Method and apparatus for condensing a majority of the solvent in a process gas stream at low temperatures, e.g., below the freezing point of water, ca. −5° C. The gas stream exiting the condenser step may be further processed in one or more emission control devices, such as a single or multi-step series of concentrator devices, such as zeolite concentrator devices. One or more emission control operations can be carried out downstream of the single or multi-step concentrators. The aforementioned condensing process enables the one or more concentrators to operate in a favorable temperature range for removal of 99% or more of VOC, thereby meeting or exceeding strict environmental regulations.

The present invention concerns an adsorbent porous sol-gel material comprising at least -silane oxides; —an inorganic and/or organic acid with a boiling temperature higher than 100° C.; —a molecular probe of general formula (I) or one of the salts of same in which R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, R.sub.5, R.sub.6 separately represent a hydrogen atom, a (C1-C6) alkyl group, a (C3-C7) cycloalkyl group, an alkyl-(C3-C7) cycloalkyl group; in which Z represents a spacer group chosen from a (C1-C16) alkyl group, a (C2-C16) alkenyl group, a (C2-C16) alkynyl group, a (C1-C16) halogenoalkyl group, an aryl group, an aryloxy group, a carbocycle group, or an aryl-(C1-C16) alkyl group.

A feedstock processing system extracts a product from a solid using a CTSE system comprising a plurality of continuous stirred tank extraction stages arranged in fluid communication with each other in series such that effluent from one stage flows to a next stage in the series. One of the stages has an inlet to allow a measured amount of liquid solvent and the solid to be introduced to the continuous stirred tank extraction stage. The stage mixes the solid with the introduced solvent to form a homogeneous slurry to enable the product associated with the solid to be extracted with the solvent. A solid-liquid separator is arranged in fluid communication with the continuous stirred tank extraction stages, and receives an effluent from one of the stages and separates the liquid solvent containing the product from the solid to form a product-containing liquid and a product-depleted solid.

An ultraviolet air sterilizer for disinfecting bacterium and virus includes a shell, a sandwich activated carbon cloth filter element, a nanometer titanium dioxide screen filter, an ultraviolet light source, a heat sinking kit, and a fan. The shell includes a shell body and a cover plate. The shell body is provided with an air inlet and an opening. The cover plate is provided with an air outlet. The sandwich activated carbon cloth filter element, the nanometer titanium dioxide screen filter, the heat sinking kit and the fan are arranged sequentially along an air path from the air inlet to the air outlet. The ultraviolet light source is configured for emitting ultraviolet light to the nanometer titanium dioxide screen filter. The air sterilizer has a compact small-sized structure and effectively removes ambient gaseous as well as particulate pollutants and kills micro-organisms harmful to health and well being.

A method for operating a reactor facility for equilibrium-limited reactions, includes: converting starting materials to a product in a reaction chamber under a pressure p1, wherein an absorbent is loaded with the product and absorbs starting materials; discharging the loaded absorbent from the reaction chamber; lowering the pressure of the absorbent to a pressure p2 which is lower than pressure p1 and the product and starting materials are discharged in the gaseous state from the liquid absorbent; separating the gaseous products by condensation from the gaseous starting materials at the same time as a pressure p3 higher than pressure p1 is applied to the liquid absorbent, under pressure p3 into a liquid jet gas compressor in which the gaseous starting materials separated from the products are aspirated and dissolved in the liquid absorbent; and then introduced under pressure p4, which is lower than pressure p3, into the reaction chamber.

The present disclosure provides processes and systems for dehydrating a byproduct stream in ethanol production. In one embodiment, a feed mixture is distilled with one or more distillation units to remove at least a portion of the water, and form a first byproduct stream. The first byproduct stream is contacted with a molecular sieve unit, thereby forming a product stream. The molecular sieve unit is cyclically contacted with at least a portion of the product stream to regenerate the molecular sieve unit and form one or more regenerate streams. A second byproduct stream including at least one of (1) the regenerate streams and (2) at least a portion of the fusel oil stream is contacted with a separation system, thereby forming a permeate and a retentate. At least a portion of the retentate is forwarded into the product stream.

A porous material structure and device are described and shown to enhance the mass transfer and/or heat transfer at low pressure drops for removal of certain molecular species from a fluid by adsorption and/or catalytic reaction. The porous structure of active materials comprising packed fine particles of adsorbents or catalysts is encapsulated with a thin membrane to provide large interfacing area with the fluid per unit volume for rapid mass transfer between the porous structure and fluid. The thin membrane also blocks particulate from getting into the porous structure of the active material. For the process involving significant heat of adsorption and/or reaction, the another surface of the porous structure of the active material is encapsulated with a thin non-permeable sheet to interface with a thermal fluid for rapid heat transfer between the porous structure and the thermal fluid. The device can be used for removal of CO.sub.2, moisture, and hydrocarbon molecules from a gas stream with rapid in-situ regeneration. The device can be used for removal of water from water-containing liquid fluids, such as solvents and oils. The device can be used for removal of bacteria, virus, salts, and molecular contaminants from one water simultaneously.

The present disclosure relates to a device that includes a filter element and a catalyst, where the filter element is configured to remove particulate from a stream that includes at least one of a gas and/or a vapor to form a filtered stream of the gas and/or the vapor, the catalyst is configured to receive the filtered stream and react a compound in the filtered stream to form an upgraded stream of the gas and/or the vapor, further including an upgraded compound, and both the filter element and the catalyst are configured to be substantially stable at temperatures up to about 500 C.

Method and apparatus for condensing a majority of the solvent in a process gas stream at low temperatures, e.g., below the freezing point of water, ca. 5 C. The gas stream exiting the condenser step may be further processed in one or more emission control devices, such as a single or multi-step series of concentrator devices, such as zeolite concentrator devices. One or more emission control operations can be carried out downstream of the single or multi-step concentrators. The aforementioned condensing process enables the one or more concentrators to operate in a favorable temperature range for removal of 99% or more of VOC, thereby meeting or exceeding strict environmental regulations.

The present invention provides an improved sorbent and corresponding device(s) and uses thereof for the capture and stabilization of volatile organic compounds (VOC) or semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) from a gaseous atmosphere. The sorbent is capable of rapid and high uptake of one or more compounds and provides quantitative release (recovery) of the compound(s) when exposed to elevated temperature and/or organic solvent. Uses of particular improved grades of mesoporous silica are disclosed.