PERFORMANCE OF CO COUNTER-CURRENT AND COUNTER CO-CURRENT FLOW PATTERNS IN AN INTERNALLY STAGED PERMEATOR FOR GAS SEPARATION

Mathematical models have been developed for an internally two-staged h ollow fibre permeator for the cases of co/counter-current and counter/ co-current flow patterns. A comparative study on the performance of th ese two flow patterns together with two other flow patterns, i.e. cocu rrent flow and countercurrent flow, has been conducted using gas mixtu res of O-2/N-2 and CO2/N-2. It has been shown, both theoretically and experimentally, that in terms of achieving a higher permeate enrichmen t, the co/counter-current mode is always the most efficient one follow ed by cocurrent flow, while the counter/co-current and countercurrent flow patterns are less efficient. The experimental results are general ly in good agreement with theoretical predictions.