KR101790974B1 - Method for potting hollow fiber membrane using expandable device - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of potting a hollow fiber membrane in a hollow fiber membrane module assembly, the method comprising: disposing a plurality of hollow fiber membranes in a module; disposing an inflatable hollow structure between the plurality of hollow fiber membranes; Introducing the potting composition into the hollow fiber membranes and the outer surface of the hollow article; curing the potting composition; flowing out the fluid introduced into the inflatable hollow article Contraction of the hollow feature surface area, and removing the expandable hollow feature. There is also provided an expandable hollow article for use in potting a hollow fiber membrane in a hollow fiber membrane module assembly.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a method for potting a hollow fiber membrane using an expansion device,

The present invention relates to a method of potting a hollow fiber membrane using an expansion mechanism, and more particularly to a method of potting a hollow fiber membrane using an expandable mechanism capable of contracting and expanding.

As the demand for water quality improvement has increased, membrane filtration methods for filtering water by a membrane have been widely used in various fields. Membrane technology is a highly sophisticated separation technique for separating and removing a substance to be treated present in the treatment water according to pore size, pore distribution and membrane surface charge. The hollow fiber membrane used as a separation membrane has an advantage of securing a large membrane area per unit volume and is applied to various fluid treatment fields such as chemical purification, sterilization filtration and purification.

1 illustrates a water treatment module assembly using a hollow fiber membrane.

Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of (only three shown) hollow fiber membranes 105 are housed in a module case 104, and a hollow fiber membrane and a module case And the end of the hollow fiber membrane is opened to constitute a liquid-flowable state. Then, the filtered water is collected in the upper cap 101, and further collected upwardly from the filtered water collection port 112. On the other hand, at the bottom of the case, the hollow fiber membrane is adhesively fixed to the module case by liquid tightly by the lower potting portion 107, and the end of the hollow fiber membrane is closed. In the lower potting portion 107, a plurality of raw material water introducing holes 108 capable of supplying raw material water are opened. 1, the raw water flows from the raw water supply port 110 formed in the lower lower cap 103 to the module case body 110 via the raw water introduction hole 108 102, most of the raw water passes through the pores formed on the surface of the hollow fiber membrane 105, and the thus obtained filtered water flows from the upper hollow fiber membrane opening through the upper cap 101 to the filtration water collection port 112 It is collected. Further, a part of the raw water is concentrated water, and is discharged from the concentrated water discharging nozzle 111 on the upper side. The upper cap 101 is detachably fixed to the upper end of the module by the metal cap engagement jig 120 and the lower cap 103 is detachably fixed to the lower end of the module by the same jig 121. [

As described above, the lower potting portion 107 is provided with a plurality of holes 108 (hereinafter, referred to as raw material water introducing holes) capable of supplying raw water or air. Hereinafter, such an introduction hole forming process will be briefly described. FIG. 2 shows a hollow article 90 used for forming an introduction hole in a potting process, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of the hollow article fixing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. A plurality of hollow hollow articles 90 made of polyethylene having an outer diameter of 11 mm are attached to the case or the module 104 at a position corresponding to the position of the fixing device 10 The potting cap 20 is fastened to the case and the potting composition such as the liquid urethane resin is injected into the potting part 107 to form the potting part 107. [ When the potting cap, the plurality of hollow articles 90 and the fixing device are removed in the reverse order after the resin is sufficiently cured, a plurality of raw material water introducing holes capable of supplying raw water or air to the potting portion 107 are formed.

However, when the raw material water introducing hole 108 is formed in the potting portion 107 in the above-described conventional manner, particularly when the packing ratio of the separation membrane is high or a plurality of hollow articles are arranged, the hollow- The inside of the hollow fiber membrane is in a state of no space, that is, in a dense state, and when the hollow polyethylene material is sandwiched between the membranes, the hollow fiber membranes are pushed up into the module. Because the hollow fibers are pushed up and rearranged, there is a problem that the separation membrane can not filter contaminants well or the assembly process is delayed. Therefore, when the hollow article 90 is inserted into the module, A process of removing the hollow fiber membranes from the side, that is, a process of forming a space for inserting a hollow article is required. Further, after the potting process is completed, when the hollow material disposed for forming the raw water introduction hole is taken out of the module, it is difficult to remove the hollow material by the pressure, specific surface area, etc. of the urethane, which is a potting composition, ) Or removed from the module by an external force. However, this removal operation damages the hollow fiber membranes inside the module or increases the possibility of single yarn breakage. It has been found that damaged hollow fiber membranes in the course of the usual hollow article removal process at the site of work reach at least several to several hundreds of strands.

