Corning Incorporated

Battelle Memorial Institute

Molecule Works Inc.

Wei Liu

Nathan L Canfield

Jianguo Wang

Curtis Robert Fekety

Xiaohong Shari Li

Todd Parrish St Clair

William Peter Addiego

Yunfeng Gu

Jimmie L Williams

Stephen A Campbell

Mitchell E Odinak

Anirudh Balram

Yong Wang

Zhen Song

Yuming Xie

Ji-Guang Zhang

Dayue Jiang

Jie Xiao

Wu Xu

Tinghong Tao

Yongsoon Shin

Jiguang Zhang

Charles Mitchel Sorensen, Jr

Deyu Wang

Feng Zheng

Alan R Cooper

Heather M Brown

Shantanu Roy

Leonard S Fifield

Adam K Collier

David W Gotthold

Bang-Cheng Xu

Jian Zhang

Z Gary Yang

Joseph Marc Whalen

John E Holladay

George Y Adusei

Joseph M Whalen

A porous material structure and device are described and shown to enhance the mass transfer and/or heat transfer at low pressure drops for removal of certain molecular species from a fluid by adsorption and/or catalytic reaction. The porous structure of active materials comprising packed fine particles of adsorbents or catalysts is encapsulated with a thin membrane to provide large interfacing area with the fluid per unit volume for rapid mass transfer between the porous structure and fluid. The thin membrane also blocks particulate from getting into the porous structure of the active material. For the process involving significant heat of adsorption and/or reaction, the another surface of the porous structure of the active material is encapsulated with a thin non-permeable sheet to interface with a thermal fluid for rapid heat transfer between the porous structure and the thermal fluid. The device can be used for removal of CO, moisture, and hydrocarbon molecules from a gas stream with rapid in-situ regeneration. The device can be used for removal of water from water-containing liquid fluids, such as solvents and oils. The device can be used for removal of bacteria, virus, salts, and molecular contaminants from one water simultaneously.

Fluid processing in encapsulated porous structures

A thin micro-porous membrane sheet and filtering device using it is presented. The membrane sheet includes a thin porous metal sheet of thickness between 20 and 200 &#x3bc;m with a porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 25 &#x3bc;m on at least one of its surfaces. The porous metal sheet has mean pore sizes at micro and sub-micrometer level and has a surface substantially free of pores greater than 10 micrometers. The ceramic coating layer may be made of particles with a mean particle size in a range of 10 to 300 nm and contains certain sintering promoters. The ceramic coating is sintered with the metal sheet in non-oxidizing environment at lower temperatures than typical ceramic membranes. The thin membrane sheet is used to filter fine particulates from micrometers to nanometers from a liquid or gas stream. The thin membrane sheet may be assembled into a filter device having high surface area packing density and straight mini-flow channels.

Thin metal/ceramic hybrid membrane sheet and filter

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 &#x3bc;m. 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.

Membrane device for water and energy exchange

An apparatus and process are presented for continuous production of metal-based micro-porous structures of pore sizes from 0.3 nm to 5.0 &#x3bc;m from a green part of characteristic diffusion mass transfer dimension less than 1 mm through chemical reactions in a continuous flow of gas substantially free of oxygen. The produced micro-porous structures include i) thin porous metal sheets of thickness less than 200 &#x3bc;m and pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 5.0 &#x3bc;m, ii) porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 40 &#x3bc;m and ceramic particle sizes of 200 nm or less on a porous metal-based support structures of pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 5 &#x3bc;m.

Process and apparatus for continuous production of porous structures

A catalytic reactor apparatus is disclosed for continuous conversion of plastic wastes into liquid fuels by dispersing a cracking catalyst in molten plastics and cracking plastic macromolecules into smaller hydrocarbons within boiling point range of gasoline and diesel fuel at temperatures significantly lower than thermal pyrolysis and thermal cracking. The catalyst/plastic mixing and heat transfer from the reactor wall to the reaction zone are enhanced using non-Newtonian stirrer. A catalytic membrane filter is used to keep the catalyst fines and unconverted plastic particulates inside the reactor while letting the desirable hydrocarbon vapor be withdrawn out of the reactor.

