Membrane cell stack arrangement comprising a housing, a stack of membranes defining flow compartments and a fluid manifold system, wherein the direction of flow through the flow compartments is different to the direction of flow through entry and exit openings and the width of the entry and exit openings are each larger than 45% of the width of the flow compartment.

A bendable flexible flat membrane module includes: a membrane facing each other and constituting both outer surfaces; a support member made of a flexible material and embedded inside the membrane constituting the both outer surfaces; and a plurality of point bonding portions formed by pressing and bonding the both outer surfaces facing each other at a predetermined point.

The outer edge of a filtration membrane is thermally welded to a filter plate by a first thermal welding part. The first thermal welding part includes an outer boundary line disposed inside an outer edge of the filter plate and an inner boundary line disposed inside the outer boundary line. The outer boundary line has a plurality of first projected portions and first recessed portions that are alternately formed. The first projected portion projects toward the outer edge of the filter plate, and the first recessed portion is formed between the first projected portions and retracts in an inward direction A opposite to the outer edge of the filter plate.

A membrane element includes a filtration membrane and a flowpath member joined thereto. The flowpath member is made of yarn arranged into a three-dimensional structure, and includes inner spaces through which a permeated liquid permeated through the filtration membrane flows, and an outer bonding surface joined to the filtration membrane. At least part of the yarn forming the outer bonding surface is a low-melting point yarn having a softening point lower than that of a material forming the filtration membrane, or the yarn forming the outer bonding surface is formed by twisting a plurality of constituent yarns, and at least one of the constituent yarns is a low-melting point yarn having a softening point lower than that of the material forming the filtration membrane.

Membrane cell stack arrangement and method of manufacturing such a membrane cell stack arrangement. The arrangement has a housing (2) having a central axis, and a stack of membrane cells (4), each membrane cell (6) being arranged inside the housing (2) with a major surface (6a) of the membrane cell (6) oriented substantially perpendicular to the central axis. Each membrane cell (6) has a corner recess (12) between each two adjacent sides of at least four sides (10a-d). Sealing compartments (14) are provided by corner recesses (12) of adjacent membrane cells of the stack of membrane cells (4) in co-operation with a part of an inner surface (2a) of the housing (2).

An oil fence including an oil filtration membrane includes: a floating member floating on a surface of water; and an oil filtration membrane connected to the floating member, allowing the water to pass therethrough, and rapidly collecting materials such as oil or a hazardous and noxious substance included in the water.

A nanofiber for a filter medium is provided that includes fiber-forming ingredients including polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and an emulsifying agent for improving the miscibility of the fiber-forming ingredients. The nanofiber has excellent mechanical strength and chemical resistance and, at the same time, significantly increased hydrophilicity without a separate surface modification/treatment to/on the nanofiber. A filter medium comprising said nanofiber can exhibit improved flux and filtration efficiency and excellent physical properties in a water treatment process in which a pressure equal to or more than a predetermined level is applied and which requires the filter medium to have high mechanical strength and in a water treatment process which requires chemical resistance as the liquid being filtered is strongly acidic or alkaline. Further, since the nanofiber has significantly superior spinnability, the mass productivity of the filter medium is significantly improved, and the unit costs of production can be reduced.

Described are filtration membranes that include a porous polyimide membrane and thermally stable ionic groups; filters and filter components that include these filtration membranes; methods of making the filtration membranes, filters, and filter components; and method of using a filtration membrane, filter component, or filter to remove unwanted material from fluid.

A filter medium including: a porous first support; nanofiber webs respectively stacked at the upper and lower parts of the first support, and made of a plurality of nanofibers of which the diameters have a standard deviation of 300 nm or less; and a porous second support interposed between the first support and the nanofiber web. The filter medium is implemented by fibers having uniform diameters, and thus is easily manufactured to have a predetermined pore diameter and simultaneously has excellent uniformity of the pore diameters, thereby having excellent filtering efficiency and being more suitable when selectively separating specific objects. Backwashing is enabled at uniform pressure during backwashing such that high cleaning power is obtained. The filter medium has excellent water permeability and excellent mechanical strength so as to minimize the shape and structural deformation and damage of the filter medium.

According to the present invention, there are provided a chamber for transplantation which has a high durability, and in which an enclosed biological constituent can be maintained for a long period of time because an interior space thereof is efficiently secured; and a method for manufacturing the chamber for transplantation. The chamber for transplantation includes one or more membranes for immunoisolation at a boundary between an inside and an outside of the chamber for transplantation, in which all of the membranes for immunoisolation include a porous membrane containing a polymer, and a joint portion at which the porous membranes are directly fusion welded to each other is provided. The method for manufacturing a chamber for transplantation includes preparing one or more porous membranes containing a polymer selected from polysulfone and polyethersulfone, bringing one part of the porous membrane into direct contact with another part of the porous membrane, and performing a heat fusion welding of the two parts that are in direct contact with each other at a temperature which is a glass transition temperature of the polymer or higher and lower than a melting point of the polymer.