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US 2008/0164207 A1Published application
Pervaporation process and assembly
AssigneeMembrane Technology and Research, Inc.
InventorsNicholas P. Wynn, Yu Huang, Tiem Aldajani, Donald A. Fulton
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Abstract
The invention is a pervaporation process and pervaporation equipment, using a series of membrane modules, and including inter-module reheating of the feed solution under treatment. The inter-module heating is achieved within the tube or vessel in which the modules are housed, thereby avoiding the need to repeatedly extract the feed solution from the membrane module train.
Claims30
A pervaporation process, comprising the following steps:
- (a) passing a feed solution to be treated through a series of multiple membrane modules, each membrane module having an outer longitudinal surface, a feed end and a residue end, the membrane modules being housed in a single tube having an inside and an outside surface, to separate the feed solution under pervaporation conditions into a residue stream and a permeate stream;
- and
- (b) achieving an inter-module reheating of the feed solution as it passes along the series by:
- (i) flowing the feed solution exiting the residue end of a membrane module in the series at least partially back toward the feed end of that membrane module in a reheating zone defined by the outer longitudinal surface of that membrane module and the inside surface of the tube before the feed solution is permitted to enter the feed end of the next membrane module in the series;
- and
- (ii) heating the outside surface of the tube.
3 more elements
A pervaporation process, comprising the following steps:
- (a) providing a vessel in which multiple tubes are mounted in parallel, each tube having an inside and an outside surface and containing a series of multiple membrane modules, each membrane module having an outer longitudinal surface, a feed end and a residue end;
- (b) passing a feed solution to be treated through the membrane modules to separate the feed solution under pervaporation conditions into a residue stream and a permeate stream;
- (c) achieving an inter-module reheating of the feed solution as it passes along the series of membrane modules by:
- (i) flowing the feed solution exiting the residue end of a membrane module in the series at least partially back toward the feed end of that membrane module in a reheating zone defined by the outer longitudinal surface of that membrane module and the inside surface of the tube before the feed solution is permitted to enter the feed end of the next membrane module in the series;
- and
- (ii) heating the outside surfaces of the tubes by flowing a heating fluid through the vessel.
3 more elements
A pervaporation assembly, comprising:
- (a) a series of multiple membrane modules, each membrane module having an outer longitudinal surface, a feed end and a residue end, and including a permeate pipe protruding from the membrane module, the membrane modules having their permeate pipes connected in an end-to-end manner;
- (b) a tube containing the membrane modules, the tube comprising at least one removable head and a shell having an inside surface and an outside surface, the tube being provided with a feed inlet port and a residue outlet port and adapted so that a permeate stream flowing through the permeate pipes may be withdrawn from the tube;
- (c) an annular seal for each membrane module, positioned so as to provide a fluid-tight seal between the outer longitudinal surface of the module and the inside surface of the tube;
- (d) flow-blocking and flow-directing means positioned in the tube so as to block immediate flow of a fluid from the residue end of a membrane module to the feed end of the next membrane module in the series;
- (e) an annular reheating zone between the outer longitudinal surface of a membrane module and the inside surface of the tube;
- the flow-blocking and flow-directing means being adapted to direct residue fluid into and out of the reheating zone;
- and
- (f) means for heating the outside surface of the tube.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.