The present invention provides a process for recovering glycol from a process stream comprising glycol, water, dissolved salts, and hydrocarbons. The process comprises subjecting the process stream to a salt-enrichment process to obtain a salt-enriched stream having a salt concentration higher than salt concentration of the process stream, and a salt-reduced stream; subjecting the salt-enriched stream to a glycol reclaiming process to separate the salts and at least a portion of the hydrocarbons from the salt enriched stream to obtain a substantially salt-free water-glycol stream; and blending the salt reduced stream from the salt-enrichment process with the substantially salt-free stream to produce a reclaimed water-glycol stream

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.

Membranes suitable for use in membrane distillation are provided. Such membranes may include nano-fibrous layers with adjustable pore sizes. The membranes may include a hydrophobic nanofibrous scaffold and a thin hydrophilic protecting layer that can significantly reduce fouling and scaling problems.

A membrane module includes a housing. The housing includes a housing, comprising: a first plurality of porous hollow fiber membranes, and a second plurality of porous hollow fiber membranes different from the first plurality of porous hollow fiber membranes. The first plurality of porous hollow fiber membranes has a first length, and the second plurality of porous hollow fiber membranes has a second length that is at least 1.1 times greater than the first length. The membrane module can be used in separation methods, such as membrane distillation methods.

A method includes providing a resonant thermal oscillator in a thermofluidic system having at least two counter-flowing liquid streams separated by at least a spectrum absorbing material, wherein the spectrum absorbing material is hydrophobic, light-absorbing, and photothermal, and adjusting a flow rate in at least one of the counter-flowing liquid streams to maximize heat transfer between the at least two counter-flowing liquid streams.

A bilayer electrospun membranes for treating hydraulic fracking wastewater via membrane distillation, and more particularly to bilayer electrospun membranes having an omniphobic layer to prevent low-surface tension solution wicking and an oleophobic antifouling surface to prevent foulant depositing on the membrane. Nanoparticles are decorated on the omniphobic surface through electrochemical interaction, which is coated with a fluorine monomer on the nanoparticles. A zwitterionic co-polymer is grafted using self-assembly between hydroxy groups on the antifouling surface generated by alkaline treatment and anchor segment epoxy groups on zwitterionic co-polymer.

The present invention relates to a distributed energy source system utilizing waste heat deeply. The distributed energy source system utilizing waste heat deeply comprises a primary waste heat recycling module, a membrane distillation type seawater desalination module and a membrane type thermoosmosis power generation module. The distributed energy source system utilizing waste heat deeply provided by the present invention can recycle and deeply utilize waste heat and moisture in flue gas by means of the primary waste heat recycling module, the membrane distillation type seawater desalination module and the membrane type thermoosmosis power generation module to realize functions of seawater desalination and low-temperature power generation, has high energy utilization ratio and improves the waste heat utilization efficiency.

An ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) membrane has at least one nanoporous UHMWPE film, where each of the nanoporous UHMWPE film is biaxial oriented with a thickness of 0.1 to 12 μm and pores that exclude particles in excess of 10 nm with a total porosity of 65 to 75 percent. The nanoporous UHMWPE film can be coated or laminated by a hydrophilic polymer to form a Janus membrane and can be made with a multilayer composite structure. The UHMWPE membrane can be used in a device for molecular distillation (MD), reverse osmosis (RO), or forward osmosis (FO).

A perfluorocarbon-free membrane composed of a non-perfluorocarbon material having a first side and a second side opposite of the first side. The perfluorocarbon-free membrane also includes a plurality of pores, each having an inlet and outlet and each passing through the non-perfluorocarbon material so that each pore provides fluidic communication between the first and second sides of the non-perfluorocarbon material. A portion of the non-perfluorocarbon material extends over the inlet and outlet of each the plurality of pores so that a cross-sectional area of the inlets and outlets in a direction of the extension of the non-perfluorocarbon material is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the respective pore in the direction of the extension of the non-perfluorocarbon material. The perfluorocarbon-free membrane does not include a hydrophobic perfluorocarbon coating.

Membrane distillation (MD) systems include at least two MD modules arranged in series, each of at least two MD modules including a condensing media inlet operable to receive a condensing media and a condensing media outlet, a feed inlet operable to receive a feed media and a feed outlet, and a first heating element positioned and operable to heat a feed prior to or upon introduction of the feed to a first of the at least two MD modules, wherein a stream exiting the feed outlet of the first of the at least two MD modules is introduced to the second of the at least two MD modules. Other MD systems include at least two MD modules arranged in parallel.