The present disclosure provides systems and methods for the recovery of protein species from wet mill grain process streams. Systems and methods of the present disclosure may be integrated with a wet mill grain process to separate out protein species that may limit efficiency of the grain process and produce one or more product streams comprising these separated protein species. A feed stream may be fractionated by at least two membranes into retentate and permeate streams. Removing larger proteins through the membrane fractionation may allow previously soluble prolamin products in the permeate stream(s) to precipitate. The recovered protein species may include prolamin, such as zein from a corn grain feed.

The present invention deals with a method for obtaining membranes in the form of hollow fibers with application in the field of carbon dioxide removal from natural gas. The aforementioned membranes are obtained by means of heat treatment of polymeric membranes. In this method, polymeric membranes are obtained by a phase-inversion technique by immersion-precipitation and are subsequently subjected to a heat treatment, that is, that the membranes effectively become precursor membranes of the heat treatment. The heat treatment process involves the optimization of the heating rate, temperature, and stabilization time variables, aiming at the improvement of the transport properties of the polymeric membranes. After the heat treatment, it becomes possible to use the membranes in separation processes of gases which operate at pressures greater than 30 bar, with selectivity for carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2).

This disclosure concerns a method of forming a porous material, comprising impregnating a porous polymer with a pore-forming agent in order to form an impregnated polymer, and at least partially carbonising the impregnated polymer at a temperature of about 150? C. to about 500? C. in order to form the porous material. The porous material is characterised by a crystallinity of about 10% to about 70% relative to the porous polymer. This disclosure also concerns the porous material thereof.

The present disclosure relates to capillary dialyzers for blood purification comprising from 85-95% crimped fibers and from 5-15% non-crimped fibers.

The further advancement of membrane separation processes requires the development of more selective membranes. In this study, membranes that take inspiration from biological systems and use multiple functionalities of unique chemical design to control solute transport through chemical factors in addition to steric factors are detailed. Specifically, copolymer materials tailor-made for the generation of nanofilters that possess a high density of well-defined pores lined by azido moieties allowed for the generation of chemically-patterned mosaic membranes in a rapid manner through the use of printing devices. By engineering the composition of the reactive ink solutions used for chemical functionalization, large areas of patterned membranes were generated in seconds rather than hours. Charge mosaic membranes were used as an example of this novel platform.

This invention provides a polymeric separation membrane that has excellent durable antibacterial effect and stain resistance, and a preparation method thereof. The polymeric separation membrane can be widely applied for water treatment, which belongs to the field of water treatment and membrane separation science and technology. The polymeric separation membrane containing quaternary ammonium salt is prepared by the immersion precipitation phase inversion method, using quaternary ammonium salt mixed with polymer and additives. This modification method effectively improves the antibacterial and antifouling ability of the polymeric separation membrane prolongs the service life of membranes and significantly inhibits the reproduction of bacterial and microbial. The preparation method has the advantages of simple process, easy operation, easy for promotion, and also avoids expensive equipment. The polymeric separation membrane has great antibacterial ability and stain resistance, therefore, it has potential application in the field of water treatment.

The invention relates to a virus filter membrane which can be used for the removal of virus particles including parvovirus. The invention further relates to a method for producing the membrane. The membrane comprises polyacrylonitrile and polyvinylpyrrolidone.

A graphene-based membrane and a method of producing the same are disclosed. The graphene-based membrane may include a graphene-polymer composite, wherein the graphene-polymer composite may consist of an amine functionalized graphene and a polymer containing an anhydride group as a linker for linking the amine functionalized graphene to the polymer. The graphene-based membrane may be constructed of a single-layer. A method may include reacting a polymer containing an anhydride with an amine functionalized graphene in presence of a solvent to form an intermediate product; and thermal imidizing the intermediate product to form a graphene grafted polymer composite for use in fabricating a graphene-based membrane.

A high flux and low pressure drop microfiltration (MF) membrane and a method for making the MF membrane. The microfiltration membranes are formed by a method that includes: preparing a nanofibrous structure; and modifying the surface of the nanofibrous structure with a surface modifier. The nanofibrous structure includes an electrospun nanofibrous scaffold or a polysaccharide nanofiber infused nanoscaffold or mixtures thereof. The electrospun nanofibrous scaffold can include polyacrylonitrile (PAN) or polyethersulfone (PES))/polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or mixtures thereof. The surface modifier includes polyethylenimine (PEI) and polyvinyl amine (Lupamin) cross-linked by ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGdGE)/glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride (GTMACl) or poly(1-(1-vinylimidazolium)ethyl-3-vinylimdazolium dibromide (VEVIMIBr).

The present disclosure relates to a dialysis apparatus comprising a membrane having at least one protein from the lipocalin family bound thereon. The disclosure further relates to methods of removing non-polar, hydrophobic and/or protein bound uremic toxins from a target subject utilizing the dialysis apparatus described herein as well as methods of extracorporeal detoxification.