JPH0751530A - Gas separator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a gas separator supressed in deformation, enhanced in the capacity of hollow yarn, sealability and economical efficiency and also optimum to scaling-up. CONSTITUTION:The stay 12 connecting the resin materials 7 bundling both end parts of hollow yarns 6 is made freely extensible and ring-shaped pedestals are arranged between the inner surfaces of both end parts of a container body and the resin materials 7 while ring-shaped pressure receiving rings 8 are arranged between the resin materials 7 and the end surfaces of the ring-shaped pedestals and spring members are provided between the pressure receiving rings 8 and lid plates 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas separator which uses a hollow fiber when a specific gas is selected and taken out from a mixed gas.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various methods for separating or removing gas, for example, an air-chilled separation method as a typical example for separating oxygen, nitrogen, etc. from air, or a rapid method for small-to-medium-scale separation in recent years. There is an adsorption method typified by the PSA method, which is increasing in number, but more recently, since the performance of various polymer membranes that selectively permeate a specific gas from a mixed gas has been improved, these polymers have been improved. Membrane separation methods using membranes have been extensively industrialized.

Membrane separation does not involve a phase change such as cryogenic separation, and can be separated with a small energy consumption, and since it is not separated by chemical reaction, it can be said that it is easy to reduce the size and weight. There are merits.

The most important factors in gas separation using this polymer membrane are the basic selectivity and permeability of the membrane, and the performance of the polymer membrane on an industrial scale. The structure and configuration of the gas separator for the purpose of exhibiting the above.

The above-mentioned gas separation membrane is usually a porous membrane (thickness:
30 to 700 μ) and is often used as a thread, that is, as a hollow fiber.

FIG. 8 shows a heat exchanger type in which the bundle of hollow fibers is housed in a container barrel.

The type shown in FIG. 15 is "Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-17".
215: Gas separation membrane module "and various structures have been proposed.

Therefore, FIG. 15 which has been conventionally performed will be described below. In this example, an example of selecting CO ₂ from underground natural gas will be described as an example. Natural gas from the underground is a mixed gas of various gases, and its composition is roughly the first
It is as shown in the table.

[0009]

[Table 1]

The mixed gas described above flows into the mixed gas portion 14 in the container body 1 through the mixed gas inlet 3.

Inflow pressure is about 101.5 kg / cm² At G
And the temperature is about 72 ° C.

In the mixed gas "natural gas" that has flowed in, CO ₂ permeates mainly through the pores of the membrane "made of polysulfone" as an example of the material of the hollow fiber 6 and the permeated gas portion 15 has a CO ₂ composition of 83%. It was

The pressure in the permeating gas portion 15 is 5 kg / c.
m ² G. The outer diameter of one hollow fiber 6 is 1.2 m.
m, the thickness is 0.3 mm, and the inner diameter is 0.6 mm.

The unpermeable gas flows out from the unpermeable gas outlet 4. The inner diameter of the container body 1 is 350 mm, and the length is 35 mm.
The hollow fiber 6 has a length of 00 mm and contains 25,000 hollow fibers 6, and both ends of the hollow fiber 6 are bound by a resin plate 7 "made of a cured epoxy resin".

The properties of the cured epoxy resin are as follows.

The bending strength 1230kg / cm ² Flexural modulus 3 × 10 ^-6 kg / cm ² compressive strength 1070kg / cm ² Tensile strength 750 kg / cm ² Elongation (at break) 6.7%

The gas of the mixed gas portion is sealed by the sealing material 9, and the gas of the permeating gas portion is similarly sealed by the sealing material 10 of the lid plate 2. The lid plate 2 is, in this example, screw 11 in the container body 1. It is fixed to.

Further, a stay 12 is provided to fix the mutual distance between the resin plates 7 at both ends so that the hollow fiber 6 is not loosened or pulled.

Further, FIG. 22 shows another example of the conventional method of FIG. 15, but as described above, in order to suppress the deformation of the resin plate 7 as much as possible, the sealing material 9 has two stages and is surrounded by the sealing material 9. By applying a pressure half of the pressure P ₁ and the pressure P _{2 to} the open portion and supporting the sealing material 9 by double, an attempt was made to perform a test for preventing the deformation of the resin plate 7 and ensuring the sealing performance. is there.

The sealing method of FIG. 22 is described in detail in "Sealing structure of pressure vessel lid in actual open 02-66761", but even if this method is applied, a considerable improvement can be seen. The elasticity of the resin itself was too small to achieve sufficient performance.

[0021]

However, the above-mentioned configuration and structure have a big problem as shown in FIGS.

That is, in FIG. 16, the resin plate 7 and the like are attached to the container body 1.
The resin plate 7 is a flat plate, and the hollow fibers 6 are assembled without being loosened or pulled.

In this figure, one hollow fiber 6 is shown as a representative, but in an actual machine, 25,000 fibers are set as described above.

