JP3115624B2 - Hollow fiber membrane module and method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hollow fiber membrane module and a method for producing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a semipermeable membrane module, which is the heart of a reverse osmosis apparatus, an ultrafiltration apparatus or a microfiltration apparatus, comprises:
Various types are used depending on the application. One of them, the hollow fiber membrane module, has a length of 100 to 200 mm.
It contains a hollow fiber bundle consisting of tens to tens of thousands of hollow fibers having a diameter of 0 mm and an outer diameter of about 0.02 to 2 mm. And since it is compact, it is widely used in various fields.

In order to bond and seal the ends of the hollow fiber bundle in such a hollow fiber membrane module, an epoxy adhesive or a urethane adhesive is generally used. These are used in a single material.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Epoxy adhesives are:
After hardening, it becomes hard and tough, and has high chemical resistance, solvent resistance, heat resistance, etc., and is therefore suitable as an end sealing material for hollow fiber membrane modules. However, since the hollow fiber is relatively flexible, when it is bonded to a resin that hardens after curing,
Adhesive strength tends to be less than expected.

Further, when the material of the hollow fiber is a resin that is particularly difficult to adhere to an epoxy adhesive, for example, when a polyolefin resin is used, adhesion is difficult. Further, during the production of the hollow fiber, after the end portion is sealed with the adhesive, the excess adhesive cured material is usually cut with a cutter or a rotating plate to open the end portion of the hollow fiber. At this time, if the hollow fiber and the adhesive are not well bonded, the cutter or the blade of the rotating plate rubs the opening of the hollow fiber during cutting, and the hollow fiber is crushed and the opening is closed. Get up.

When such a hollow fiber type membrane module is used, since the hollow fiber opening at the end of the hollow fiber is closed, the flow path of the module cannot be sufficiently obtained, and the pressure loss of the module increases. . Further, since the fluid does not flow through the effective membrane portion of the hollow fiber whose end is clogged, various problems occur, such as a decrease in the effective membrane area of the entire module.

[0007] In addition, a relatively hard resin such as an epoxy resin tends to have a relatively rough end face after cutting. For this reason, a foreign substance is liable to be caught on the portion during use. Then, the trouble that the opening of the hollow fiber is closed by the caught foreign matter easily occurs.

On the other hand, urethane-based resins are mainly used for small modules that do not apply a relatively large force because the cured resin is flexible. However,
Urethane resin lacks heat resistance and chemical resistance.
Modules that require durability have some difficulties to use. Further, since the resin is flexible, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the end portion of the hollow fiber membrane module in order to have sufficient pressure resistance. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the effective film area per module becomes small and the loss is large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a hollow fiber membrane module having high reliability without causing any trouble and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a hollow fiber bundle formed by bundling a large number of hollow fibers is loaded into a membrane module case, and the end of the hollow fiber bundle and the case are bonded and sealed. In a hollow fiber membrane module in which at least one end of both ends of the hollow fiber is opened, the material of the hollow fiber
The material is a polyolefin resin, and the adhesively sealed portion of the open end of the hollow fiber is formed by laminating a urethane resin adhesive layer and an epoxy resin adhesive layer , and
The hollow fiber membrane module is characterized in that the opening end of the hollow fiber membrane module is a urethane resin adhesive layer .

[0011] In the hollow fiber membrane module of the present invention, the epoxy resin adhesive layer at the bonding portion mainly has performances related to strength, such as pressure resistance, heat resistance and chemical resistance, of the hollow fiber membrane module. On the other hand, the urethane resin adhesive layer in the portion corresponding to the opening of the hollow fiber plays a role of easily cutting the end of the hollow fiber at the time of manufacturing the hollow fiber membrane module by utilizing its flexibility. That is, the hollow fiber is reliably opened, and a smooth end face free of foreign matter is formed.

The material of the hollow fiber membrane used in the present invention is Polya.
Acrylonitrile resins, polymethylmethacrylate resins,
Cellulose acetate resins, polyolefin resins, polysulfone resins, polyether sulfone-based resin, polyamide resin, polyimide resin, in such as fluorine group-containing resin
For this reason, a polyolefin resin that particularly increases the effects of the present invention is selected.

