The present disclosure provides an automatic separation apparatus for four fractions of heavy oil and a separation method thereof, wherein the apparatus includes a solvent reservoir tank (1), a separation unit for four fractions of heavy oil (100) and a receiving apparatus (9). The separation unit for four fractions of heavy oil (100) includes: a filter disc (4) having one end in communication with the solvent reservoir tank (1), and the other end in communication with an inlet of a pre-column flow path switching valve (5); a chromatographic column (6) having an inlet in communication with an outlet of the pre-column flow path switching valve (5), and an outlet in communication with an inlet of a post-column flow path switching valve (8). The receiving apparatus is in communication with an outlet of the post-column flow path switching valve (8).

A liquid infused membrane includes a porous fluorine-containing polymer membrane and a perfluoropolyether oil coating on at least a portion of the first surface and at least a portion of the pore wall. Advantageously, the liquid infused membrane does not exhibit gating. Methods for the manufacture thereof and uses of the liquid infused membrane are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to an ion-selective composite membrane having a thickness of between 4 μm and 100 μm, comprising at least one inner layer disposed between two outer layers, wherein: —the outer layers are each formed of a first material comprising a network of nanofibres and/or crosslinked microfibres and pores with a diameter of between 10 nm and 10 μm, —the inner layer is formed of a second material comprising nanoparticles functionalized at the surface by charged groups and/or groups which become charged in the presence of water and having pores with a diameter of between 1 and 100 nm.

A device for obtaining protein-enriched fractions from human or animal milk comprises a delipidating unit for reducing a lipid content in the human or animal milk to obtain delipidated milk and a filtering unit for increasing a protein concentration of the delipidated milk to obtain the protein-enriched fraction, comprising a replaceable filter having a nominal molecular weight limit of 2 kDa or more, in particular of 5 kDa or more.

Hollow fiber membranes, membrane contactors, and related production and use methods. The asymmetric hollow fiber membranes include a porous substrate having a multiplicity of pores and including at least one semi-crystalline thermoplastic polyolefin (co)polymer. A skin layer including at least one polydiorganosiloxane polyoxamide copolymer overlays the porous substrate. The skin layer is less porous than the porous substrate and forms an outer surface of the asymmetric hollow fiber membrane, while the porous substrate forms an inner surface of the hollow fiber membrane. The skin layer is preferably nonporous.

Disclosed herein is a ceramic membrane for water and/or wastewater treatment, the membrane comprising a ceramic substrate having at least one surface and a membrane layer comprising core-shell particles on the at least one surface, where the core and shell are formed from materials described herein. The core of the core-shell particles is formed from one or more of the group selected from Al.sub.2O.sub.3 and ZrO.sub.2, and the shell of the core-shell particles is formed from one or more of the group selected from SiO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2 and WO.sub.3. In a preferred embodiment, the core is Al.sub.2O.sub.3 and the shell is SiO.sub.2.

There is provided a multi-layered membrane for separating components in an aqueous sample. There is also provided a method of preparing said multi-layered membrane, a method of separating blood plasma from a whole blood sample and a diagnostic device for separation of blood plasma from a whole blood sample.

A polymer film has a loofah-like structure. It has a fibrous framework structure formed by three-dimensional interwoven and interconnected polymer fibers and a three-dimensional interconnected network pore structure distributed in the fibrous framework structure. The polymer is an organic polymer and the fibrous framework structure is integrally formed by the polymer. The film has a volume porosity of from 50% to 95%. The film is obtained by means of a combination method for atomization pretreatment and non-solvent phase separation. The film can be used in the fields of gas filtration, liquid filtration, oil-water separation, adsorption materials, catalysis, pharmaceutical sustained release materials, anti-adhesion coatings, oil delivery and oil spill interception.

There is provided a multi-layered membrane comprising a top layer, a bottom layer, and a spacer layer; wherein said spacer layer is interposed between said top layer and said bottom layer; wherein said top layer, said bottom layer and said spacer layer are each independently composed of one or more selective layers, each selective layer comprising a 2D material; wherein said spacer layer comprises at least one channel for receiving a fluid; wherein said bottom layer comprises a hole with an area in the range of 1 μm.sup.2 to 1 mm.sup.2; and wherein said hole is capable of being in fluid communication with said at least one channels of said spacer layer.

There is also provided a method to synthesize the top layer of a multi-layered membrane as disclosed herein, methods for separating a plurality of ions or molecules in a fluid stream, a device comprising a multi-layered membrane as disclosed herein, and use of the method or the device as disclosed herein in osmotic power generation.

A membrane modification method for improving liquid membrane separation of carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) includes grafting an organic substance containing an amine group on a porous membrane material, and loading water into pore channels of the porous membrane material to prepare a supported liquid membrane for a gas mixture separation experiment of CO.sub.2. In the method, the amine group is introduced through chemical grafting to make the water being alkaline when used as membrane liquid. Compared with an alkaline solution as the membrane liquid, the method can avoid the loss of active alkaline substances and increase the permeation flux of CO.sub.2.