An air channel membrane distiller (1) comprises a hot surface (12), a cooling section (20) and a hydrophobic membrane (30). The hot surface and the hydrophobic membrane define a sealed evaporation channel (40). A surface (22) of the cooling section and the hydrophobic membrane define a sealed condensation channel (50). A water supply tubing (42) is connected to the evaporation channel. A water discharge tubing (46) is connected to the evaporation channel. A purified-water discharge tubing (56) is connected to the condensation channel. The surface of the cooling section is given a temperature lower than a temperature of water in the evaporation channel. A gas supply arrangement (60) for inert gas comprises a heater (62). A gas pipe system (64) is arranged to a gas inlet (55) of the condensation channel for enabling flushing of at least the condensation channel with the inert gas.

This document describes systems and methods for treating and recovering water from feed solutions using a multilayer module with an expansion chamber. The multilayer module comprises a feed spacer layer, a permeate spacer layer and a membrane layer, wherein water vapor evaporated from the feed solution in the feed spacer passes through the membrane layer into the permeate spacer layer. The expansion chamber receives the water vapor from the permeate spacer layer and the feed solution from the feed spacer layer.

The present invention addresses to a high-pressure vessel for packaging hollow fiber type membranes with application in the field of separation process with contactors with membranes aiming at a compact device/piece of equipment configured for the packaging of hollow fiber type bundles that can be used for various fluid separation processes such as liquid-liquid, liquid-gas and gas-gas, capable of working at high-pressures, enabling adequate hydrodynamic conditions and easily scalable. It is called a module the general piece of equipment, consisting of the vessel (A or C), object of the present invention, and the membranes packed inside the vessel. This piece of equipment consists of a vessel inside which the membranes are placed (14), and two heads attached at the ends (B or D). Each head has two connection points, thus allowing this device to be used with membrane contactors-type separation systems, such as “classical” permeation systems (liquid-liquid, gas-gas, pervaporation).

A membrane for water collection may include a sheet having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a plurality of conical structures disposed on the top surface of the sheet, the conical structures comprising a hydrogel material. Each conical structure of the plurality of conical structures may have a height of 1 mm to 50 mm, wherein height is measured from the top surface of the sheet to an apex of a conical structure. Each conical structure of the plurality of conical structures may have an apex angle of 10 to 60 degrees.

An atmospheric water generation system absorbs water from an atmospheric air stream into a desiccant flowing along a flow path of a closed desiccant circulation loop. To ensure that the desiccant remains within the closed desiccant circulation loop, the atmospheric water generation system encompasses a membrane-based water extraction device that the desiccant flows through. The desiccant flows through the membrane-based water extraction device on a first side of a membrane, and the membrane separates the desiccant from a water-collection flow. Water absorbed into the desiccant passes from the desiccant, through the porous membrane, and into the water-collection flow, at least in part due to differences in temperature and/or pressure characteristics of the water flow and the desiccant flow. Water collected within the water-collection flow is directed to a storage tank for usage.

Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for controllably removing one or more solutes from a solution. Examples disclosed herein relate to methods and systems for removing water from alcoholic beverages.

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.

Exemplary embodiments in desalination by direct contact membrane distillation present a cylindrical cross-flow module containing high-flux composite hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes. The present embodiments are directed to a model that has been developed to describe the observed water production rates of such devices in multiple brine feed introduction configurations. The model describes the observed water vapor production rates for different feed brine temperatures at various feed brine flow rates. The model flux predictions have been explored over a range of hollow fiber lengths to compare the present results with those obtained earlier from rectangular modules which had significantly shorter hollow fibers.

A membrane distillation (MD) module includes a first MD sub-module including a first thermocouple; a second MD sub-module including a second thermocouple; and a distillation membrane sandwiched between the first MD sub-module and the second MD sub-module. A hot chamber of the first MD sub-module is closed by the distillation membrane, and a cold chamber of the second MD sub-module is closed by the distillation membrane.

The present invention relates to hyper-branched compounds, a method of synthesizing the hyper-branched compounds and applications of the hyper-branched compounds. The hyper-branched compounds of the present invention include hyper-branched fluorinated compounds, hyper-branched fluorinated graphene and hyper-branched amine functionalized graphene oxide.