EXPERIMENTAL BEHAVIOR OF ASYMMETRIC CA MEMBRANES AND ITS USE IN NOVEL SEPARATION SCHEMES.

An internally staged multistage separation scheme has been proposed for hollow fiber membrane permeators. In this scheme, two stages of permeation-separation are locally coupled in a single module. The feasibility of operating an internally staged hollow fiber permeator followed from experimental gas separation data presented. The data indicate that asymmetric hollow fibers with the skin on the outside can be used for separation even when the high pressure feed flows inside the fiber lumen. The internally staged permeator has been numerically modelled, under the assumptions of cocurrent flow and no pressure drop, for three membrane selectivities representative of O//2-N//2 and CO//2-N//2 systems.