A method for purifying a liquid is described. A liquid feed is fed to a feed chamber. A carrier gas is fed through the liquid feed in the feed chamber to form a humidified carrier gas. A coolant is fed to a coolant chamber. The coolant chamber is separated from the feed chamber by an air gap chamber. The air gap chamber is separated from the feed chamber by a membrane that allows vapor to pass while blocking liquid flow across the membrane. The coolant chamber is separated from the air gap chamber by a thermally conductive plate. At least a portion of the vapor from the feed chamber that transported through the membrane is condensed by the coolant in the coolant chamber and the thermally conductive plate to form a first distillate. At least a portion of the humidified carrier gas is condensed to form a second distillate.

Provided are a concentration method and system for concentrating a raw material solution, and in which a raw material solution containing a solute and a solvent is concentrated to obtain a concentrate of the raw material solution, wherein the solvent contains water and an organic solvent. In the method and system for concentrating a raw material solution, the system includes a combination of: a first concentrating means for removing water in the raw material solution by means of a forward osmosis method; and a second concentrating means for evaporating and removing water and an organic solvent in the raw material solution.

Process for separating a highly pure propylene product from a liquefied petroleum gas stream is disclosed, which eliminates a C3 splitter having over 120 trays and the additional equipment that a C3 splitter requires. The process includes passing a feed stream to a dividing wall column to produce an overhead stream, a first side draw stream, a second side draw stream, and a product stream. The first side draw stream is passed to a treatment unit to produce a treated stream. The treated stream is passed to a membrane unit and a permeate stream is passed from the membrane unit to produce a polymer grade propylene stream.

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.

The present invention relates to a combined C3/C4 splitter with a membrane system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a combined C3/C4 splitter column to separate highly pure propylene product from a liquefied petroleum gas stream, which eliminates a C3 splitter having over 120 trays and the additional equipment that a C3 splitter requires.

The present disclosure provides processes and systems for ethanol production. In one embodiment, a first beer column receives a first portion of a feed mixture including ethanol and water to form a first beer column bottom stream and a first beer column vaporous overhead stream. A beer column receives a second portion of the feed mixture. A first portion of the first beer column bottom stream is forwarded to a first beer column reboiler. A second portion of the first beer column bottom stream is forwarded to a plurality of evaporators. A condensed portion of the first beer column vaporous overhead stream is forwarded to a stripper column. The stripper column forms a feed stream, which is contacted with a separation system, thereby forming a permeate and a retentate. The permeate is forwarded directly to at least one selected from the first beer column and the stripper column.

A clean water production system includes a photovoltaic panel and a first membrane distillation system having a first evaporation layer, first porous hydrophobic layer and first condensation layer. The first membrane distillation system is located under the photovoltaic panel. A second membrane distillation system has a second evaporation layer, second porous hydrophobic layer and second condensation layer. The second membrane distillation system is located under the first membrane distillation system. A thermoelectric generator is located under the second membrane distillation system converting heat to electricity.

A membrane distillation module with a circulating line to circulate a portion of distilled water, which is formed and accumulated in a distillate zone, to enhance a permeate flux of water vapor through a hydrophobic membrane of the membrane distillation module. Various combinations of embodiments of the membrane distillation module are provided.

A system for treating high temperature produced water includes an electrocoagulation unit, a membrane distillation unit in communication with the outlet of the electrocoagulation unit having a hydrophobic membrane with a feed side for receiving the produced water stream and a product side for receiving a deionized water stream. A heat recovery heat exchanger is in communication with the membrane distillation unit for receiving two streams, one from each side of the hydrophobic membrane, such that heat is exchanged between the two streams. A line leaving the heat exchanger returns a heated stream from the heat exchanger to a location in a line upstream of the membrane distillation unit. A brine tank in communication with the membrane distillation unit receives a portion of a stream from the membrane product side and contains a concentrated brine solution containing the portion of the stream from the membrane product side and sodium chloride.

A method and a device for condensing a water-soluble organic matter, which can collect a highly concentrated water-soluble organic matter, save energy, and reduce cost of the device by reducing a membrane area. According to the present invention, the permeability ratio of a vapor-permeation separation membrane disposed at least immediately before a final outlet on a non-permeation side in the separation membrane device is lower than those of the other vapor-permeation separation membranes while a hybrid process combining distillation by the distillation column with membrane separation by the separation membrane devices including a plurality of vapor-permeation separation membranes is used and energy saving performance is maintained. Therefore, a highly concentrated and condensed component of a water-soluble organic matter is obtained. In addition, it is possible to reduce a membrane area of the vapor-permeation separation membranes in the whole separation membrane devices and to provide a technology leading to cost reduction.