| abstract |
A permeable membrane system comprised of at least two sheets, at least one of the two sheets being a permeable membrane and at least one of the two sheets having regularly spaced grooves on at least one surface, the sheets being positioned in a configuration with the grooves on the surface of one sheet forming feed channels with a surface of the covering sheet. In the preferred configurations, both sheets are permeable membranes. In one configuration of the system, the grooved sheets may be positioned so that the grooves in one sheet are aligned with the grooves in an adjacent sheet, whereby the grooves in one sheet form parts of the feed channels and the corresponding grooves of the other sheet form the other parts of the feed channels. Or, the grooved sheets may be alternated with planar sheets so that the grooves of the grooved sheets form the channels with the adjacent surface of a planar sheet. The sheet may instead be arranged with grooves for feed channels covered by the planar surface of a sheet with grooves on its other surface for a permeate channel which are parallel or perpendicular to the grooves of the sheet for the feed channels. In still another configuration, at least one of the sheets contains grooves for feed channels on one surface of the membrane and parallel or perpendicular grooves for a permeate channel on the other surface of the membrane. n Separation processes utilize the permeable membrane systems. For those separations, the permeable membrane system is preferably made in the plate-and-frame or spiral-wound configuration. |