A membrane for membrane distillation processing includes a heating element configured to generate heat when an electrical current is applied to the heating element; a polymeric matrix having pores that allow a vapor to pass through, but not a liquid; and electrical contacts electrically connected to the heating element. The entire heating element is covered by an insulating material to prevent the heating element to directly interact with the liquid processed by the membrane.

A liquid purification system includes a raw liquid supply line with a sorbent dispenser connected to an inlet of a filtration cartridge with a precoated layer of sorbent formed and removable by flushing and a purified liquid line connected to a purified liquid output of the filtration cartridge. The system is configured to decant spent sorbent and return most of the flushing liquid to the raw liquid supply line. A flushing liquid and sorbent separation device is connected to a flushing liquid outlet of the filtration cartridge, and a clarified flushing liquid outlet of the flushing liquid and sorbent separation device is connected to the raw liquid supply line. The filtration cartridge is made as a hollow-fiber cartridge.

Disclosed is a method for removing hydrogen sulfide from natural gas. The method includes passing a natural gas feed including methane and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) through a membrane at normal operating conditions. The membrane is an asymmetric hollow fiber membrane or an asymmetric film composite membrane including a porous layer and a nonporous skin layer. The asymmetric hollow fiber membrane or the nonporous skin layer of the asymmetric film composite membrane plasticizes during the method by exposure to condensable gases with high critical temperature under the operating conditions. The membrane preferentially removes H2S over methane from the natural gas feed at a H2S/methane selectivity of from 7 to 40 when measured at 35° C. and 45 bar.

A thin micro-porous membrane sheet and filtering device using it is presented. The membrane sheet includes a thin porous metal sheet of thickness between 20 and 200 μm with a porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 25 μm on at least one of its surfaces. The porous metal sheet has mean pore sizes at micro and sub-micrometer level and has a surface substantially free of pores greater than 10 micrometers. The ceramic coating layer may be made of particles with a mean particle size in a range of 10 to 300 nm and contains certain sintering promoters. The ceramic coating is sintered with the metal sheet in non-oxidizing environment at lower temperatures than typical ceramic membranes. The thin membrane sheet is used to filter fine particulates from micrometers to nanometers from a liquid or gas stream. The thin membrane sheet may be assembled into a filter device having high surface area packing density and straight mini-flow channels.

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was used to generate high purity water from bacteria and endotoxin-contaminated water. The DCMD system includes a nanocarbon-coated membrane. Exemplary nanocarbon-coated membranes include a layer of carbon nanotubes immobilized relative to a polytetrafluorethylene surface (CNIM), a layer of carboxylate functionalized carbon nanotubes immobilized in the PTFE (CNIM-COOH), and a layer of graphene oxide immobilized in the PTFE (GOIM). The nanocarbon-immobilized membranes are effective in generating ultrapure, medical grade water.

An anti-microbial metal coating may be applied to filter membranes for use in actively depressing microbial viability in filtration applications. The anti-microbial metal coating may be applied to substrates that are considered to be sensitive to damage by conventional metal coating techniques or resistant to metal bonding. The coating may be applied from a salt absorbed to the substrate in solution, converted to a reducible form with a conversion agent, and reduced to active metal format through a low temperature plasma treatment.

A membrane for fluid species transport includes a porous substrate and a selective-transport layer comprising 2-D-material flakes. The porous substrate defines surface pores with dimensions larger than 2 microns, and the selective-transport layer coats the porous substrate and spans across the surface pores. The porous substrate can be contacted with a liquid or coating to fill or coat the surface pores of the porous substrate. Next, a 2-D-material-flake solution is deposited on the porous substrate. Evaporation of solvent from the deposited 2-D-material-flake solution forms the selective-transport layer.

Disclosed are copolymers which are useful in hydrophilically modifying porous fluoropolymer supports. An example of the copolymers is: ##STR00001##
Also disclosed are a method of preparing such copolymers, a method of modifying porous fluoropolymer surfaces, and hydrophilic fluoropolymer porous membranes prepared therefrom. Also disclosed is a method of filtering fluids by the use of the hydrophilic fluoropolymer porous membranes.

An ion exchange membrane having a structure that an ion exchange resin is filled in spaces of a porous base film, the porous base film has a structure that at least two porous olefin resin layers are laminated with a bonding strength of 100 gf/cm or more to less than 700 gf/cm and a Gurley air permeance of 500 sec/100 ml or less in terms of a 100 μm thick film. In this ion exchange membrane, base film has high air permeability though it has a multi-layer structure that a plurality of porous resin films are bonded together, and therefore a rise in electric resistance caused by the lamination of the base sheets is effectively suppressed.

The present invention relates to a separation membrane including an organic polymer resin, in which a volume V1 of fine pores having a pore diameter of 100 nm or more is 0.3 cm.sup.3/g or more and 0.5 cm.sup.3/g or less, a volume V2 of fine pores having a pore diameter of less than 100 nm is 0.02 cm.sup.3/g or more and less than 0.1 cm.sup.3/g, and a ratio V1/V2 of the fine pore volume V1 to the fine pore volume V2 is 3 or more and 60 or less.