In order to solve the above problems, it is proposed to use an expandable hollow member instead of the conventional hard hollow member in the formation of the potting portion. The potting process according to the present invention is implemented with a shrinkable or expandable hollow article or an expansion mechanism.

The present invention provides a method of potting a hollow fiber membrane in a hollow fiber membrane module assembly, the method comprising: disposing a plurality of hollow fiber membranes in a module; disposing an inflatable hollow article between the plurality of hollow fiber membranes; Introducing a potting composition into an outer surface of the plurality of hollow fiber membranes and the hollow article; curing the potting composition; curing the fluid introduced into the expandable hollow article; To shrink the surface area of the hollow article, and removing the expandable hollow article.

In a non-limiting embodiment, the inflatable hollow article according to the present invention comprises a cylindrical body portion; And a fluid passage formed on one side of the body portion. The end portion in the insertion direction of the body portion is a structure having a reduced diameter, and can be made of a stretchable material.

In a non-limiting embodiment, the outer surface area of the expandable hollow article according to the present invention can be increased to 50 to 200% volume by fluid introduction. The fluid introduced to inflate the inflatable hollow article may be a gas or a liquid.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an expandable hollow article which can be applied to a hollow fiber membrane potting process in the process of assembling hollow fiber membrane modules.

According to the present invention, the inflatable hollow member used for potting the hollow fiber membranes in the hollow fiber membrane module assembly includes a cylindrical body portion, a fluid passage formed on one side of the body portion, and an end portion having a reduced diameter formed on the other side of the body portion. Material. Non-limitingly, the inflatable hollow article further comprises upper and lower protrusions that can be fastened to the hollow fixture at the fluid passage side.

When the potting process is implemented by the shrinkable or expandable hollow material or the expansion device according to the present invention, since the expandable hollow material having a smaller outer surface area in the first shrinkage state is inserted between the hollow fiber membranes, the problem of the separation membranes being pushed up is solved, The manual work for securing the insertion space can be omitted. Second, since the outer surface area of the hollow article can be adjusted according to the fluid injection amount, the size of the raw water introduction hole can be adjusted. Third, since the expanded hollow product is shrunk again, the problem of single yarn or damage due to friction with the hollow fiber membranes can be solved.

1 is a sectional view of a water treatment module assembly using a hollow fiber membrane.
2 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional hollow material used for forming a raw water introduction hole in a potting process.
3 is a plan view of a fixing device for fixing a hollow article.
4 is a cross-sectional view of the inflatable hollow member according to the present invention in a contracted state and an expanded state.
FIG. 5 shows a schematic porting process using an inflatable hollow article according to the present invention.
6 is a flow chart of the potting process according to the present invention.

The present invention implements a potting process in a hollow fiber membrane module using a shrinkable or expandable hollow article or expansion mechanism.

In the hollow fiber membrane module assembly process, potting is a process of fixing a plurality of hollow fiber membranes in a module case to a module case. A plurality of fluid passages must be formed as necessary in adhering the hollow fiber membranes to the case by using a potting composition composed of urethane or epoxy resin. In the present invention, such a fluid passage can also be generally referred to as a raw water introducing hole. In the conventional potting operation, the raw water inlet hole is formed in the potting portion by using the hollow material as shown in FIG. 2. However, manual work is required to secure the space occupied by the hollow material, and when the hollow material is removed, I was faced with the problems of

The inventors have confirmed that these disadvantages can be solved if they are implemented using a shrinkable or expandable hollow body or expansion mechanism in the potting process. In the present invention, the term shrinkable or expandable hollow article or expansion mechanism or expandable mechanism is used interchangeably.

