MODELING OF MULTICOMPONENT COUNTERCURRENT GAS PERMEATORS

Modeling of gas permeation in hollow-fiber or spiral wound modules nec essitates considering the effect of permeate pressure variation along the module length which could have a significant effect on the predict ion of the exit compositions and membrane area requirements depending on the membrane characteristics and module geometry. The transport equ ations governing the permeator performance are a set of coupled nonlin ear differential equations. The complexity of the solution procedure f or these equations increases with the number of components in the mixt ure and consideration of pressure variation. Thus, there is a need for simplified solution methodologies which could reduce the computationa l efforts. This paper presents a solution methodology to solve the mul ticomponent gas permeator transport equations in a countercurrent flow pattern, taking the permeate pressure variation into consideration. T he present method yields analytical expressions for flow rates, permea te pressure, membrane area, and compositions along the length of the p ermeator.