A separation membrane, suitably for oil and water separation. The membrane including a porous substrate layer and an active layer arranged over at least a part of the substrate layer. The active layer includes a hydrophilic agent and a superhydrophilic agent. Also described is a method of producing the separation membrane and a drain valve comprising the membrane.

The invention relates to an apparatus for separating hydrogen from a gas mixture, comprising a vessel which defines an inlet collection space for the gas mixture and an offtake collection space for hydrogen, where the inlet collection space is separated from the offtake collection space by means of a hydrogen-permeable membrane. The invention is also directed to a process for producing an apparatus for separating hydrogen from a gas mixture, which comprises a hydrogen-permeable membrane, a gas mixture inlet, a hydrogen offtake and a residual gas outlet.

Disclosed are a heterogeneous zeolite membrane and a method of preparing the same, and more particularly a heterogeneous zeolite membrane that has CHA and DDR zeolite structures by growing seed particles into a crystal structure different from that of the zeolite membrane and can thus separate CO.sub.2/N.sub.2 and CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 even under wet conditions, a method of preparing the same, and a method of capturing and removing carbon dioxide using the membrane.

Disclosed are a CHA zeolite membrane and a method of preparing the same, and more particularly, a CHA zeolite membrane having high capacity to separate CO.sub.2/N.sub.2 and CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 even under wet conditions using a membrane produced using a synthetic precursor having a controlled ratio of Si and Al, a method of preparing the same, and a method of capturing and removing carbon dioxide using the membrane.

Molybdenum disulfide membranes for ionic and/or molecular filtration applications are provided. The membranes have high separation performance, including high water flux and high molecule and/or ion rejection, and do not need to be stored in a hydrated condition in order to enable their reuse. The membranes are based on stacked MoS.sub.2 sheets having small hydrophilic organic functional groups covalently bound thereto.

Method for making a porous graphene layer of a thickness of less than 100 nm with pores having an average size in the range of 5-900 nm, includes the following steps: providing a catalytically active substrate catalyzing graphene formation under chemical vapor deposition conditions, the catalytically active substrate in or on its surface being provided with a plurality of catalytically inactive domains having a size essentially corresponding to the size of the pores in the resultant porous graphene layer; chemical vapor deposition using a carbon source in the gas phase and formation of the porous graphene layer on the surface of the catalytically active substrate. The pores in the graphene layer are in situ formed due to the presence of the catalytically inactive domains.

A device for exchange of water molecule and temperature between two fluids. The device comprises thin molecular sieve membrane sheets that allow water molecules to permeate through while blocking cross-over of the exchanging fluids. The device provides two sets of flow channels having a hydraulic diameter ranged from 0.5 to 2.0 mm for respective process and sweep fluid flows. The two sets of the channels are separated by a membrane sheet having a thickness less than 200 μm. The thin molecule sieve membrane may be prepared by forming an ultra-thin zeolite membrane layer on a porous metal-based support sheet which provides very high water permeance so that the exchange can be conducted in a compact membrane module at high throughput. The device can be used to remove water from a process stream of higher water content by use of a sweep fluid of lower water content or higher water affinity. For example, the device can be used to condition outdoor fresh air close to the temperature and humidity of indoor air by conducting humidity and heat exchange between the fresh air flow drawn from outdoors and waste air discharged indoors.

A flexible electrocatalytic membrane for removing nitrate from water, a preparation method and use thereof are provided. The method of the present invention includes dropwise adding an aramid fiber solution into deionized water to prepare an aramid nanofiber sol, then reacting an ethanol solution containing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and ferric nitrate with the aramid nanofiber sol to prepare a conductive aramid nanofiber sol, and finally dropwise adding MXene nanosheets ultrasonically pretreated by a tetramethylammonium hydroxide solution into the conductive aramid nanofiber sol to prepare the flexible electrocatalytic membrane. The prepared flexible electrocatalytic membrane possesses good mechanical strength and flexibility, and can not only effectively remove nitrate but also avoid failure of electrocatalytic materials due to surface fouling in the process of electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate, and thus has a long service life.

An anti-microbial metal coating may be applied to filter membranes for use in actively depressing microbial viability in filtration applications. The anti-microbial metal coating may be applied to substrates that are considered to be sensitive to damage by conventional metal coating techniques or resistant to metal bonding. The coating may be applied from a salt absorbed to the substrate in solution, converted to a reducible form with a conversion agent, and reduced to active metal format through a low temperature plasma treatment.

Parallel plate devices for hemofiltration or hemodialysis are provided. A parallel plate device includes a parallel plate assembly having an aligned stack of stackable plate subunits, each stackable plate subunit having a through channel for blood, where the blood channels are opened up at opposite ends of the parallel plate assembly. The parallel plate assembly is configured to form filtrate/dialysate channels interleaved with the blood channels, adjacent channels being separated by a silicon nanoporous filtration membrane. A blood conduit adaptor is attached to the parallel plate assembly at each of the ends, and is configured to distribute blood to or collect blood from the blood channels. Also provided are systems and methods for using the parallel plate devices.