Embodiments disclosed herein provide a pleatable freestanding isoporous block-copolymer (BCP) thin films fabricated sans substrate at a size suitable for fabricating pleated cartridges. The thin films have narrow pore size distribution, are mechanically robust, and have exceptional separation performance. These porous BCP thin films are useful as filtration media and separation membranes and are amenable to standard manufacturing practices.

An asymmetric membrane having a layer containing a zeolite supported on a geopolymer substrate and methods for making an asymmetric membrane having a layer containing a zeolite supported on a geopolymer substrate. A cross-flow membrane separation method for increasing the concentration of ethanol from a feed mixture comprising water and ethanol, comprising: cross-flowing a feed mixture comprising water and ethanol across the layer comprising a zeolite of the asymmetric membrane of the instant invention to produce a permeate having an ethanol concentration less than the ethanol concentration of the feed mixture and a retentate having an ethanol concentration greater than the ethanol concentration of the feed mixture, the pressure of the feed mixture being greater than the pressure of the permeate.

A porous membrane includes a triblock copolymer of the formula ABC. B is a hydrogenated vinyl aromatic block present in a range from 30 to 90 weight percent, based on the total weight of the copolymer and has a T.sub.g of 110 C. C is a rubbery block present in a range from 10 to 70 weight percent, based on the total weight of the copolymer and has a T.sub.g25 C. A is substantially incompatible with both the B and C blocks and is derived from ring-opening polymerization. B+C is present in a range from 70 to 95 weight percent, based on the total weight of the copolymer.

A thin film composite gas separation membrane comprising a polyether block amide copolymer coating layer and a nanoporous asymmetric support membrane with nanopores on the skin layer surface of the support membrane and gelatin polymers inside the nanopores on the skin layer surface of the support membrane. A method for making the thin film composite gas separation membrane is provided as well as the use of the membrane for a variety of separations such as separations of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from natural gas, carbon dioxide removal from flue gas, fuel gas conditioning, hydrogen/methane, polar molecules, and ammonia mixtures with methane, nitrogen or hydrogen and other light gases separations, but also for natural gas liquids recovery and hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide removal from natural gas in a single step.

The present invention relates to a device for separation of plasma or serum from a blood sample from a small blood volume (e.g. capillary blood). The device comprises a separation member, an extraction member and a housing. The extraction member comprises a base and one or more microstructures protruding from and being integrally formed with said base, wherein said one or more microstructures are configured to extract plasma or serum from said separation member by capillary forces. The present invention further provides methods for separating plasma or serum using the device according to the present invention. Similarly, also methods for analyzing one or more proteins and/or metabolites contained in plasma or serum that is separated using a device according to the present invention are provided.

A low cost, high selectivity asymmetric polyimide/polyethersulfone (PES) blend hollow fiber membrane, a method of making the membrane and its use for a variety of liquid, gas, and vapor separations such as deep desulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuels, ethanol/water separations, pervaporation dehydration of aqueous/organic mixtures, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, O.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, olefin/paraffin, iso/normal paraffins separations, and other light gas mixture separations. The polyimide/PES blend hollow fiber membrane is fabricated from a blend of a polyimide polymer and PES and showed surprisingly unique gas separation property with higher selectivities than either the polyimide hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer or the PES hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer for gas separations such as for H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 separations.

An object of the present invention is to provide a porous hollow-fiber membrane satisfying both high strength and high pure-water permeation performance and at the same time, having high bending resistance. The present invention relates to a porous hollow-fiber membrane including a fluororesin-based polymer, in which the porous hollow-fiber membrane has a columnar texture oriented in a longitudinal direction of the porous hollow-fiber membrane and when a photograph of a cross-section parallel to the longitudinal direction of the porous hollow-fiber membrane is binarized into a structure portion and a void portion, the following 1) and 2) are satisfied: 1) a proportion of an area of the void portion is from 20 to 50%, and 2) a value obtained by dividing a total of peripheral lengths of the void portions by a total of areas of the void portions is 2.0 m.sup.1 or less.

A porous membrane includes a polymer which includes one or more structural units selected from the group consisting of a structural unit represented by Formula (I) and a structural unit represented by Formula (II), in which a content of the structural unit represented by Formula (II) is 1% by mass or more and less than 10% by mass with respect to a total mass of the structural unit represented by Formula (I) and the structural unit represented by Formula (II)

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A high salinity water purification system and process, including a forward osmosis system and a reverse osmosis or nanofiltration system. A concentrated brine of a zinc or iron complex combined with a salt or acid draws pure water across the FO membrane from the influent water. The diluted brine is pumped through a vessel holding an anionic adsorption media to remove the zinc or iron complex and the resultant brine is passed through the RO or nanofiltration system to obtain purified water and a concentrated brine stream. The adsorption media is regenerated by a rinse cycle using fresh water or water from the RO system, removing the zinc or iron complex adhered to the media. The resultant brine is stored and mixed with the output of the RO system. Charged membrane can be used as a standalone membrane in FO process or in combination with resin or resin embedded membrane.

When the porous membrane, which has two surfaces of a surface A and a surface C, is equally divided in the thickness direction of the porous membrane into three layers of a first layer including the surface A, a second layer that is a central layer in the thickness direction, and a third layer including the surface C, an average trunk size of the third layer is larger than an average trunk size of the second layer, and when a continuous layer from the surface A having a thickness of 10 m in the first layer is a first layer component, a continuous layer component having a thickness of 10 m and an average trunk size smaller than an average trunk size of the first layer component is present in the first layer, the second layer, and the third layer other than the first layer component.