A method for preparing a thin or thick film, including the aligning non-spherical seed crystals on a flat portion of at least one surface of the substrate such that an a-axis, a b-axis, and/or a c-axis are oriented according to a certain rule; and exposing the aligned seed crystals to a solution for enabling the growth of the seed crystals to thereby form and grow a film from the seed crystals using a secondary growing technique.

A gas separation apparatus includes a gas supply part and a zeolite membrane. The gas supply part supplies a mixed gas at a pressure greater than or equal to 10 atm and less than or equal to 200 atm. The mixed gas contains at least CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2, and N.sub.2. A water content of the mixed gas is made less than or equal to 3000 ppm. The zeolite membrane allows CO.sub.2 and N.sub.2 in the mixed gas to permeate therethrough, to thereby separate CO.sub.2 and N.sub.2 from CH.sub.4. The zeolite membrane is made of zeolite. The zeolite contains Al. A ratio of alkali metal to whole framework elements in the zeolite is less than or equal to 6.0 mol %. An amount of substance of the alkali metal in the zeolite is less than an amount of substance of Al.

A membrane device comprising a porous ceramic member. The porous ceramic member comprises a first support portion operable to support an active layer and further comprises a second support portion. The second support portion has a higher D.sub.75 average pore size than the D.sub.75 average pore size of the first support portion. The second support portion comprises a lattice structure that has a porosity percentage of ?40%. The porous ceramic member has a tensile strength operable to withstand feed application pressure of ?100 kPa (1 bar).

A drying method for a separation membrane includes supplying a gas for drying to the separation membrane so that a value obtained by dividing the difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of a flow rate of the gas for drying on a membrane surface of the separation membrane by the minimum value of the flow rate is less than or equal to 15%. The gas for drying is less than or equal to 40 degree C. and contains a water-soluble gas that has a solubility in 1 cm.sup.3 of water of greater than or equal to 0.5 cm.sup.3 in conditions of 40 degree C. and 1 atmosphere.

The present invention relates to a membrane and a method for manufacturing a membrane for filtering a fluid, said membrane comprising: a substrate having a three-dimensional structure and consisting of an one-piece ceramic porous body; and at least one separating filtering layer having a porosity that is lower than that of the substrate, in which the three-dimensional structure of the substrate is produced by forming elemental layers that are stacked and connected in series with one another, by repeating steps: a) depositing a continuous bed of powder at least partially consisting of a powder intended for forming the ceramic porous body; b) locally consolidating, part of the deposited material such as to create the elemental layer, and simultaneously linking the elemental layer thus formed with the preceding layer such as to gradually grow the desired three-dimensional shape.

An object of the present invention is to provide a porous support-zeolite membrane composite ensuring that at the time of separation or concentration with a zeolite membrane, both sufficient throughput and high separation performance are achieved in practice and the present invention relates to a porous support-zeolite membrane composite having a porous support and a zeolite membrane formed on the porous support, wherein part of the zeolite membrane penetrates into the inside of the porous support and the distance from the surface of the porous support to the inside into which the zeolite film penetrates is 5.0 m or less on average.

Disclosed are selectively-permeable membranes and components configured for selective permeation of a specified gas, such as oxygen, therethrough, methods for making the same and methods for using the same, for example, to implement fuel cells and electrochemical cells.

The disclosure generally relates to reactive electrochemical membranes (REMs); and in particular, to asymmetric reactive electrochemical membranes to be used for aqueous separations and membrane fouling regeneration.

Nanoporous selective sol-gel ceramic membranes, selective-membrane structures, and related methods are described. Representative ceramic selective membranes include ion-conductive membranes (e.g., proton-conducting membranes) and gas selective membranes. Representative uses for the membranes include incorporation into fuel cells and redox flow batteries (RFB) as ion-conducting membranes.

A system includes an engine and an exhaust conduit in communication with the engine. A water separation device has exhaust gas passageways in communication with the exhaust conduit. The water separation device has a substrate and a membrane on the substrate. The substrate is monolithic and extends around the exhaust gas passageways. The membrane is between the exhaust gas passageways and the substrate and has capillary condensation pores extending from the exhaust gas passageways to the substrate.