Module and Process Design

As we know, large surface areas are required for industrial applications of membrane processes. A practical solution for providing this large surface area is packing the membranes into a small unit called a module, as shown in Fig. 2. The module is the base for membrane installation and process design. 

During the process, a stream of feed enters the module with a specific content at a specific flow rate. By passing through the membrane module, the feed stream is separated into two streams, a retentate stream and a permeate stream. The retentate stream is the fraction of the feed that retains in the feed stream and the permeate stream is the fraction that passes through the membrane. 

The following membrane modules are largely used for industrial applications, of which typical characteristics are listed in Table 4  

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