Effect of pressure drop on performance of hollow-fiber membrane module for gas permeation

Abstract

The pressure drop mainly due to viscous friction inside hollow fibers is taken into consideration by nondimensionalization and numerical simulation of governing equations. For pure gas, the permeation pressure and velocity of actual situations with a viscous fluid deviate significantly from those of the corresponding inviscid or no-pressure-drop cases. The apparent permeability estimated from the relation of permeate now rate and pressure difference is considerably underestimated in actual situations, and more severely for the region of small pressure difference and large module length. Numerical simulation shows that the estimated permeability behaves as if it were an increasing function of pressure difference for a constant permeability and roughly a constant for a dual-sorption-type permeability, respectively. For binary-mixture permeation the cut ratio and purity of permeate stream are mainly governed by two dimensionless parameters standing for pressure drop and permeability, respectively. The cut ratio and corresponding product composition are predictable without the rigorous simulation of the governing equations.