Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno

Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Albert Edward Jansen

Jan Hendrik Hanemaaijer

Paul Hubert Maria Feron

Jan Willem Van Heuven

Piet Huisjes

Hendrik F Van Wijk

Paul Hubert Feron

Jolanda Van Medevoort

Hans De Jong

Eric Van Sonsbeek

Rob Klaassen

Engelbert Peter Jurrie Jan Koele

Jan Willem Assink

The invention provides a method for the purification of a liquid by membrane distillation comprising: passing a heated vapourising stream of a liquid (retentate stream) through a retentate channel along a porous hydrophobic membrane (), whereby vapour of the liquid flows via the pores of the membrane to the other side of said membrane, and condensing said vapour on the other side of said membrane to give a distillate stream in a distillate channel () which distillate is created by passing the heat of condensation (latent heat) towards a condenser surface (), said condenser surface forming a non-porous separation between a feed stream of the liquid to be purified and said distillate stream, which feed stream is passed through a feed channel () in counter-current with the retentate stream, in which feed channel a space material () is arranged whereby at least part of the latent heat is transferred via the condenser surface to the feed stream, and whereby a positive liquid pressure difference is applied between the retentate stream and the feed stream at the corresponding points of the retentate channel and the feed channel over at least a part of each of the retentate channel () and feed channel. The invention further provides an apparatus suitable for use in said method.

Membrane distillation method for the purification of a liquid

The invention relates to an apparatus for performing membrane gas/liquid absorption at elevated pressure, comprising a pressure vessel in which a membrane unit is provided for separate feed-through of the gas phase and the liquid phase, in such a way that exchange of components to be absorbed can take place between the gas phase and the liquid phase, the flow direction of the gas phase through the absorber being essentially perpendicular to the flow direction of the liquid phase through the absorber. The invention further relates to a method for performing gas/liquid membrane absorption employing this absorber, in particular for the absorption of CO , H S, mercury (vapor) and/or water (vapor) from a gas phase at elevated pressure. The invention finally relates to a method for refining natural gas using the absorber and method according to the invention.

Apparatus and method for performing membrane gas/liquid absorption at elevated pressure

A reactor for carrying out gas/liquid/solid phase reactions, comprises a housing (,) which encloses an essentially closed reaction chamber (,) for holding a first liquid phase, the solid phase and a gas phase fed through the chamber; at least one feed (,), connected to the reaction chamber, for feeding a first liquid phase to the reaction chamber (,); at least one hollow fiber (,), the wall of which defines an internal flow channel for at least removing a second liquid phase, such that exchange of matter can take place between the reaction chamber (,) and the flow channel through the wall of hollow fiber (,); at least one discharge (,), connected to the flow channel, for removing the second liquid phase; at least one gas inlet (,) and at least one gas outlet (,), connected to reaction chamber (,) such that, in the use position, the at least one gas inlet (,) opens essentially into the bottom of the reaction chamber (,) and the at least one gas outlet (,) is located essentially at the top of the reaction chamber (,), for feeding the gas phase essentially in the upward direction through the reaction chamber (,). The invention further relates to a method for carrying out gas/liquid/solid phase reactions, using the above reactor. The hollow fibers are preferably of a ceramic material. The reactor is preferably a DAM module and/or suitable for use at elevated temperature and pressure.

Reactor having hollow fibers and method for carrying out gas/liquid/solid phase reactions

Membrane gas adsorption is conducted wherein the gas phase contains mercury in the gaseous state and the liquid phase containing at least one oxidizing agent for mercury such that the mercury in the gaseous state is absorbed into the liquid phase, and an oxidation/reduction reaction between the mercury and the oxidizing agent takes place in one step.

Method for absorbing gaseous oxidizable or reducible constituents through a membrane

Method for gas absorption across a membrane

The removal of water vapor from a gas/vapor mixture by means of vapor permeation takes place by passing the mixture to be separated along one side of a membrane and the permeation of water vapor through the membrane is achieved by maintaining a relatively low partial pressure of water vapor on the other side of the membrane. To increase the flux the membrane is impregnated beforehand with a hygroscopic electrolyte.

Method and membrane for the removal of water vapor from a gas/vapor

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Utrecht, Netherlands

Albert Edward Jansen