Patent ID: 7918921
Filing Date: 2011-04-05
Classification: B01D

Abstract:
1. A gas-separation assembly, comprising: (a) a plurality of module-carrying tubes each having a longitudinal tube wall and a tube interior containing a plurality of gas separation membrane elements aligned in series along the module-carrying tube; (b) a housing containing the module-carrying tubes, the housing comprising a residue end, a permeate end and a central portion between the ends; (c) a residue-end tube sheet mounted in the housing towards the residue end; (d) a permeate-end tube sheet mounted in the housing towards the permeate end; the tube sheets dividing the interior of the housing into three separate gas-tight spaces: (i) a residue gas space at the residue end, (ii) a permeate gas space at the permeate end, and (iii) a feed gas space in the central portion between the residue and permeate spaces, and in which the module-carrying tubes are mounted in spaced-apart relationship with each other; (e) a feed gas port in the central portion; (f) a permeate gas port at the permeate end; (g) a residue gas port at the residue end; (h) first means to pass feed gas from the feed gas space into the module-carrying tubes in such a way that parallel feed gas flow to multiple membrane elements within the module-carrying tube is provided; (i) second means to pass permeate gas to the permeate gas space; (j) third means for residue gas to be collected and passed to the residue gas space.