A hollow fiber membrane containing a polyolefin resin and a hollow fiber membrane made of a polyolefin resin do not sufficiently adhere to an adhesive and have a relatively low glass transition point of the resin. For this reason, when manufacturing the hollow fiber membrane module, when cutting the end of the hollow fiber bundle after adhesive sealing,
The end of the hollow fiber is easily blocked as described above. That is, since the adhesive force with the adhesive is low, a part of the hollow fiber is peeled off from the adhesive by a blade such as a cutter when cutting with a cutting tool such as a cutter, and the hollow fiber is easily blocked. In addition, when the adhesive has high heat resistance, even if the adhesive may be cut while applying heat, the heat may cause the hollow fiber to shrink and close.

Therefore, if cutting is performed at the portion including the urethane-based resin adhesive layer of the present invention, the urethane-based resin is relatively large in elongation and is soft, so that it is difficult for the urethane resin to peel off from the soft hollow fiber. Is easy to cut and can be cut at high speed, so that the end of the hollow fiber is less likely to be blocked.

When a resin having high heat resistance is desired to be used for the adhesive sealing portion of the hollow fiber membrane module, it may be used for the epoxy resin layer which is not related to the cutting of the end of the hollow fiber. Further, since the opening at the end of the hollow fiber is securely formed, dust and the like hardly adhere to the opening of the hollow fiber even during use of the module, so that the module hardly causes trouble.

In the present invention, the thickness of the urethane resin adhesive layer and the epoxy resin adhesive layer in the case length direction is not particularly limited. However, the epoxy resin adhesive layer is preferably thick because it maintains the strength of the module. On the other hand, it is preferable that the urethane-based resin adhesive layer is thinner accordingly. Specifically, considering the ease of cutting, it is more preferable that the urethane-based resin adhesive layer has a thickness of 0.1 to 10 mm.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a hollow fiber bundle formed by bundling a large number of hollow fibers is loaded into a membrane module case, and at least one of both ends of the hollow fiber is opened to form a hollow fiber. In a method of manufacturing a hollow fiber membrane module for bonding and sealing an end of a yarn bundle and a case, a material of a hollow fiber
The quality of the material is polyolefin resin, and the treatment of the end of the hollow fiber to be opened is performed by temporarily fixing the end of the hollow fiber to be opened.
After that, the urethane-based resin adhesive layer and the epoxy-based resin adhesive layer are sequentially laminated in the middle direction of the length of the hollow fiber from the side that becomes the opening end, bonded and sealed, and the urethane-based resin adhesive layer is cut. And a method for producing a hollow fiber membrane module.

The hollow fiber membrane module according to the present invention can be used in various fields. For example, water purification,
Food uses such as removal of fine particles of ultrapure water, treatment of waste liquid, treatment of suspension-containing liquid, treatment of organic substance-containing water, treatment of tap water and human waste, and concentration of fruit juice. In addition, there are applications such as deaeration of liquid, pervaporation, and gas separation.

[0019]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. Note that the present invention is not limited by this embodiment.

EXAMPLE As shown in FIG. 1, a bundle of 32,000 polypropylene hollow fibers 2 having an inner diameter of 240 μm and an outer diameter of 300 μm was bundled with a length of 32 c.
m, an inner diameter of 80 mm and an outer diameter of 89 mm were inserted into a cylindrical case 1 made of polysulfone. Then, both ends of the hollow fiber 2 are temporarily fixed with an epoxy-based quick-setting adhesive. After that, it is set in a centrifugal sealer, and the extra length of the cut hollow fiber is 4 mm from the end of the case
An amount of the urethane-based resin adhesive remaining in the case with a thickness of 5 cm was centrifugally injected and cured. In addition, centrifugally inject a heat-resistant epoxy resin adhesive in an amount that will become a 21 mm thick adhesive layer,
By curing, an epoxy resin adhesive layer 4 was obtained. Then, it was taken out of the centrifugal sealer, and an excess portion of the urethane-based resin adhesive layer 3 was cut to open both ends.

