Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Permea, Inc.

Dilip G Kalthod

Pushpinder S Puri

Donald Joseph Stookey

John K Page

William H Morgan

Lawrence K Bleikamp

The present invention provides a composite membrane comprising a porous support layer and a selective layer comprising a vinylacetate polymer. The invention also provides a process for preparing a vinylacetate polymer selective layer on a porous support by depositing a colloidal dispersion having colloid particles of the vinylacetate polymer on the porous support followed by annealing the deposited colloids to form a selective layer. The membranes are useful for separation of gas or liquid or vapor mixtures.

Composite membranes

The present invention provides a fluid separation module and a process for utilizing the module containing a bundle of hollow fiber membranes and randomly dispersed within the bundle of fibers are filaments having an outer diameter from about 60 to about 3000 microns. The hollow fibers have an outer diameter from about 100 to about 1000 microns. The filaments are present in number from 0.5 to 5 filaments per fiber. Preferably, the filaments are placed among the fibers during manufacturing of the fibers and/or bundle. The presence of the filaments enhances the performance of the fluid separation module.

Hollow fiber membrane device with inert filaments randomly distributed

The present invention provides a gas/liquid contactor module having hollow fiber membranes and a process for controlling dissolved gases in liquids such as water, beer and the like, by passing the liquid through the shell side of the contactor module to allow addition or removal of dissolved gases by the diffusion of the gases through the membranes into or from the hollow fiber bores. The process permits control of the quantity of such dissolved gases as carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Control of dissolved gases in liquids

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for the dehydration of gases utilizing hollow fiber membranes. The invention provides an internal sweep of the permeate side of the membranes utilizing an aperture in the tubesheet at the product end of the module thereby sweeping the permeate side of the membrane with product gas.

Hollow fiber membrane dryer with internal sweep

The present invention relates to a process and an apparatus for providing an enriched oxygen gas stream. A countercurrent sweep gas stream is provided to the permeate side of the hollow fiber membranes internally of a gas separation module.

Production of enriched oxygen gas stream utilizing hollow fiber membranes

A hollow fiber separation module is provided having a single, elongated pressurizable shell and containing multiple separation stages by multiple sections of hollow fiber bundles contained within the shell, with the ends of each bundle section potted within a single tubesheet at each end of the elongated shell. The fibers within each section are aligned so that the permeate within the fiber bores passes along paths traveling generally from one tubesheet to the other and one or more impermeable barriers are provided within the shell to isolate each section and control the passage of feed gas along the shell side of each fiber bundle section in a flow path countercurrent to the passage of permeate in the bores of the fibers.

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St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Dilip G Kalthod