A method and apparatus for the treatment of wastewater streams to form purified water and a mineral-containing by-product. The wastewater stream may be a brine or produced water from an oil/gas extraction operation. The method includes passing the wastewater stream through a membrane assembly having a pervaporation membrane, whereby purified water vapor is collected from the permeate side of the membrane. A mineral-rich product may be recovered from the retentate, and/or a mineral-rich crystalline phase may deposit on the membrane and may be recovered as a solid from the membrane or may be washed off the membrane and collected.

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.

A composite ion conducting tube is made by wrapping a support material or ion conducting sheet to from a tube having overlaps of layers that are bonded. The ion conducting sheet or tape used to make the tube may be very thin and the tube may be formed in situ by wrapping the support material and then coating with ion conducting polymer. The ion conducting tubes may be used in a pervaporation module or desalination system. The ion conducting tubes may be spirally wrapped or longitudinally wrapped and may be very thin having a tube wall thickness of no more than 25 microns.

A method for synthesizing a supported molecular sieve membrane by microwaves includes the steps of aging, heating and synthesizing. The aging step is to make a support in contact with a synthetic liquid at 25 C. to 70 C. for 10 hours to 24 hours; the heating step is to raise a temperature of an aged system from an aging temperature to a synthesis temperature within 1 minute to 10 minutes; and the synthesizing step is to synthesize at 80 C. to 120 C. for 2 minutes to 15 minutes. The steps of heating and synthesizing are powered by microwaves.

A system for separating a solvent includes a first mixing tank comprising a waste solvent feed and a reactant feed; a first filter comprising a nanofiltration membrane; a distillation column or an evaporator; a condenser or cooler; and a pervaporation membrane. A method for separating a solvent includes mixing a waste solvent with a reactant to cause precipitation or complexing and forming a mixture; filtering the mixture using a nanofiltration membrane and forming a permeate; distilling or evaporating the permeate to form a concentrated solvent; condensing or cooling the concentrated solvent to below a boiling point of solvents in the concentrated solvent; and filtering the concentrated solvent using pervaporation to form a purified solvent. The system and method may be used to separate and purify a solvent without creating thermal degradation products.

The present disclosure relates to a phenyl-modified polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) separation membrane, a fabrication method thereof, and a use thereof in the separation of an aromatic compound, and belongs to the technical field of separation membrane materials. A phenyl-modified PDMS separation membrane comprising a substrate layer and a selective layer is provided.

A composite ion conducting tube is made by wrapping a support material or ion conducting sheet to from a tube having overlaps of layers that are bonded. The ion conducting sheet or tape used to make the tube may be very thin and the tube may be formed in situ by wrapping the support material and then coating with ion conducting polymer. The ion conducting tubes may be used in a pervaporation module or desalination system. The ion conducting tubes may be spirally wrapped or longitudinally wrapped and may be very thin having a tube wall thickness of no more than 25 microns.

This disclosure provides an integrated system and method for producing purified water, hydrogen, and oxygen from contaminated water. The contaminated water may be derived from regolith-based resources on the moon, Mars, near-Earth asteroids, or other destination in outer space. The integrated system and method utilize a cold trap to receive the contaminated water in a vapor phase and selectively freeze out water from one or more volatiles. A heat source increases temperature in the cold trap to vaporize the frozen contaminated water to produce a gas stream of water vapor and volatiles. A chemical scrubber may remove one or more volatiles. The integrated system and method utilize ionomer membrane technology to separate the water vapor from remaining volatiles. The water vapor is delivered for crew use or delivered to an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

A method for removing hydrogen sulfide from a liquid stream is described. The method includes contacting the liquid stream including a first amount of hydrogen sulfide with a first side of a porous gas-liquid separation membrane. The hydrogen sulfide moves through the pores of the membrane from the first side to a second, opposite side of the membrane. The method further includes contacting a receiving fluid with the second, opposite side of the porous membrane to receive the hydrogen sulfide. The liquid stream is thus converted to a reduced-sulfide liquid stream having a second amount of hydrogen sulfide that is less than the first amount of hydrogen sulfide. A method for removing ammonia from a liquid stream is also described.

Presented herein are membranes for use in separating solids including salts from water. One application of such membranes is in a sub-surface irrigation system that that utilizes a saline or tainted water as a feed source. In various embodiments, the membranes operate on a solution diffusion principle. In other embodiments the membranes operate on an ultrafiltration principle and/or a solution diffusion principle. In any embodiment, the membranes operate similar to pervaporation membranes suitable for non-pressure driven systems. The membranes are designed to provide increased flux rate while separating solids such as salts from water.