An inorganic membrane filtration article and methods for making the same. The membrane filtration article includes a sintered flow-through ceramic honeycomb with a plurality of partition walls defining a plurality of open channels from an inlet end of the honeycomb to an outlet end of the honeycomb. The honeycomb is formed from a cordierite composition with low-sodium and/or low-potassium content for enhanced filtration performance.

A monolithic membrane-type filtration structure for filtering liquids, includes a support formed of a porous inorganic material of permeability K.sub.s, the support having a tubular overall shape with a main axis, an upstream base, a downstream base, a peripheral wall delimiting an internal part and a plurality of passages parallel to the main axis of the support, formed in the internal part of the support, a membrane of permeability K.sub.m and of mean thickness t.sub.m covering the internal surface of the passages; the external hydraulic diameter of the structure satisfying the relationship .sub.f=[A+Blog.sub.10 (K.sub.st.sub.m/K.sub.m)]; in which is a coefficient between 0.85 and 1.15, and A=21570ent.sub.int.sup.218.6D.sub.h+19.0e.sub.int2.5e.sub.ext+0.1244 B=11760D.sub.he.sub.int+9.7e.sub.int+3.1e.sub.ext+0.04517. D.sub.h is the mean hydraulic diameter of the passages, e.sub.int is the minimum thickness of the internal walls between the passages, e.sub.ext is the minimum thickness of the peripheral wall of the filter.

A module includes flat ceramic segments, a potting material and a housing. The module exhibits relatively low pressure decay. A method for preparing such a module is provided.

A water-treating ceramic filter module comprising a filter unit, and a housing containing the filter unit; the filter unit comprising pluralities of cylindrical honeycomb structures each having pluralities of flow paths partitioned by porous ceramic cell walls and extending in one direction, and sheet-shaped connecting members connecting the honeycomb structures in series in the flow path direction; each connecting member having pluralities of penetrating holes for achieving the communication of the corresponding flow paths of adjacent honeycomb structures, to constitute pluralities of communicating flow paths; the communicating flow paths being composed of first communicating flow paths plugged only at one-side end, and second communicating flow paths plugged only at the other-side end; and the housing has an inlet on the side of the one-side end for receiving the water to be treated from outside, and an outlet on the side of the other-side end for discharging the treated water.

A separator element comprising a porous rigid single-piece substrate (2) made of a single porous material, and including internally at least one channel (3) for passing a flow of the fluid medium, which channel opens out in one end of the porous substrate for inlet of the fluid medium for treatment and in another end of the porous substrate for outlet of the retentate. At least one empty space (10) is arranged in the porous substrate so as to be surrounded by a portion of the material constituting the single-piece substrate (2) either completely so as to form a closed cavity or partially so as to form a cavity (10.sub.1) that opens out locally through the peripheral envelope (2.sub.2) of the substrate via a passage (10.sub.2) of section smaller than the section of the cavity (10.sub.1).

The present invention is concerned with the treatment of produced water, obtained from a chemically enhanced oil recovery process using viscosity-increasing polymeric compounds. Said treatment comprises particularly the steps of obtaining a produced water, from an oil-water mixture recovered from an oil-bearing formation, wherein the produced water comprises the viscosity-increasing polymeric compounds; and, of directing the produced water to a specific filtration device, and subjecting the produced water to filtration, for obtaining a retentate stream and a permeate stream. Said process allows particularly obtaining a permeate comprising the viscosity-increasing polymeric compounds, said permeate being substantially free of suspended solids, free oil and emulsified oil.

A method for producing a crystalline film comprising zeolite and/or zeolite-like crystals on a porous substrate is described. The method has the steps of: providing a porous support; modifying at least a surface of the top-layer of said porous support by treatment with a composition having one or more cationic polymer(s); rendering at least the outer surface of said porous support hydrophobic by treatment with a composition having one or more hydrophobic agent(s); subjecting said treated porous support to a composition having zeolite and/or zeolite-like crystals thereby depositing and attaching zeolite and/or zeolite-like crystals on said treated porous support, and growing a crystalline film of zeolite and/or zeolite-like crystals on said treated porous support and calcination. Crystalline films find use in a variety of fields such as in the production of membranes, catalysts etc.

The present disclosure relates to a transport mechanism apparatus for transporting at least one of a gas or a fluid. The transport mechanism may have an inlet, an outlet and a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structure. The TPMS structure is formed in a layer-by-layer three dimensional (3D) printing operation to include cells propagating in three dimensions, where the cells include wall portions having openings, and where the cells form a plurality of flow paths throughout the transport mechanism from the inlet to the outlet, and where the cells form the inlet and the outlet.

The gas separation method is executed under a condition in which a partial pressure of a first gas (G1) in a feed gas that contains at least mutually different gases being the first gas (G1) and a second gas (G2) becomes less than or equal to a total pressure of a permeate-side space (S2) of a gas separation membrane (30). The gas separation method includes a step of causing flow of a sweep gas that contains at least a third gas (G3) being a different gas from the first gas (G1) and the second gas (G2) into the permeate-side space (S2) of the gas separation membrane (30) while supplying a feed gas to a feed-side space (S1) of the gas separation membrane (30). The permeation rate of the first gas (G1) in the gas separation membrane (30) is greater than the permeation rate respectively of the second gas (G2) and the third gas (G3).

A filtration structure with a membrane for filtering liquids, includes a monolith including a support formed from a porous inorganic material of permeability K.sub.s, the support having a tubular general shape with a main axis, an upstream face, a downstream face, a peripheral surface and an internal part; a plurality of channels parallel to the main axis of the support, formed in the internal part of the support, the channels being separated from each other by inner walls formed from the porous inorganic material; the channels being blocked at one or other of their upstream or downstream ends in the direction of circulation of the liquid, to define, respectively, inlet channels and outlet channels for the liquid, so as to force the liquid to pass through the porous walls separating the inlet and outlet channels, and a membrane covering the inner surface of at least the inlet channels.