BAFFLED MEMBRANE MODULES MADE WITH HOLLOW-FIBER FABRIC

A baffled membrane module of hollow fiber fabric can supply both count ercurrent contacting and flow perpendicular to well spaced hollow fibe rs. The countercurrent contacting increases the number of transfer uni ts involved in a given separation, and the perpendicular flow gives ma ss transfer coefficients typically five times larger than those availa ble with other modules. The performance of such modules can be accurat ely predicted by a simple model verified by numerical simulation and b y physical experiments. This performance is routinely better than that in more conventional designs.