A vesicle incorporate a transmembrane protein, the vesicle forming material including a mixture of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) and polyetheramine. The vesicle can generally withstand elevated temperature without substantial shrinkage of the diameter, which in turn results in maintenance of the water permeability virtually unaffected. Pluronic based vesicles have a large content of amino groups available on the surface illustrated by the larger zeta potential values available for crosslinking in the polyamide layer by chemical reaction with trimesoyl chloride (TMC).

Asymmetric composite membranes and methods for their preparation are disclosed. The membranes comprise a cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) polymer coated on a film of cross-linked sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) adhered to a sheet of hydrophilicitized microporous polyolefin. The microporous polyolefin is typically microporous poly(ethylene). The membranes have improved selectivity with the regard to the rejection of solutes in reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration applications.

A process for separating a feed gas comprising a polar gas and a non-polar gas into a permeate gas and a retentate gas, one of which is enriched in the polar gas and the other of which is depleted in the polar gas, the process comprising passing the feed gas through a gas separation module comprising: (i) a feed carrier comprising a membrane envelope and a feed spacer located within the membrane envelope; and (ii) a permeate carrier comprising: (a) a macroporous sheet; and (b) a protective sheet; and wherein: i) the feed gas is fed along the feed spacer of the feed carrier and a part of the feed gas passes through the membrane envelope and into the permeate carrier to give the permeate gas and a part of the feed gas is rejected by the membrane to give the retentate gas; ii) the protective sheet shields at least a part of the membrane envelope from contact with the macroporous sheet; and iii) the protective sheet comprises a non-woven material.

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.

A support is a porous ceramic support for supporting a zeolite membrane. The hydraulic conductivity of the support is less than or equal to 1.1×10.sup.−3 m/s. In the support, the total content of alkali metal and alkaline earth metal in a surface part within 30 μm from a surface in a depth direction perpendicular to the surface is less than or equal to 1% by weight.

A membrane is described for purifying or separating hydrogen from a multi-component gas stream such as syngas. This membrane uses a molecular pre-treatment, a transition metal, fluorine containing polymer, carbon fibers and carbon matrix sintered on a supportive screen. The membrane may be a bilayer membrane comprised of a layer containing high surface area carbon and another layer containing lower surface area carbon.

Embodiments are directed to composite membranes having: increased volume of the microporous polymer structure relative to the total volume of the PEM; decreased permeance and thus increased selectivity; and lower ionomer content. An increased amount of polymers of the microporous polymer structure is mixed with a low equivalent weight ionomer (e.g., <460 cc/mole eq) to obtain a composite material having at least two distinct materials. Various embodiments provide a composite membrane comprising a microporous polymer structure that occupies from 13 vol % to 65 vol % of a total volume of the composite membrane, and an ionomer impregnated in the microporous polymer structure. The acid content of the composite membrane is 1.2 meq/cc to 3.5 meq/cc, and/or the thickness of the composite membrane is less than 17 microns. The selectivity of the composite membrane is greater than 0.05 MPa/mV, based on proton conductance and hydrogen permeance.

A membrane device is presented that can used for a wide range of applications from once-through filtration, crossflow filtration, molecular separation, gas/liquid absorption or reaction, gas dispersion into liquid, and degassing of liquid. The device comprises a thin flat sheet membrane that allows certain fluid or molecules go through while blocking others. The membrane sheet is fixed on a supporting structure with mini channel on two sides of the membrane for respective feed and sweep flows. The membrane sheet is sealed with gaskets with two cover plates that the membrane sheet can be replaced or cleaned. The cover plate provides connection ports to connect the feed fluid to the feed channels on one membrane surface and to connect the sweep fluid to the sweep channels on the other surface of the membrane.

A filter pleat pack of the present disclosure includes an air filter medium folded into pleats. The air filter medium includes a laminate of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) porous membrane and an air-permeable supporting member. When a cut surface of the filter pleat pack is observed, the cut surface being taken along a plane perpendicularly crossing a pleat line of the filter pleat pack, the PTFE porous membrane has a first converging portion, a split portion, and a second converging portion in this order in a direction in which the membrane extends. In the split portion, the PTFE porous membrane is split into a plurality of layers in a thickness direction of the membrane and the plurality of layers are spaced apart from each other. At the first converging portion and the second converging portion, the plurality of layers converge into one layer. The filter pleat pack of the present disclosure is a filter pleat pack for which a collection efficiency decrease resulting from pleating is reduced.

A filter pleat pack of the present disclosure includes an air filter medium folded into pleats, wherein the air filter medium includes a laminate of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) porous membrane and an air-permeable supporting member, and the air filter medium has a shrinkage rate of 50% or more, the shrinkage rate being determined by a formula (d2−d1)/d2, where d1 is a smallest thickness of the PTFE porous membrane in a folding area of the air filter medium folded into pleats and d2 is a thickness of the PTFE porous membrane in a flat area of the air filter medium. The filter pleat pack of the present disclosure is a filter pleat pack for which a collection efficiency decrease resulting from pleating is reduced.