The invention provides a water-alcohol separation system and a method for water-alcohol separation for producing a high purity alcohol while achieving energy saving as the whole process. Namely, a water-alcohol separation system including plural separation membrane modules connected in series, a vacuum apparatus for reducing a pressure at a permeated side of each of the separation membrane modules, and a condenser for condensing a vapor that has passed through a membrane, in which plural independent vacuum systems reduce the pressure at the permeated side of the membrane of the separation membrane modules.

The present invention relates to a desalination and/or purification device, a desalination and/or purification carbon membrane, and a method of desalinating and/or purifying a liquid by using such a desalination and/or purification device. In various illustrative embodiments, a desalination and/or purification device is provided, the desalination and/or purification device comprising a carbon membrane body comprising a carbon surface, and a structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels at least partially permeating the carbon membrane body and ending at openings at the carbon surface, a liquid transportation structure extending at least partially through the carbon membrane body without being exposed at the carbon surface, and a condenser arranged above the carbon membrane body. The liquid transportation structure is arranged and configured to supply the structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels of the carbon membrane body with a liquid to be desalinated and/or purified and the structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels of the carbon membrane body may be an at least two-level disordered network of channels.

A process for recovering valuables from vent gas in polyolefin production is disclosed. The process includes a compression cooling separation step, a heavy hydrocarbon separation step, a light hydrocarbon separation step, a N.sub.2 purification step, and a turbo expansion step in sequence. The N.sub.2 purification step comprises a membrane separation procedure. The light hydrocarbon separation step comprises at least one gas-liquid separation procedure. A first gas, which is obtained by the gas-liquid separation procedure and is heated through heat exchange with multiple streams in the light hydrocarbon separation step, enters the heavy hydrocarbon separation step and is further heated; the heated first gas then enters the N.sub.2 purification step; a first generated gas, which is obtained by the membrane separation procedure of the N.sub.2 purification step, enters the heavy hydrocarbon separation step and the light hydrocarbon separation step in sequence, and is cooled through heat exchange with multiple streams in the heavy hydrocarbon separation step and the light hydrocarbon separation step; and then the cooled first generated gas enters the turbo expansion step. The energy consumption of a compressor can be greatly reduced. An external cooling medium with a temperature lower than an ambient temperature is not needed. The purity and recovery of N.sub.2 and hydrocarbons can be improved, which can facilitate reduction of energy consumption of a whole system, an investment, and a material consumption.

A membrane for water collection may include a sheet having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a plurality of conical structures disposed on the top surface of the sheet, the conical structures comprising a hydrogel material. Each conical structure of the plurality of conical structures may have a height of 1 mm to 50 mm, wherein height is measured from the top surface of the sheet to an apex of a conical structure. Each conical structure of the plurality of conical structures may have an apex angle of 10 to 60 degrees.

A method for producing products, advantageously solvents, is by fermentation, advantageously multi-stage fermentation. The fermentation is complemented with pervaporation as in situ product recovery technology, combined with a multistage condensation of the permeate. The condensates are separately introduced in the downstream processing to recover the produced products, advantageously solvents. The method for producing products, advantageously solvents, by fermentation is simplified and has an overall improved energy efficiency. A related system uses method for producing products, advantageously solvents, is by fermentation.

A resource recovery method includes: feeding raw water to a first-stage raw water tank; supplying high-temperature vapor to a first-stage heat exchanger; performing heat exchange between the supplied high-temperature vapor and the raw water in the first-stage raw water tank, changing a portion of the water into vapor and supplying the changed vapor to a subsequent-stage heat exchanger; repeatedly performing the performing step for each of the raw water tanks sequentially in the order from a second state to a n-th stage; being feed to a crystallizer from the n-th stage raw water tank; detecting a turbidity of the raw water fed to the crystallizer from the n-th-stage raw water tank; and extracting crystals of valuable resources contained in the raw water fed to the crystallizer from the n-th-stage raw water tank when the turbidity of the raw water becomes a predetermined value.

The disclosure relates to a method for fermentation integrated with separation and purification of acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) or butanol alone, comprising the following steps: 1) obtaining ABE by fermentation using an acetone-butanol-producing bacterium or obtaining butanol using a butanol-producing bacterium; 2) using a vapor-stripping-vapor-permeation method (briefly VSVP) for online separation and purification of ABE or purifying butanol from the fermentation broth; wherein the VSVP method comprises the following steps: introducing a gas bubble into the fermentation broth comprising active cells for fermentation to vaporize ABE or Butanol; subjecting the gas along with the vaporized ABE or Butanol to a membrane separation unit to pass through the membrane; recovering ABE or Butanol, or subjecting ABE or Butanol to a next separation device. By using the disclosed method, production, separation, and purification efficiency of ABE or butanol are improved with saved energy consumption and without increasing equipment investment.

A multi-stage submerged membrane distillation water treatment apparatus including: a plurality of raw water tanks arranged in multiple stages ranging from a first stage to an n-th stage and storing raw water, the raw water flowing sequentially from the first stage to the n-th stage; membrane distillation (MD) modules submerged in the respective raw water tanks and discharging a portion of the raw water as vapor; heat exchangers submerged in the respective raw water tanks and maintaining the raw water at a predetermined temperature by performing heat exchange between the raw water and vapor supplied from the respective previous-stage MD modules; a vapor generator generating and supplying high-temperature vapor to the first-stage heat exchanger; a condenser condensing vapor supplied by the n-th-stage MD module; and a raw water feeder feeding low-temperature raw water to the first-stage raw water tank via the condenser.

A beverage dispenser has a supply opening that supplies an aqueous liquid from a source; a recooling heat exchanger having a heat receiving portion, a recooling inlet and a recooling outlet; a reverse osmosis filter having an inlet for aqueous liquid, a permeate outlet and a concentrate outlet; and a cooling device having a cooling portion extracting heat energy from the permeate and a heat dissipation portion dissipating energy to the heat receiving portion of the recooling heat exchanger. The heat dissipation portion of the cooling device is thermally coupled with the heat receiving portion of the recooling heat exchanger. The cooling portion of the cooling device is thermally coupled with the permeate exiting the permeate outlet of the reverse osmosis filter, wherein the permeate enters the cooling portion by a cooling portion permeate inlet and exits the cooling portion by a cooling portion permeate outlet.

An air intake system for directing intake air to an internal combustion engine of a machine is disclosed. The air intake system may comprise an air compressor configured to increase a pressure of the intake air, and a membrane unit downstream of the air compressor and having a membrane with selectivity for siloxanes. The membrane may have a first side and a second side, and the first side may be exposed to a higher pressure than the second side when the air compressor is operating. The membrane may be configured to separate the intake air into a permeate that traverses the membrane from the first side to the second side, and a retenate that remains on the first side. The permeate may have a higher siloxane content than the retenate. The retenate may be directed to the internal combustion engine for combustion.