TY - JOUR
T1 - Better hollow fiber contactors
AU - Wickramasinghe, S. R.
AU - Semmens, Michael J.
AU - Cussler, E. L.
PY - 1991/10/30
Y1 - 1991/10/30
N2 - Current hollow fiber contactors are often designed to maximize mass transfer per volume. Such designs make sense for applications in heart-lung machines but not for commercial membrane separations. For commercial separations, better designs minimize the cost per mass transferred. The implications of minimizing the cost per mass transferred, explored here for simple contactor designs, are optimum fiber sizes around 100-200 μm. At smaller fiber sizes, pumping costs are excessive; at larger fiber sizes, membrane costs are unnecessarily high.
AB - Current hollow fiber contactors are often designed to maximize mass transfer per volume. Such designs make sense for applications in heart-lung machines but not for commercial membrane separations. For commercial separations, better designs minimize the cost per mass transferred. The implications of minimizing the cost per mass transferred, explored here for simple contactor designs, are optimum fiber sizes around 100-200 μm. At smaller fiber sizes, pumping costs are excessive; at larger fiber sizes, membrane costs are unnecessarily high.
KW - economics
KW - hollow fiber membranes
KW - microporous membranes
KW - modules
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0026245022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/0376-7388(91)80048-B
DO - 10.1016/0376-7388(91)80048-B
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0026245022
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 62
SP - 371
EP - 388
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
IS - 3
ER -