Patent ID: 8540876

Claim:
A separation system comprising: an elongated pressure vessel having a feed stream inlet, a residual stream outlet and at least one permeate stream outlet; a first tube sheet assembly disposed within the pressure vessel, the first tube sheet assembly including a first pair of tube sheets and a plurality of first sleeves disposed therebetween, wherein the first pair of tube sheets define a first permeate reservoir therebetween, the first permeate reservoir in fluid communication with the at least one permeate stream outlet; a first fluid reservoir disposed within the pressure vessel between a first end of the pressure vessel and the first tube sheet assembly; and a plurality of membrane cartridge assemblies disposed within the pressure vessel and extending between the first end and a second end of the pressure vessel, at least one membrane cartridge assembly including a first permeate adapter and a membrane cartridge, the first permeate adapter joined to a first end of the membrane cartridge and disposed within one of the first sleeves, wherein the first permeate adapter comprises: a front plate having at least one fluid opening and a permeate opening which receives an end of a permeate passage tube of a membrane cartridge at the front plate and is in fluid communication with a permeate reservoir; a back plate longitudinally spaced from the front plate and having at least one fluid opening; and at least one tube extending from the front plate to the back plate to fluidly couple the front plate fluid opening and the back plate fluid opening which receives an end of a membrane cartridge at the front plate and is in fluid communication with a fluid reservoir adjacent the back plate, the front plate and back plate comprising discrete structural bodies joined together by the at least one tube.