Catalytic reactor apparatus for conversion of plastics

A membrane device is presented that can used for a wide range of applications from once-through filtration, crossflow filtration, molecular separation, gas/liquid absorption or reaction, gas dispersion into liquid, and degassing of liquid. The device comprises a thin flat sheet membrane that allows certain fluid or molecules go through while blocking others. The membrane sheet is fixed on a supporting structure with mini channel on two sides of the membrane for respective feed and sweep flows. The membrane sheet is sealed with gaskets with two cover plates that the membrane sheet can be replaced or cleaned. The cover plate provides connection ports to connect the feed fluid to the feed channels on one membrane surface and to connect the sweep fluid to the sweep channels on the other surface of the membrane.

Universal planar membrane device for mass transfer

Electrochemical device using thin micro-porous metal sheets. The porous metal sheet may have a thickness less than 200 &#x3bc;m, provides three-dimensional networked pore structures of pore sizes in the range of 2.0 nm to 5.0 &#x3bc;m, and is electrically conductive. The micro-porous metal sheet is used for positively and/or negatively-charged electrodes by providing large specific contact surface area of reactants/electron. Nano-sized catalyst or features can be added inside pores of the porous metal sheet of pore sizes at sub- and micrometer scale to enhance the reaction activity and capacity. Micro-porous ceramic materials may be coated on the porous metal sheet at a thickness of less than 40 &#x3bc;m to enhance the functionality of the porous metal sheet and may function as a membrane separator. The electrochemical device may be used for decomposing molecules and for synthesis of molecules such as synthesis of ammonia from water and nitrogen molecules.

Electrochemical device comprising thin porous metal sheet

A membrane device and separation process are presented to enable removal of water from water-containing mixtures at high throughput and high energy efficiency. The membrane device is made of thin HO-selective molecular sieve membrane sheets with small feed channels and small permeate channels. The thin membrane sheet provides HO-molecular specificity and allows HO molecule to permeate through while blocking the other molecules. The membrane device provides large membrane area per unit volume and reduces mass transfer and flow resistance. Water is removed from the mixture by flowing the water-containing mixture through the feed channels of the device at a pressure above atmospheric pressure and removing the permeated water vapor from the permeate channels in the device under vacuum.

Device and method for separation of water from mixtures

Zeolite membrane sheets for separation of mixtures containing water are provided, as well as methods for making the same. Thin, but robust, zeolite membrane sheets having an inter-grown zeolite crystal film directly on a thin, less than 200 micron thick, porous support sheet free of any surface pores with a size above 10 microns. The zeolite membrane film thickness is less than about 10 microns above the support surface and less than about 5 microns below the support surface. Methods of preparing the membrane are disclosed which include coating of the support sheet surface with a seed coating solution containing the parent zeolite crystals with mean particle sizes from about 0.5 to 2.0 microns at loading of 0.05-0.5 mg/cm2 and subsequent growth of the seeded sheet in a growth reactor loaded with a growth solution over a temperature range of about 45&#xb0; C. to about 120&#xb0; C.

Thin-sheet zeolite membrane and methods for making the same

Design, fabrication, and usage of a reactor are presented for synthesis of structured materials from a liquid-phase precursor by heating. The structured materials are particles, membranes or films of micro-porous molecular sieve crystals such as zeolite and meso-porous materials. The precursor solution and structured materials in the reactor are uniformly heated by a planar heater with characteristic heat transfer dimension in the range of 3 mm to 10 cm. A planar heater having width and length at least three times of the characteristic heat transfer dimension provides at least one surface of uniform temperature distribution for heating purposes. Heating is conducted over a temperature range of 20 to 300&#xb0; C. The planar heater can be heated by electrical power of by thermal fluid.

Reactor for hydrothermal growth of structured materials

A reactor and process for production of hydrogen gas from a carbon-containing fuel in a reaction that generates carbon dioxide is described. The carbon-containing fuel can be, for example, carbon monoxide, alcohols, oxygenates bio-oil, oil and hydrocarbons. In preferred embodiments, the reactor includes a monolithic structure form with an array of parallel flow channels. Methods of using the reactor are also described. In the reactor apparatus of the present invention, the catalytic reaction for hydrogen formation is conducted in conjunction with a carbonation reaction that removes carbon dioxide that is produced by the reactor. The carbonation reaction involves reaction of the carbon dioxide produced from the hydrogen formation reaction with metal oxide-based sorbents. The reactor apparatus can be periodically regenerated by regeneration of the sorbent. A carbon dioxide sorbent system comprising a solid sorbent and a eutectic, mixed alkali metal molten phase is also described.

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Growing community of inventors

Richland, WA, United States of America

Wei Liu