Patent ID: 6767455
Filing Date: 2004-07-27
Classification: B01D,C02F,Y02W

Abstract:
A submerged, vertically-mounted airlift membrane device comprising:a structure of one or more monolith segments of porous material, each monolith segment defining a plurality of passageways extending longitudinally from a bottom feed end face to a top retentate end face, the surface area of the passageways in the monolith segment being at least 150 square meters per cubic meter of monolith segment volume; said porous material having a porosity of at least 30% and a mean pore size of at least 3 microns; a porous membrane with mean pore size below 1 micron applied to the walls of the monolith segment passageways to provide a separating barrier; a gas sparger located below the device to provide a gas-sparged liquid feed stock at the bottom end face to provide airlift circulation of feed stock through the device, which separates the feed stock into filtrate and residual gas-containing retentate which passes from the top end face of the device; at least one filtrate conduit within the device for carrying filtrate from within the device toward a filtrate collection zone of the device, the filtrate conduit providing a path of lower flow resistance than that of alternative flow paths through the porous material; and at least one seal to separate feed stock and retentate from the filtrate collection zone.