The hollow fibers 2 at both ends were all opened cleanly. 24 hours of warm water at 90 ° C is applied to this hollow fiber membrane module.
0 liters / h for 15 minutes, and 20 ° C water at 240 liters / h
The operation of passing through the inside of the hollow fiber 2 was performed once for 15 minutes, and the operation was repeated 20 times. As a result, no leak occurred in the hollow fiber membrane module.

Comparative Example 1 At the time of centrifugal sealing, the thickness of the urethane-based resin adhesive layer was set to 25 mm from the end of the case. A membrane module was manufactured. All the hollow fibers at both ends were cleanly opened. Further, the same test as in the example was performed on this module. As a result, peeling occurred at the bonding portion of the hollow fiber membrane module with the case, and leakage occurred therefrom.

Comparative Example 2 A hollow fiber was prepared in exactly the same manner as in the Example except that the heat-resistant epoxy resin adhesive layer was 25 mm thick from the end of the case without using a urethane adhesive during centrifugal sealing. A mold membrane module was manufactured. However, the hollow fibers at both ends are
Most of them were closed as if they were partly peeled off from the epoxy resin adhesive layer and crushed. Therefore, a performance test could not be performed.

[0024]

According to the hollow fiber membrane module of the present invention, the hollow fiber can be easily cut due to the flexibility of the urethane resin adhesive layer, and the hollow fiber at the module end can be completely and uniformly opened. I do. Therefore, the hollow fiber in the hollow fiber type membrane module can be utilized 100% effectively, and the extraordinary effect that the flow rate between the hollow fibers becomes uniform and foreign matter is less likely to be clogged in the hollow fiber without causing unnecessary pressure loss. To play.

Further, since the surface of the bonding portion at the end of the module is cut cleanly and smoothly, there is an effect that foreign matter hardly adheres to the surface of the bonding portion, and the hollow fiber is less likely to be blocked.

Furthermore, the epoxy resin adhesive layer firmly maintains the strength of the whole module. Therefore, the pressure resistance, durability, etc. are completely the same as those of the conventional hollow fiber membrane module using epoxy resin, and the durability and heat resistance cannot be obtained with the hollow fiber membrane module sealed only with urethane resin adhesive. And the like.

The hollow fiber membrane module of the present invention is particularly effective when applied to a hollow fiber containing a polyolefin resin, which has been conventionally considered to be difficult to adhere, and can improve heat resistance and reliability. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a bonded portion of a case end in a hollow fiber membrane module of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 2 Hollow fiber 3 Urethane resin adhesive layer 4 Epoxy resin adhesive layer

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hollow fiber bundle formed by bundling a large number of hollow fibers is loaded into a membrane module case, the end of the hollow fiber bundle and the case are adhesively sealed, and both ends of these hollow fibers are sealed. In a hollow fiber membrane module having at least one open end, the material of the hollow fiber is a polyolefin resin.
, And the adhesive sealed portion of the open end of the hollow fiber, c
A polyurethane resin adhesive layer and an epoxy resin adhesive layer are laminated , and the open end of the hollow fiber is a polyurethane resin adhesive layer.
A hollow fiber membrane module comprising a fat adhesive layer . 2. A hollow fiber bundle formed by bundling a large number of hollow fibers is loaded into a membrane module case, and at least one end of both ends of these hollow fibers is opened, and the end of the hollow fiber bundle and the case are opened. In the method of manufacturing a hollow fiber membrane module for bonding and sealing the hollow fiber, the material of the hollow fiber is a polyolefin resin.
There, the process of the hollow fiber ends should be opened causes opened
After temporarily fixing the end of the hollow fiber to be preliminarily fixed, the urethane-based resin adhesive layer and the epoxy-based resin adhesive layer are sequentially laminated in the middle direction of the length of the hollow fiber from the side to be the open end, and the sealing is performed. A method for manufacturing a hollow fiber membrane module, comprising cutting and opening a urethane-based resin adhesive layer.