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 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.

The present invention provides: an electrode-supporting type of gas-separation membrane module for selectively effecting the passage of a gas via an electron exchange reaction due to a coupling-material layer and gas exchange via an ion-conducting separation layer; a tubular structure of same; a production method for the tubular structure; and a hydrocarbon-reforming method using the gas-separation membrane module. The present invention is advantageous in that outstanding chemical and mechanical durability can be ensured by using a fluorite-based ion-conducting membrane which is chemically stable in CO2 and H2O atmospheres in particular, at high temperature, and in that a pure gas can be produced inexpensively since the passage of gas occurs due to an internal circuit even without applying a voltage from the outside.

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.

A composition of five parts by mass of chitosan and one part graphene oxide is suspended in water. The composition may be used to form filtration layers of any size or shape and may be reinforced by additional layers. The composition may be used to construct a large filtration apparatus of any size or shape and may be used to form highly resilient, antimicrobial structures and surfaces for a variety of applications.

The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for the continuous production of compressed oxygen from air using mixed conducting ceramic membranes. The aim of the invention is to provide a way of isolating pure oxygen from the air and compressing said oxygen to pressures above the ambient pressure, without using mechanical or electromechanical compression of air or oxygen. To achieve this aim, according to the invention water in various aggregate states is conducted in a circuit and the configuration of the equipment is designed such that the desired high oxygen pressure is produced in a separate area from the membrane module and the oxygen produced is prevented from mixing with the freshly produced water vapour.

A manganese oxide contains M1, optionally M2, Mn and O. M1 is selected from the group consisting of In, Sc, Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu. M2 is different from M1, and M2 is selected from the group consisting of Bi, In, Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu. These ceramic materials are hexagonal in structure, and provide superior materials for gas separation and oxygen storage.

This invention discloses a method for preparing an antibacterial and dust-removal membrane. The method comprises the following steps: depositing a layer of nano-ZnO on the immersed membrane surface as the seed crystal with the atomic layer deposition instrument (ALD instrument); vertically immersing the membrane covered with nano-ZnO layer in a hydrothermal reactor filled with crystal growth solution, heating it for a period of time, taking the membrane out and cooling it to the room temperate, and removing it from the substrate; finally, heating this membrane in a drier, and purging it with nitrogen to remove the paraffin within the membrane pore to obtain the porous membrane with nano-ZnO arrays growing on the surface.

The invention relates to a filter device (10) serving to filter a liquid, in particular for treating water. The filter device comprises: at least two plate-shaped filter elements (12) and at least one holding element (20) for filter elements (12). According to the invention, the holding element (20) comprises a holding frame (22), a grout material (26), and an end unit (24), which is separate from the holding frame (22), wherein the grout material (26) is arranged between the filter elements (12) and the holding frame (22), such that the grout material seals the filter elements (12) against the holding frame (22), that the end unit (24) is fastened on the holding frame (22) in a liquid-tight manner, and that the holding frame (22) and the end unit (24) delimit a liquid collection chamber (40).

Described herein is a crosslinked graphene and biopolymer (e.g. lignin) based composite membrane that provides selective resistance for gases while providing water vapor permeability. Methods for making such membranes, and methods of using the membranes for dehydrating mixtures, are also described.