MEMBRANE MODULES
Terminology
Industrial membrane plants often require hundreds to thousands
of square meters of membrane to perform the separation
required on a useful scale. Before a membrane separation can
be performed industrially; therefore, methods of
economically and efficiently packaging large areas of
membrane are required. These packages are called
membrane modules.
The development of the technology to produce low-cost
membrane modules was one of the breakthroughs that led to
commercial membrane processes in the 1960s and 1970s.
Types
Some important factors to take into account in developing
membrane modules: cost, membrane fouling, concentration
polarization
Several types of membrane modules have been developed, as
follows:
1. Plate and Frame Modules
Its the earliest type of membrane module, proposed by Stern for
early Union Carbide plants to recover helium from natural
gas
Types
1. Plate and Frame Modules
Membrane, feed spacers, and product spacers are layered
together between 2 end plates. The feed mixture is forced
across the surface of the membrane. A portion passes
through the membrane, enters the permeate channel, and
makes its way to a central permeate collection manifold.
Plate and frame modules are now only used in electrodialysis
and pervaporation systems, and in a limited number of
reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration applications with highly
fouling feeds
Types
1. Plate and Frame Modules
Types
2. Tubular Modules
Tubular modules are now generally limited to ultrafiltration
applications for which the benefit of resistance to membrane
fouling due to good fluid hydrodynamics.
The tubes consist of a porous paper of fiberglass support with
the membrane formed on the inside of the tubes. The first
tubular membranes were between 2 3 cm in diameter, and
now 0.5 1 cm. In a typical tubular membrane module, a
large number of tubes are manifolded in series. The
permeate is removed from each tube and is sent to a
permeate collection header
Types
2. Tubular Modules
Types
3. Spiral Wound Modules
They were used in a number of early artificial kidney designs, but
were fully developed for industrial membrane separations by
Gulf General Atomic. This work, directed at reverse osmosis
membrane modules, was carried out under the sponsorship
of the Office of Saline Water. The design consists of a
membrane envelope of spacers and membrane wound
around a perforated central collection tube; the module is
placed inside a tubular pressure vessel. Feed passes axially
down the module across the membrane envelope. A portion
of the feed permeates into the membrane envelope, where
it spirals towards the center and exits through the collection
tube.
Types
3. Spiral Wound Modules
Types
3. Spiral Wound Modules
Typical membrane area and number of membrane envelopes 40-
in long industrial spiral-wound modules
Module diameter, in 4 6 8 12
Number of membrane envelopes 46 6 10 15 30 30 40
Membrane area, m2 36 6 12 20 40 30 60
Types
4. Hollow Fiber Module
It s formed in 2 basic , the first is the shell side feed design, used by
Monsanto in their hydrogen separation systems, and by Du Pont in
their reverse osmosis systems. In such a module, a loop or a closed
bundle of fibers is contained in a pressure vessel. The system is
pressurized from the shell side; permeate passes through the fiber
wall and exits through the open fiber ends. The design is easy to
make and allows very large membrane areas to be contained in an
economical system. Because the fiber wall must support
considerable hydrostatic pressure, the fibers usually have small
diameters and thick walls, typically 50 micro-m internal diameter,
and 100-200 microm outer diameter
Types
4. Hollow Fiber Module
The second type one is the bore-side feed. The fibers are open at bond
ends, and the feed fluid is circulated through the bore of the
fibers. It is important to ensure that all of the fibers have identical
fiber diameters and permeances.
Concentration polarization is well controlled in bore-side feed
modules. The feed solution passes directly across the active
surface of the membrane, and no stagnant dead spaces are
produced
Module Selection
Some factors to take into account in selecting the type of modules:
cost, concentration polarization fouling control, permeate-side
pressure drop, suitability for high pressure operation, and limited
to specific types of membrane material
