Spiral Wound

The advantages of the spiral wound elements are the high packing density and high flux which makes it one of the most cost effective elements. The disadvantage of the element is that a moderate amount of pretreatment is required for some feedwaters to prevent fouling of the mesh brine spacers. 

Pressurized feedwater enters the tube through an end fitting which seals the membrane to the tube and prevents cross contamination of the product water. The feed water flows down the length of the tube and product water permeates through the membrane and weeps through the tubular pressure vessel into a collection basin. The reject flows through an end fitting and is routed to additional tubes in series or to waste. 

The major advantages of the tubular reverse osmosis configuration are the ability to tolerate high suspended solids concentrations in the feed and the possibility of mechanical membrane cleaning. The disadvantages are the excessive number of tube end fittings in proportion to the active membrane area in each pressure vessel, the bulkiness of the reverse osmosis plant and the high cost. 

There have been a number of attempts to commercialize tubular reverse osmosis systems in industrial applications. As of the end of 1987, there were no large scale tubular reverse osmosis manufacturers in the United States, although there are some in Europe and Japan. 

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Rigid paperboard containers are made of paper greater than 0.254 mm (0.010 in) in caUper and include folding cartons, cormgated ftberboard cases, and spiral wound composite cans. Many paperboard cartons require the use of inner liners or overwraps, made of protective grades of paper, plastic, or aluminum foil laminations. 

Membrane modules have found extensive commercial appHcation in areas where medium purity hydrogen is required, as in ammonia purge streams (191). The first polymer membrane system was developed by Du Pont in the early 1970s. The membranes are typically made of aromatic polyaramide, polyimide, polysulfone, and cellulose acetate supported as spiral-wound hoUow-ftber modules (see Hollow-FIBERMEMBRANEs). 

Spira.1- Wound Modules. Spiral-wound modules were used originally for artificial kidneys, but were fuUy developed for reverse osmosis systems. This work, carried out by UOP under sponsorship of the Office of Saline Water (later the Office of Water Research and Technology) resulted in a number of spiral-wound designs (63—65). The design shown in Figure 21 is the simplest and most common, and consists of a membrane envelope wound around a perforated central coUection tube. The wound module is placed inside a tubular pressure vessel, and feed gas is circulated axiaUy down the module across the membrane envelope. A portion of the feed permeates into the membrane envelope, where it spirals toward the center and exits through the coUection tube. 

Fig. 22. Multileaf spiral-wound module, used to avoid excessive pressure drops on the permeate side of the membrane. Large, 30-cm diameter modules may have as many as 30 membrane envelopes, each with a membrane area of about 2 m. ...

Property Hollow-fine fibers Caphlary fibers Spiral-wound Plate and frame Tubular... 

In reverse osmosis, most modules are of the hollow-fine fiber or spiral-wound design plate-and-frame and tubular modules are limited to a few appHcations in which membrane fouling is particularly severe, for example, food appHcations or processing of heavily contaminated industrial wastewater. 

Hollow-fiber designs are being displaced by spiral-wound modules, which are inherently more fouling resistant, and require less feed pretreatment. Also, thin-film interfacial composite membranes, the best reverse osmosis membranes available, have not been fabricated in the form of hoUow-fine fibers. 

For ultrafiltration appHcations, hollow-fine fibers have never been seriously considered because of their susceptibiUty to fouling. If the feed solution is extremely fouling, tubular or plate-and-frame systems ate still used. Recentiy, however, spiral-wound modules with improved resistance to fouling have been developed, and these modules are increasingly displacing the more expensive plate-and-frame and tubular systems. Capillary systems are also used in some ultrafiltration appHcations. 

Spiral-wound modules are much more commonly used in low pressure or vacuum gas separation appHcations, such as the production of oxygen-enriched air, or the separation of organic vapors from air. In these appHcations, the feed gas is at close to ambient pressure, and a vacuum is drawn on the permeate side of the membrane. Parasitic pressure drops on the permeate side of the membrane and the difficulty in making high performance hollow-fine fiber membranes from the mbbery polymers used to make these membranes both work against hollow-fine fiber modules for this appHcation. 

Pervaporation operates under constraints similar to low pressure gas-separation. Pressure drops on the permeate side of the membrane must be small, and many prevaporation membrane materials are mbbery. For this reason, spiral-wound modules and plate-and-frame systems ate both in use. 