Next, when the mixed gas flows in and is operated, that is, when the load and the deformation state during the operation are shown as shown in FIG. 17, the resin plate 7 has a pressure P of the mixed gas portion.
₁ difference [Delta] P = P ₁ of (in this example 101.5kg / cm ² G) and the permeate gas of the pressure P ^₂ (5kg / cm ₂ G in this example) -
P ₂ = 96.5 kg / cm ² acts in the direction shown in the figure.

Due to this pressure difference, the resin plate 7 is deformed as shown in the figure, that is, the resin plate 7 is greatly deformed because its elastic coefficient is extremely small.

The hollow fiber 7 closer to the center is pulled, and at the same time, the hollow fiber of the resin plate portion has a narrower inner diameter and a wider hollow fiber. And the pressure loss increases, and the permeable gas portion 15
The pressure P ₂ of P is decreased. Also, the adhesive surface 19 is easily peeled off.

Therefore, the differential pressure ΔP is further increased, and the deformation and influence are large and the energy consumption is large.

Next, as shown in FIG. 18, at the time of stoppage, the contact surface 19 is more easily peeled off due to a fatigue load each time the operation and stop are repeated, and the hollow fiber 6 is also relaxed. Shows.

When the hollow fiber 6 is relaxed, the permeability is deteriorated and the condensate is often retained inside the hollow fiber.

Further, FIG. 19 schematically shows the shape of the permeation hole during assembly. In this state, the permeation hole 17 is in a state where normal performance is obtained, but as shown in FIG. 20, the permeation hole during operation is shown. As described above, since the hollow fiber 6 is pulled as described above, the shape is deformed as shown in the figure, and the gas permeability is deteriorated by that amount.

On the other hand, as described above, if it is intended to reduce the deformation of the resin plate 7 which is a perforated plate having a large number of holes in the resin which is extremely deformable, the thickness of the resin plate 7 is shown in FIG. As described above, "T4" in FIG. 21 must be made large and thick, but the thicker it is, the smaller the effective length L4 of the hollow fiber 6 becomes, which is extremely uneconomical.

Further, the sealing performance is deteriorated due to the deformation of the contact surface of the sealing material 9.

Therefore, since the mixed gas short-passes the sealing material 9, the property of the permeated gas is remarkably deteriorated.

[0034]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, both ends of an inorganic porous membrane hollow fiber bundle are bound with a resin material, and the resin materials at the both ends are connected by stays. Then
The bundled and connected hollow fiber bundles are disposed inside a container body having an inlet for mixed gas and an outlet for non-permeated gas, and lid plates having outlets for permeated gas are attached to and detached from both ends of the container body. In a gas separator that is freely arranged, a stretchable portion is formed in a part of a stay that connects the resin materials at the both ends, and a ring shape is formed between the inner surface of the body at both ends of the container body and the resin material. Of the resin material and a ring-shaped pressure receiving ring on the end surface of the resin-shaped and ring-shaped pedestal, and a spring body is provided between the pressure receiving ring and the cover plate. It is a vessel.

[0035]

[Function] The stay material that fixes the resin material at both ends can be expanded and contracted. Furthermore, since the elastic body and the pressure receiving ring are arranged between the resin material and the cover plate, the pressure difference can be applied to the resin material during operation. Even if pressure is applied, the resin material slides only slightly and does not deform.

Therefore, no tensile force acts on the hollow fiber bundle at all, and the diameter and hole of each hollow fiber are not deformed.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the conventional example shown in FIG. 15 is that a spring 16 and a pressure receiving ring 8 are arranged between a resin material 7 and a cover plate 2, and The stay spring 18 is also incorporated in a part of the stay 12.

The details of this system are shown in FIGS. 2 to 7. By disposing the spring 16, the pressure receiving ring 8 and the stay spring 18, as shown in FIG. 3, during assembly and operation ΔP ₁ (the differential pressure varies). Even if there is a difference pressure) and ΔP ₂ during operation (the pressure difference where the pressure difference may fluctuate), the amount of deformation of each spring and the self-balancing force of its action force cause the resin plate 7
Means that the hollow fiber 6 is always in a flat plate state, so that the hollow fiber 6 can always be kept in a state free from tension or relaxation.

Of course, the force applied to the spring 16, that is, the displacement can be arbitrarily controlled by the rotation of the cover plate 2. Therefore, the pressure and the screw of the cover plate are initially set by the previously calculated displacement and spring constant. As a result of setting the optimum screw-in amount while analyzing data such as the amount of gas permeation, the properties of the permeation gas, and the pressure of the permeation gas, the CO ₂ composition of the permeation gas was 96%, and the pressure was 27.3 kg / cm ²
We were able to obtain a good result called G. The pressure receiving ring 8
Also has a sealing effect.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment having the same structure and operation as in FIG. 1, but the difference from FIG.
The shape of the pressure receiving ring 8 is modified from a semicircular cross section to a triangular cross section.