The shrinkable or expandable hollow article 900 that may be used in the present invention may be made of an elastic hollow body. Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary hollow article according to the present invention. The inflatable device 900 according to the present invention includes a cylindrical body portion 910; And a fluid passage 920 formed at one side of the body portion. The end portion 911 of the body portion in the direction of insertion into the hollow fiber membrane is formed at the end of the structure gradually becoming smaller in diameter from the other side 915 of the body portion, And a point 914 having a diameter that is approximately 1/2 of the diameter. Preferably, there are upper and lower protrusions 901, 902 that can be fastened to the fastening device, a coupling groove 903 with the fastening device is provided between the protrusions, and the hollow object upper / The hollow object insertion port 11 is completely sealed so that the urethane or epoxy filled in the separation membrane module is prevented from flowing out of the hollow article fixing device. Since the dimensional stability is not guaranteed when the ratio of L / D (length / diameter) is 3 or less, L / D (length / diameter) / Diameter) ratio is preferably 5 or more. The hollow article is made of a stretchable material, preferably an aluminum material that can withstand the deformation due to urethane or epoxy which is filled when the hollow fiber membrane module is ported, And can be produced as a stretchable polymer elastic film. Inside an aluminum-based hollow article, the fluid may be filled and expanded by a pressure of less than 5 kgf / cm ² . Specifically, in the normal or contraction state (Fig. 4A) of the body portion, the outer surface area is narrower than that of the conventional conventional fixed hollow article 90, for example, the cross-sectional average diameter is 0.5 to 2.5 mm and the average length is 15 to 50 mm , The cross-sectional average diameter in the expanded state, that is, in the inflated state, may be 3 to 200 mm, and the average length may be 50 to 1000 mm. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the bore diameter formed in the potting portion 107 by this expansion mechanism can be adjusted. The advantages of such diameter control are briefly described. One of the reasons for forming the hole 108 in the hollow fiber membrane module is to inject air into the hollow fiber membrane module, that is, air introduced into the hollow fiber membrane module is physically shaken by physically shaking the hollow fiber membrane inside the hollow fiber membrane module If the amount of air to be injected into the hollow fiber membrane is large or can not be properly distributed, the separation membrane may be wound by air. Therefore, in order to control the amount of air introduced, direction and size of air bubbles , The diameter of the hole can be adjusted by using the expansion mechanism according to the present invention. In addition, the raw water (dirty water) is supplied or discharged into the hollow fiber membrane module through the holes. In this case, a certain size of holes is required for rapid inflow and outflow of raw water. However, It is difficult to accommodate a certain amount of hollow fiber membrane in the separation membrane module, and when the hole is too small, the raw material water can not easily flow in / out. Therefore, the diameter of the hole can be adjusted by using the expansion mechanism of the present invention in designing the optimum diameter. The fluid passage 920 of the expansion mechanism according to the present invention is formed on the opposite side of the insertion end, and the passage diameter may preferably be 1-100 mm. For ease of understanding in the drawings, fluid passages are shown as being formed on the opposite side, but are not limited thereto. In the present invention, the expandable hollow article can be referred to as a balloon type or a variable type hollow article. The inflatable hollow article is provided with sufficient strength to push adjacent hollow fiber membranes in a contracted state, i.e., a steady state (Fig. 54A) and an expanded state due to fluid introduction (Fig. 4B).

A fluid for volume expansion can be injected into the inflatable hollow object according to the present invention. As a matter of course, air is usually injected into the fluid, but liquid or solid powder can be injected as needed. By the fluid injection, the outer surface area of the hollow article is increased to at least 50 to 200% by volume, whereby a space can be established with the hollow fiber membranes adjacent to the hollow article, and this space is ultimately filled with the raw water Lt; / RTI > It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that by adjusting the volume increase rate, the diameter of the raw water inlet path and the diameter of the raw water inlet path in the extending case can be adjusted.

Hereinafter, the potting process using the inflatable hollow member will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG.

