Disclosed herein is a process for de-watering a sludge. The process comprises heating a de-watering fluid, and passing the de-watering fluid through the sludge, thereby de-watering the sludge. Also disclosed herein is a system for de-watering a sludge and a sludge which is at least partially de-watered according to the process.

The present invention provides a nanocomposite coating comprising: a two-dimensional material; and a polymer, wherein the nanocomposite coating is semi-permeable and is for providing on porous material to improve selectivity towards one phase over others thereby enabling separation of that phase by mass transfer. There is also provided a phase transformation and mass transfer unit comprising porous material coated with the nanocomposite coating, and a low temperature liquid phase separation method comprising flowing liquid mixture through a phase transformation and mass transfer unit comprising porous material coated with the nanocomposite coating.

The present invention relates, in general terms, to a composite membrane for use in filtration. The present invention also relates to a method of fabricating the composite membrane, and a method of filtrating using the composite membrane as disclosed herein. The method of fabricating a composite membrane comprising contacting a perfluorinated polymer solution with a surface of a polymer layer and drying the perfluorinated polymer solution at a relative humidity of less than 20% to form a perfluorinated polymer layer physisorbed on the surface of the polymer layer.

The present invention provides a separation membrane suitable for separating water from a liquid mixture containing an alcohol and water. The separation membrane of the present invention includes a metal organic framework. On the separation membrane, at least one of requirements (i) and (ii) below holds: (i) a ratio R1 of a number N2 of molecules satisfying a specified condition (b) with respect to a number N1 of molecules satisfying a specified condition (a) is less than 0.29; (ii) a ratio R2 of an adsorption amount of water adsorbed by the metal organic framework under water vapor at 25° C. and 3.2 kPa with respect to an adsorption amount of ethanol adsorbed by the metal organic framework under an ethanol atmosphere at 25° C. and 7.4 kPa is more than 4.0.

A solar-thermal vapor-permeation membrane is provided. The solar-thermal vapor-permeation membrane includes a thermally conductive, microporous support layer having a feed surface, and an active separation layer adjacent the feed surface of the support layer. The support layer is capable of absorbing solar-thermal radiation. Utilization of solar energy for a membrane separation process replaces fossil-fuel derived energy with renewable energy as the driving force and does not involve the generation of undesirable greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the solar-thermal vapor-permeation process using the provided membrane is cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly.

A distillation device and method of manufacturing a distillation device is disclosed. The distillation device includes at least one spiral wound membrane distillation (MD) unit. The spiral wound MD unit includes a perforated center tube concentric to a cylindrical housing and a plurality of effects spirally wound around the center tube. Each of the effects include a vapor permeable membrane, a feed spacer disposed on the vapor permeable membrane, a permeate spacer, and a heat exchange film. The permeate spacer is disposed between the vapor permeable membrane and the heat exchange film. Distillation of a feed fluid by the plurality of effects deposits a condensate fluid into the center tube.

Composite structures composed of inorganic membranes or polymer membranes supported on a multilayered woven wire mesh substrate are provided. Also provided are methods of making the composite structures and methods of using the composite structures as separation membranes. The mesh substrates are composed of a stack of two or more layers of woven wire mesh, wherein the different mesh layers in the stack have different mesh sizes. The multilayered mesh structure can support a defect-free, or substantially defect-free, membrane and has sufficient mechanical strength to allow the supported membranes to be used for chemical separations.

A preparation method of separation membrane is provided. First, a polyimide composition including a dissolvable polyimide, a crosslinking agent and a solvent is provided. The dissolvable polyimide is represented by formula 1: ##STR00001## wherein B is a tetravalent organic group derived from a tetracarboxylic dianhydride containing aromatic group, A is a divalent organic group derived from a diamine containing aromatic group, A′ is a divalent organic group derived from a diamine containing aromatic group and carboxylic acid group, and 0.1≤X≤0.9. The crosslinking agent is an aziridine crosslinking agent, an isocyanate crosslinking agent, an epoxy crosslinking agent, a diamine crosslinking agent, or a triamine crosslinking agent. A crosslinking process is performed on the polyimide composition. The polyimide composition which has been subjected to the crosslinking process is coated on a substrate to form a polyimide membrane. A wet phase inversion process is performed on the polyimide membrane.

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe thin-film composite membranes comprising a crosslinked alginate layer on a surface of a porous woven or non-woven support. Embodiments of the present disclosure further describe methods of preparing membranes, methods of manufacturing membranes, methods of separating chemical species, methods of using the membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration, pervaporation, and the like.

The present invention provides a separation membrane suitable for separating water from a liquid mixture containing an alcohol and water, the separation membrane being capable of reducing a decrease in separation performance regardless of long-term use. A separation membrane 10 of the present invention includes a polyimide having a structural unit X represented by the following formula (1) and a structural unit Y represented by following formula (2).

##STR00001##

##STR00002##

A.sup.1 is a linking group including no arylene group in a main chain and having a solubility parameter, in accordance with a Fedors method, of more than 5.0 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.½. A.sup.2 is a tetravalent organic group including an arylene group.