When the triangle is used, the reaction force for making the resin plate a flat plate is larger than that in the shape shown in FIG. 1, but the sealing action is slightly smaller than that in the shape shown in FIG. It is effective to use them properly according to the design conditions and to select them appropriately.

9 to 14 show the details of the acting force, and the same effect as that described in FIG. 1 was obtained. The pressure receiving ring itself has a sealing action, and combined with the above deformation suppressing action, good results could be obtained.

In this example, the pedestal 13 is made of metal, this time carbon steel is used, and the resin of the resin plate 7 is a thermosetting epoxy resin.

With the combination of these materials, the material of the pressure receiving ring 8 was tested with the following 3 cases.

That is, although it was an epoxy resin, Teflon, or rubber, the required performance could be obtained in any case.

In this example, the combination of the above materials is used, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, even if the material of the pressure receiving ring 8 is metal, the elasticity of the spring 16 is increased. By doing so, it is possible to obtain sufficient performance.

[0047]

As described above, according to the gas separator of the present invention, (1) the resin plate forming the binding portion of the hollow fibers has a small elastic coefficient and a large number of holes are formed, so that the pressure is high. It is liable to be greatly deformed, and the hollow fiber itself is stretched or loosened to deteriorate the original gas selectivity and permeability, but the present invention completely eliminates these phenomena.
The performance has been greatly improved.

(2) The gas separator using a hollow fiber has a tendency not to increase in size due to the above problems, but
With the present invention, a single large separator could be realized.

(3) Furthermore, assembling, disassembling, cleaning and the like are extremely easy, and the life of the separator including the hollow fiber can be extended.

(4) Since the structure and structure are extremely simple, an economical separator was achieved in combination with the above performance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a behavior at the time of assembling the example of the invention of FIG. 1 (in the case of having a spring).

[Fig. 3] ΔP ₁ during operation of the invention example of Fig. 1 (with spring)
Explanatory diagram showing the behavior in.

[Fig. 4] ΔP ₂ during operation of the example of the invention of Fig. 1 (with spring)
Explanatory diagram showing the behavior in.

5 is an explanatory view showing a shape of a through hole at the time of assembly of the example of the invention of FIG. 1 (in the case of having a spring).

[Fig. 6] ΔP ₁ during operation of the example of the invention of Fig. 1 (with spring)
Explanatory drawing which shows a through-hole shape.

FIG. 7: ΔP ₂ during operation of the invention example of FIG. 1 (with spring)
Explanatory drawing which shows a through-hole shape.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a behavior at the time of assembling the invention example of FIG. 8 (in the case of having a spring).

[Fig. 10] ΔP during operation of the example of the invention of Fig. 8 (in the case of having a spring)
Explanatory drawing which shows the behavior in ₁ .

FIG. 11 is the operation ΔP of the example of the invention of FIG. 8 (when a spring is provided).
Explanatory drawing which shows the behavior in ₂ .

12 is an explanatory view showing a shape of a through hole at the time of assembly of the example of the invention of FIG. 8 (in the case of having a spring).

FIG. 13 is the operation ΔP of the example of the invention of FIG. 8 (when a spring is provided).
₁ is an explanatory view showing the shape of a transmission hole.

FIG. 14: ΔP during operation of the example of the invention of FIG. 8 (with spring)
₂ is an explanatory view showing the shape of a transmission hole.

FIG. 15 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional method.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory view showing the behavior at the time of assembling by the conventional method.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory view showing the behavior during operation of the conventional method.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a behavior of the conventional method at the time of stopping.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory view showing a shape of a transmission hole during assembly by a conventional method.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory view showing the shape of a permeation hole during operation of a conventional method.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view showing an increase in resin plate thickness in the conventional method.

FIG. 22 is a sectional view showing another example of the conventional method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Container Body 2 Lid Plate 3 Mixed Gas Inlet 4 Unpermeable Gas Outlet 5 Permeable Gas Outlet 6 Hollow Fiber 7 Resin Plate 8 Pressure Ring 9 Sealing Material 10 Sealing Material 11 Screws 12 Stay 13 Pedestal 14 Mixed Gas Part 15 Permeable Gas Part 16 Spring 17 Hollow Gas Permeation Hole 18 Stay Spring 19 Adhesive Surface 20 Pressure Guide Port 21 Valve 22 Valve 23 Pressure Gauge

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An inorganic porous membrane hollow fiber bundle is bound at both ends with a resin material, and the resin material at both ends is connected by stays, and the bound and connected hollow fiber bundles are connected to a mixture gas inlet. And a both end portion of the gas separator, which is disposed inside a container body having an outlet for unpermeated gas, and has lid plates having outlet ports for the permeated gas detachably disposed at both end portions of the container body. An expandable part is formed in a part of the stay connecting the resin material, and a ring-shaped pedestal is disposed between the inner surface of the body at both ends of the container body and the resin material. 2. A gas separator, wherein a ring-shaped pressure receiving ring is arranged on the end surface of and the ridge is provided between the pressure receiving ring and the cover plate.