Plate-and-frame systems are competitive in this appHcation despite their high cost, primarily because they can be operated at high temperatures with relatively aggressive feed solutions, for which spiral-wound modules might fad. 

Reverse Osmosis. This was the first membrane-based separation process to be commercialized on a significant scale. The breakthrough discovery that made reverse osmosis (qv) possible was the development of the Loeb-Sourirajan asymmetric cellulose acetate membrane. This membrane made desalination by reverse osmosis practical within a few years commercial plants were installed. The total worldwide market for reverse osmosis membrane modules is about 200 million /yr, spHt approximately between 25% hoUow-ftber and 75% spiral-wound modules. The general trend of the industry is toward spiral-wound modules for this appHcation, and the market share of the hoUow-ftber products is gradually falling (72). 

Both hollow-fiber and spiral-wound modules are used ia gas-separation appHcations. Spiral-wound modules are favored if the gas stream contains oil mist or entrained Hquids as ia vapor separation from air or natural gas separations. 

Four configurations for membranes are plate, hoUow fine fiber, spiral wound, and tubular (32). With a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials many options exist for meeting the various needs in the dairy industry. 

Solids nd Colloids. Suspended soHds can accumulate at the membrane surface, creating an additional resistance to flow through the membrane as well as a possible feed channel, such as that for a spiral-wound module plugging and subsequently a decrease in flux. Prevention of this type of fouling lies in the removal of the suspended soHds, which can be accompHshed using filters and screens prior to arrival at the RO unit. 

Spiral Wound. A spiral-wound cartridge has two flat membrane sheets (skin side out) separated by a flexible, porous permeate drainage material. The membrane sandwich is adhesively sealed on three sides. The fourth side of one or more sandwiches is separately sealed to a porous or perforated permeate withdrawal tube. An open-mesh spacer is placed on top of the membrane, and both the mesh and the membrane are wrapped spirally around the tube (Fig. 16). 

Spiral-wound cartridges are inserted ia series into cylindrical pressure vessels. Feed flows parallel to the membrane surfaces ia the channel defined by the mesh spacer which acts as a turbulence promoter. Permeate flows into the center permeate-withdrawal tube which is sealed through the housing end caps. 

AhcorSanitary Spiral-Wound JJItrafiltration Modules Product Bulletin, Abcor, Inc., Wilmington, Mass., 1981. 

The pressure to be used for reverse osmosis depends on the salinity of the feedwater, the type of membrane, and the desired product purity. It ranges from about 1.5 MPa for low feed concentrations or high flux membranes, through 2.5—4 MPa for brackish waters, and to 6—8.4 MPa for seawater desalination. In desalination of brackish or sea water, typical product water fluxes through spiral-wound membranes are about 600—800 kg/m /d at a recovery ratio RR of 15% and an average salt rejection of 99.5%, where... 

Fig. 2. Configuration for spirally wound rechargeable lithium ceU. A, Cap B, cathode tab C, insulating disk (2) D, mandrel E, can F, bak G, safety vent ...

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). 

For extended surfaces, which include fins mounted perpendicularly to the tubes or spiral-wound fins, pin fins, plate fins, and so on, friction data for the specific surface involved should be used. For details, see Kays and London (Compact Heat Exchangers, 2d ed., McGraw-HiU, New York, 1964). If specific data are unavailable, the correlation by Gunter and Shaw (Trans. ASME, 67, 643-660 [1945]) may be used as an approximation. 

The spiral-wound type furnished with a sohd metallic ring on the outside to hmit gasket compression provides protection against blowout when used with raised facing. 

Spiral baffles, which are sometimes installed for hquid services to improve heat transfer and prevent channeling, can be designed to serve as reinforcements. A spiral-wound channel welded to the vessel wall is an alternative to the spiral baffle which is more predictable in performance, since cross-baffle leakage is eliminated, and is reportedly lower in cost [Feichtinger, Chem. Eng., 67, 197 (Sept. 5, I960)]. 

Air-cooled heat exchangers include a tube bundle, which generally has spiral-wound fins upon the tubes, and a fan, which moves air across the tubes and is provided with a driver. Electric motors are the most commonly usea drivers typical drive arrangements require a V belt or a direc t right-angle gear. A plenum and structural supports are basic components. Louvers are often used ... 

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