bore fluid and outer solution. The bore fluid, casting solution and outer solution are respectively co-extruded from the inner, middle and outer orifice of the spinneret, respectively, to form the nascent membrane. The nascent membrane is immersed in external coagulation bath to form a hollow fiber membrane. The outer solution and bore fluid are weakly-polar non-solvents of membrane-forming material and are water soluble. Based on the characteristics of the bore fluid and the outer solution, on the one hand, the mass exchange rate between solvents and non-solvents can be slowed down, the formation of dense skin is effectively avoided, and the surface porosity of the membrane is improved. On the other hand, the liquid film between solvents and non-solvents can finally dissolve in the coagulation bath without remaining in the hollow fiber membrane and spinning device. The hollow fiber membrane is prepared without double dense skins, and the surface porosity of the inner and outer surfaces of the hollow fiber membrane is improved, which is good for the improvement of membrane flux.

The invention concerns polymer microfiltration or ultrafiltration porous membranes, intended for the treatment of effluents. More specifically, the invention concerns filtration membranes having at least one surface coated with a fluoropolymer-based latex.

This invention relates to various membrane-based processes and their combinations, such as Forward Osmosis (FO), Reverse 5 Osmosis (RO), Nanofiltration (NF), Ultrafiltration (UF), Membrane Bioreactor (MBR), Osmotic Distillation (OD) and Membrane Distillation (MD), for various application of dilution, concentration, dewatering, separation, purification, fractionation or extraction applications of different solvents including 10 various sources of water, wastewater, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), food and beverage sources, dairy products etc. It is also applicable to all the industrial and domestic applications that involves recovering or water reclamation from inlet sources.

Devices and techniques may improve the permeate productivity in membrane distillation separation by modifying the feed and/or coolant sides of a membrane distillation module depending on the membrane distillation configuration. The bubbling of a carrier gas through the feed liquid in the feed liquid side of the module can increase the turbulent dissipation rate and/or enhance mass transfer across the membrane pores.

There is provided a hollow fiber membrane for vacuum membrane distillation having a maximum tensile strength of a ≥3.5 MPa and a liquid entry pressure (LEP) of ≥3.0 bar, wherein the hollow fiber membrane is a single layer hollow fiber membrane comprising a wall with a thickness of ≤150 μm and a cross-section comprising two open cell layers with an array of interconnected pores and a macrovoid layer between the two open cell layers. The hollow fiber has improved mechanical strength and vacuum membrane distillation flux.

The present disclosure provides processes and systems for dehydrating a byproduct stream 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 first byproduct stream. The first byproduct stream is contacted with a molecular sieve unit, thereby forming a product stream. The molecular sieve unit is cyclically contacted with at least a portion of the product stream to regenerate the molecular sieve unit and form one or more regenerate streams. A second byproduct stream including at least one of (1) the regenerate streams and (2) at least a portion of the fusel oil stream is contacted with a separation system, thereby forming a permeate and a retentate. At least a portion of the retentate is forwarded into the product stream.

Enhanced cleaning of a fouled membrane is achieved via controlled deformation in a method wherein a feed composition, comprising a solvent and dissolved components, flows into a retentate side of a membrane module. The solvent passes through the membrane from the retentate side to a permeate or draw side of the membrane module while retaining the dissolved components on the membrane. As a foulant accumulates on either side of the membrane, a driving force is generated across the membrane, wherein the membrane responds cyclically by deforming back and forth toward the permeate or draw side and toward the retentate side. The foulant is dislodged from the membrane via mechanical fatigue at the foulant-membrane interface caused by the deformation of the membrane and contact with a spacer in contact with the membrane.

Hydrophobic hollow-fiber membrane made from a vinylidene fluoride polymer with a wall and a wall thickness, an outer surface on its outer side, an inner surface on its inner side and facing its lumen and adjacent to the inner surface a supporting layer having a structure that is substantially isotropic across the wall thickness, the supporting layer extending over at least 80% of the wall thickness and comprising pores having an average diameter of less than 1 m, and wherein the hollow-fiber membrane has pores on its outer surface and on its inner surface, characterized in that the vinylidene fluoride polymer has a weight-average molecular weight M.sub.W in the range from 550 000 to 700 000 daltons and a polydispersivity greater than 3.0; the pores in the outer and in the inner surface are formed like islands and have a maximum ratio of their longitudinal extension to the transverse extension of 10; the porosity lies in the range from 50 to 90 vol. %, the wall thickness in the range from 50 to 300 m, and the diameter of the lumen in the range from 100 to 500 m; and the hollow-fiber membrane has a maximum separating pore diameter d.sub.max in the range from 0.3 to 0.7 m, determined according to the bubble point method.