Membrane modules, types

The choice of the most suitable membrane module type for a particular membrane separation must balance several factors. The principal module design parameters that enter into the decision are summarised in Table 16.3. 

Figure 8.1 The main gas-separation membrane module types [6].

Each membrane/module type has advantages and disadvantages [2,7]. Hollow fine fibers are generally the cheapest on a per-square-meter basis, but it is harder to make very thin selective membrane layers in hollow-fiber form than in flat-sheet form. This means the permeances of hollow fibers are usually lower than flat-sheet membranes made from the same material. Also, hollow fine fiber modules require more pretreatment of the feed to remove particulates, oil mist and other fouling components than is usually required by capillary or spiral-wound modules. These factors offset some of the cost advantage of the hollow fine fiber design. 

RO membrane module types, most utility applications use either spiral-wound or hollow-fiber elements. Hollow-fiber elements are particularly prone to fouling and, once fouled, are hard to clean. Thus, applications that employ these fibers require a great deal of pretreatment to remove all suspended and colloidal material in the feed stream. Spiral-wound modules, due to their relative resistance to fouling, have a broader range of aH)lications. A major advantage of the hollow-fiber modules, however, is the fact that they can pack 5000 ft of surface area in a 1 ft volume, while a spiral wound module can only contain 300 ff/fl . 

Name Membrane Material Membrane Module Type Membrane Area (m ) Pore Size (nm) LRV Rating with Test Virus Manufacturer... 

Table 20.2 Specific surface area for different membrane module types [56],...

Kev>erse Osmosis (RO) Membranes A type of membrane system for treating oily wastewater is currently undergoing commercialization by Bend Research, Inc. The system uses a tube-side feed module that yields high fluxes while being able to handle high-sohds-content waste streams (Ref. 25). Another type of reverse osmosis technique is being designed to yield ultrapurified HF recovered from... 

Industrial membrane plants often require hundreds of thousands of square metres of membrane to perform the separation required on a useful scale. Before a membrane separation can be used industrially, therefore, methods of economically and efficiently packaging large areas of membrane are required. These packages are called membrane modules. The areas of membrane contained in these basic modules are in the range 1-20 m2. The modules may be connected together in series or in parallel to form a plant of the required performance. The four most common types of membrane module are tubular, spiral, wound and hollow fibre. 

TFF module types include plate-and-frame (or cassettes), hollow fibers, tubes, monoliths, spirals, and vortex flow. Figures 20-52 and 20-53 show several common module types and the flow paths within each. Hollow fiber or tubular modules are made by potting the cast membrane fibers or tubes into end caps and enclosing the assembly in a shell. Similar to fibers or tubes, monoliths have their retentive layer coated on the inside of tubular flow channels or lumens with a high-permeability porous structure on the shell side. 

Modules and Housings Modern gas membranes are packaged either as hollow-fiber bundles or as spiral-wound modules. The former uses extruded hollow fibers. Tube-side feed is preferable, but it is limited to about 1.5 MPa. Higher-pressure applications are usually fed on the shell side. A large industrial permeator contains fibers 400 pm by 200 pm i.d. in a 6-inch shell 10 feet long. Flat-sheet membrane is wound into spirals, with an 8- by 36-inch permeator containing 25 of membrane. Both types of module are similar to those illustrated in Background and Definitions. Spiral modules are useful when feed... 

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. 

Although many types of membrane modules are used for various membrane processes, they can be categorized as follows. (It should be mentioned here that such membrane modules are occasionally used for gas-liquid systems.)... 

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