The present disclosure generally relates to liquid separation membranes. The present disclosure also relates to membranes comprising at least a nanoporous hydrophilic layer and a porous hydrophobic substrate. The present disclosure also relates to a process for preparing the membranes and to use of the membranes in pervaporation and/or membrane distillation processes including desalination and/or solvent dehydration.

A process of and apparatus for dehydrating an alcohol/water mixture may include pressurizing the mixture to at least 40 psig, heating the pressurized mixture to a temperature of at least 170° F., passing the heated and pressurized mixture through at least one Zeolite separator to produce separate streams of water and pressurized and heated dehydrated alcohol, and using the pressurized and heated dehydrated alcohol to at least in part heat pressurized mixture and to cool the pressurized and heated dehydrated alcohol. At least some implementations may include cooling the pressurized and heated dehydrated alcohol to a temperature below its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. At least some implementations may include applying a vacuum to the water stream side of the Zeolite separator. At least some implementations may include cooling the stream of water to a temperature of less than about 200° F.

The invention is a modular, flexible, thermal, insulating, multilayered enclosure utilizing membrane distillation technology. The enclosure has a heat conducting layer, an insulation layer, and a layer of hydrophobic, polymeric hollow fiber membranes between the insulation layer and conductive layer. The enclosure is wrapped around a heat exhaust to absorb and transfer heat to the hollow fiber membranes to facilitate membrane distillation enabling production of potable water.

A photothermal distillation membrane comprising a tridecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-trichlorosilane (FTCS) fluoro-silanized, polydopamine (PDA) coated, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane is disclosed, as well as a process for synthesizing a FTCS-PDA-PVDF membrane. A tridecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-trichlorosilane (FTCS) fluoro-silanized, polydopamine (PDA) containing bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) aerogel membrane is also disclosed, as well as a process for synthesizing a FTCS-PDA/BNC aerogel membrane.

The present invention relates to a method for purifying hydrogen peroxide, and more particularly, to a method including purifying a crude product of hydrogen peroxide using a primary purification system, and purifying a primarily purified hydrogen peroxide solution using a secondary purification system. One of the primary purification system and the secondary purification system includes an electrodeionization system, and the other one of the primary purification system and the secondary purification system includes at least one from among a distillation system, a resin system, a reverse osmosis system, and a combination system thereof.

A hydrophobic biofilm membrane modified with a spiropolyurethane may be used for desalination of salt water to fresh water. The spiropolyurethane component of the membrane can produce a hydrophobic spin membrane boundary which attracts saline water, and where the hydrophobic spin membrane boundary can comprise a hinge-like motion for capture of salt molecules via a loose pore-gate spongy membrane surface texture while allowing desalinated water to flow through the porous membrane. The membrane is useful in both reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) separations, including the desalination.

A method of purifying an organic solvent is provided. The method includes introducing an organic solvent into a membrane distillation system. The membrane distillation system includes a perfluorodioxole membrane. The method includes performing a distillation technique with the membrane distillation system using the perfluorodioxole membrane to treat and purify the organic solvent.

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.

A process for generating power from a warm saline steam (1) obtained from geothermal sources. The process involves extracting a warm saline stream (1) from an underground geothermal formation (2), reducing the temperature of the saline stream (1) by passing the stream through a thermal power unit (5) in which thermal energy present in the stream is extracted. The process also involves converting latent osmotic energy present in the stream into electricity by passing the stream through an osmotic power unit (7) comprising a semi-permeable membrane (8). The output stream (13) derived from passage through the osmotic power unit is injected into a second, different underground formation.

The present disclosure describes a desalination system, comprising a membrane distillation unit; a preheater having a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet, the outlet being in communication with the inlet; an evaporator in communication with the liquid outlet of the MD, and having a fluid inlet configured to provide heat to aqueous liquid in the evaporator, the evaporator having a vapor outlet; at least one adsorption-desorption unit, having a vapor inlet in communication with the vapor outlet of the evaporator, the AD including a fluid inlet configured to receive either a heating or a cooling fluid and a fluid outlet, the AD having a vapor outlet and further including a fluid inlet in communication with the fluid inlet of the AD, a fluid outlet in communication with the heating fluid inlet of the preheater; and a condenser in communication with the permeate vapor outlet of the MD or the AD or both and having a condensation outlet.