Membranes configurations

The earhest reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration units were based on flat membrane sheets ia arrangements similar to that of a plate and frame filter press. Siace then, mote efficient membrane configurations, ie, tubular, spiral wound, and hoUow fiber, have emerged (96—98). 

Fig. 5-2. Three types of the liquid membrane configuration (a) emulsion liquid membrane (b) supported liquid membrane (c) classical bulk liquid membrane set-up.

The volume of the equipment for a given area requirement depends on the chosen membrane configuration. For example, spiral wound membranes have a typical packing density of around 800 m2-m 3, whereas the packing density for hollow fiber membranes is much higher, at around 6000 m2-m 3. 

The combined features of structural adaptation in a specific hybrid nanospace and of a dynamic supramolecular selection process make the dynamic-site membranes, presented in the third part, of general interest for the development of a specific approach toward nanomembranes of increasing structural selectivity. From the conceptual point of view these membranes express a synergistic adaptative behavior the addition of the most suitable alkali ion drives a constitutional evolution of the membrane toward the selection and amplification of a specific transport crown-ether superstructure in the presence of the solute that promoted its generation in the first place. It embodies a constitutional selfreorganization (self-adaptation) of the membrane configuration producing an adaptative response in the presence of its solute. This is the first example of dynamic smart membranes where a solute induces the preparation of its own selective membrane. 

In the emulsion liquid membrane configuration, the liquid membrane is formed by dispersing into the feed (phase 1) an emulsion of the stripping... 

Fig. 15.1 Liquid membrane configurations (a) Single-drop liquid membrane (b) emulsion globule (c) supported liquid membrane.

In the supported liquid membrane process, the liquid membrane phase impregnates a microporous solid support placed between the two bulk phases (Figure 15.1c). The liquid membrane is stabilized by capillary forces making unnecessary the addition of stabilizers to the membrane phase. Two types of support configurations are used hollow fiber or flat sheet membrane modules. These two types of liquid membrane configuration will be discussed in the following sections. 

The emulsion liquid membrane (Fig. 15.1b) is a modification of the single drop membrane configuration presented by Li [2] in order to improve the stability of the membrane and to increase the interfacial area. The membrane phase contains surfactants or other additives that stabilize the emulsion. 

The development of the Loeb-Sourlrajan asymmetric cellulose acetate membrane (1) has been followed by numerous attempts to obtain a similar membrane configuration from virtually any available polymer. The presumably simplistic structure of this cellulose acetate membrane - a dense, ultrathln skin resting on a porous structure - has been investigated by transmission and scanning electron microscopy since the 1960s (2,3). The discovery of macrovoids ( ), a nodular intermediate layer, and a bottom skin have contributed to the question of the mechanism by which a polymer solution is coagulated to yield an asymmetric membrane. 

It should be obvious from the above that fluid-management techniques which Improve the mass-transfer coefficient (k) with minimum power consumption are most desirable. However, in some cases, low-cost membrane configurations with inefficient fluid management may be more cost effective. In any case, it is important to understand quantitatively how tangential velocity and mem-brane/hardware geometry affects the mass-transfer coefficient. 

TABLE 5.3 Variation in Membrane Configuration and Pore Size Based on Five Different Manufacturers... 

Membrane material Membrane configuration Operation mode Pore diameter (pm) Application Membrane producer References... 

The RDC—clamped membrane configuration gave rise to estimates of... 

Takeo K, Nakai E Mode of cell growth of Malassezia (Pityrosporium) as revealed by using plasma membrane configurations as natural markers. Can J Microbiol 1986 32 389-394. 

They have also modeled a perfectly mixed membrane reactor for the same reaction. For this membrane configuration, the C2 selectivity is essentially 1(X)% for a jo value of less than 0.2 and drops off rapidly with increasing The yield becomes greater as the relative oxygen permeation rate increases. The yield reaches a maximum and then decreases with the permeation rate. There is only a limited range of Jo in which the yield can reach beyond 20%. 

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