First, a plurality of hollow fiber membranes 105 are disposed in the module 104 (FIG. 5A). In the field, when the filling rate of the hollow fiber membranes is usually 40% and usually 24 hollow hollow articles 90 are disposed, when the hollow hollow articles having a cross-sectional diameter of 1.5 mm are inserted between the hollow fiber membranes, there is a problem that the hollow fiber membranes are pushed up . According to the present invention, a large number of hollow fiber membranes are disposed in the module at a filling rate of 40% or more, and an inflatable hollow article 900 having 24 cross-sectional diameters of 0.5 mm is disposed between them. No elevation of the separation membranes was observed when deploying the inflatable hollow article having a low external surface area. Then, the module is mounted between the module outer diameter inserting groove 12 and the inner diameter inserting groove 13 to connect the hollow matter fixing device 10 to the module. One end of the inflatable hollow article 900 inserted through the insertion port 11 of the fixing device is arranged side by side between the plurality of hollow fiber membranes (FIG. 5B). Air is introduced into the expandable hollow material disposed between the hollow fiber membranes to expand the surface area of the hollow material, and the degree of air inflow can be varied depending on the required size of the raw material water introduction hole (FIG. 5C). Since the insertion end and the entire body are expanded by air inflow, the inflatable mechanism 900 can form a raw water inflow path of a desired volume in a space adjacent to the hollow fiber membranes. Then, the potting cap 20 is attached to the module 104, and the threading thread 120 and the threading thread 21 of the potting cap are fastened (Fig. 5D). A potting composition of urethane or epoxy is introduced into the interior of the module through an opening (not shown) formed in a part of the module to fill the plurality of hollow fiber membranes and the outer surface of the hollow article (FIG. 5E). It will be understood that when the hollow product is ultimately removed by such a potting operation, the raw water introducing hole may be formed in the potting part 107. The charged potting composition seals one end of the hollow fiber membranes 105 and adheres the hollow fiber membranes to the module case and surrounds the inflatable hollow article 900. With the potting method according to the present invention, it is possible to adjust the hole diameter formed in the potting part 107. Referring to the drawings, two points of arrival of the potting part inside the module are exemplified. Specifically, the first point 170 may be formed below the second point 170 '. When the first point corresponds to the upper position of the potting portion, a larger hole may be formed than when the second point corresponds to the potting portion upper position. Without limitation, the second point may be a point 914 having a diameter that is approximately one half the diameter of the body portion. After the potting composition is cured, the air introduced into the inflatable hollow product is discharged to return the surface area of the hollow product to the normal state, that is, the contraction state, and the potting cap 20 is removed to remove the inflatable hollow product from the potting part 107 (Fig. 5F). Therefore, the single yarn and damage of the hollow fiber membrane that can be generated by forcibly removing the hollow article are prevented. Finally, the fixing device 10 attached to the module is removed to complete the formation of the potting portion (FIG. 5F). And the lower cap 103 is detachably fixed to the lower end of the module by the metallic cap fastening jig 121. [

10 Hollow Fiber Membrane
20 port cap
105 hollow fiber membrane
104 Module case
106 upper potting portion
107 lower potting portion
108 holes
900 Expansive hollow structure
901 Fixing upper protrusion
902 fixing lower protrusion
910 body portion
911 body end
920 fluid passage

Claims (6)

A method of potting a hollow fiber membrane in a hollow fiber membrane module assembly, comprising: disposing a plurality of hollow fiber membranes in a module; disposing an inflatable hollow article between the plurality of hollow fiber membranes; Expanding the surface area of the hollow article, applying a potting composition to the outer surface of the plurality of hollow fibers and the hollow article, curing the potting composition, flowing out the fluid introduced into the expandable hollow article, And removing the inflatable hollow object, wherein the inflatable hollow object comprises: a cylindrical body portion; And a fluid passage formed at one side of the body portion, the end portion in the insertion direction of the body portion being a constricted structure, and being composed of a stretchable material. delete 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the outer surface area of the expandable hollow article is increased in volume by 50 to 200% by fluid introduction. The method of claim 1, wherein the fluid introduced to inflate the inflatable hollow article is a gas or a liquid. An expandable hollow article used for porting a hollow fiber membrane in a hollow fiber membrane module assembly, comprising: a cylindrical body portion (910); a fluid passage (920) formed on one side of the body portion; and an end portion ) And is comprised of an elastic material. 6. The inflatable hollow article 900 according to claim 5, wherein the fluid passage side is provided with upper and lower protrusions (901, 902) that can be fastened to a hollow fixture.

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