Cartridge of hollow fiber membrane wafers and module containing stacked cartridges

• Main Authors: COTE; PIERRE L, PEDERSEN; STEVEN K
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.08.1993
• Subjects: PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; SEPARATION; TRANSPORTING

A module is disclosed for use as a membrane device, comprising, a shell with fluid couplings removably affixed to each of its ends and at least one non-disassemblable cartridge operably held within the shell. The cartridge is constructed from plural wafers sequentially coaxially aligned, each wafer consisting essentially of a generally planar frame and an array of hollow fibers of selectively permeable material adhesively held by their ends in opposed portions of the border of the frame, without potting the ends. Several cartridges may be coaxially "ganged" to provide the required filtration area. The cartridges may be removably disposed in the shell, or secured therein so that the entire module may be discarded when its efficiency is unacceptably low. The wafers are adhesively secured to define a fluid-tight conduit with open ends through which a feedstream is flowed transversely over the fibers. The bores of the fibers are in open fluid communication with the permeate zone in the shell. A frame of a wafer may be provided with longitudinal, laterally spaced apart grooves in its upper surface and the fibers trained in the grooves. A cartridge may be made by precoating a first frame with adhesive, embedding the fibers in the adhesive, initially curing the adhesive and then placing a second frame over the partially cured adhesive; and, repeating the steps. Alternatively, the second frame may be positioned over the embedded fibers on the first frame and the adhesive then cured. The arrays lie in a plane substantially orthogonal to the direction of flow of a feedstream to be treated, and fibers of one array are staggered relative to those in a successive array.