Patent ID: 7384549

Claim:
A filtration system comprising: a plurality of stages, each stage having a plurality of channels providing at least one serial flow path, each stage being in fluid communication with each adjacent stage preceding it and being in fluid communication with each adjacent stage that follows it; each of the plurality of channels comprising a filtration membrane and having a length, a membrane area, a void volume, a specific membrane area expressed as a ratio of the membrane area to the void volume, and a dimensionless length expressed as a product of the channel length and the specific membrane area; wherein a dimensionless length of a stage is the sum of the dimensionless lengths of each channel in the longest serial flow path in the stage and the dimensionless length of the system is the sum of the dimensionless lengths of the plurality of stages; and wherein the specific membrane area of at least one channel is greater than about 40 cm −1 , the dimensionless length of the system is greater than about 2,000 and the dimensionless length of at least one of the plurality of stages is less than about 6,000.