THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERMEABLE MEMBRANE AIR DEHYDRATORS FOR THE US NAVY

As part of a program to eliminate chronic, shipboard, low pressure air dehydrator problems a Navy-industry team consisting of the Navy, Newp ort News Shipbuilding and a permeable membrane manufacturer has develo ped a new generation of permeable membrane air dehydration equipment t o replace the complex and unreliable desiccant units currently used. P ermeable membrane dehydration is a new technology utilizing new polysu lfone, semipermeable polymeric membranes specially designed to perform molecular separation of gaseous mixtures. This process has proven to be extremely reliable and cost effective. The successful development o f the permeable membrane dehydrator from an SBIR concept to shipboard units is described. A review of the current dehydrators and system his tory that drove this program, and the benefits and payoffs of the new equipment, are presented. Results of the laboratory evaluation, shipbo ard evaluation and the fleet transition plan are addressed.