KR20170122034A - reverse osmosis module - Google Patents

Abstract

A reverse osmosis membrane module of the present disclosure comprises: a porous outflow tube; a membrane wound around the porous outflow tube; and a partition formed on at least a portion of the membrane to guide the flow of a fluid such that the flow of the fluid introduced into the membrane forms a zigzag shape. An objective of the present invention is to provide a reverse osmosis membrane module in which the residence time of raw water can be increased.

Description

A reverse osmosis module

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reverse osmosis membrane module, and more particularly, to a reverse osmosis membrane module that can be effectively used to filter raw water in which salt is dissolved.

When a semi-permeable membrane permeates water but does not permeate solutes (ions and molecules) dissolved in water but only water, which is a solvent, permeates, when a high-concentration solution and a low-concentration solution are positioned between the high concentration solution and the low concentration solution, the solvent of the low concentration solution moves to the high concentration solution The natural phenomenon to reduce the concentration difference is called osmotic phenomenon. The osmotic pressure difference between the high and low concentration solutions is called osmotic pressure. When a pressure higher than the osmotic pressure is applied to the high concentration solution, the solvent of the high concentration solution moves backward to the low concentration solution, and this is the reverse osmosis principle.

The reverse osmosis principle as described above is one of the ways to solve the serious water shortage due to climate change due to global warming, increase in industrial use due to industrialization, and increase in water demand due to population increase, which is the core of seawater desalination technology to be.

Methods for removing salts in seawater can be roughly divided into evaporation and reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis is the separation of salt and water by transferring water, a solvent in a high concentration solution, to a low concentration solution using pressure.

Conventional reverse osmosis membrane modules include membranes for filtration. If the time required for the raw water to stay in the membrane is short, the amount of the purified water recovered after filtration is decreased, and the recovery rate is relatively low. Thus, there is a need for a need to increase the residence time of the raw water in the membrane.

Korean Patent Publication No. 2015-0034855

It is an object of the present invention to provide a reverse osmosis membrane module in which the residence time of raw water can be increased.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a reverse osmosis membrane module that can prevent a part of the operation from being deformed during operation.

The reverse osmosis membrane module according to one aspect of the present invention includes a porous outflow tube, a membrane wound around the porous outflow tube, and a flow channel formed in at least a portion of the membrane, the flow of the fluid flowing into the membrane being zigzag As shown in FIG.

At this time, the membrane has an inlet section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition, and the inlet section may have a width smaller than a length of the membrane wound around the porous outlet tube.

At this time, the membrane is divided into an inflow section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition, a transfer section through which the fluid is transferred, and a discharge section through which the fluid is discharged, and the fluid introduced into the membrane flows along the porous outflow tube Moving in a first direction, changing a direction, moving in a second direction opposite to the first direction in the transporting section, changing the direction again, and moving in the first direction in the discharge section.

The membrane is divided into an inlet section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition wall, a transfer section through which the fluid is transferred and a discharge section through which the fluid is discharged. The partition wall is formed to be perpendicular to the porous outlet pipe, One end of which is connected to the porous outlet pipe to form the width of the inlet section and the other end of which is connected to the end of the membrane to form the width of the outlet section, And one end may include two second guide walls connected to the ends of the two first guide walls.

At this time, a third guide wall may be formed along the end portion of the membrane.

At this time, the barrier ribs may be formed by injecting an adhesive liquid in a liquid state into the membrane and then curing.

The reverse osmosis membrane module of the present invention increases the retention time by increasing the retention time of raw water including the septum, thereby increasing the recovery rate while increasing the purified water amount compared with the general reverse osmosis membrane module. Thus, the membrane can be used more efficiently.

Further, in the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the present invention, the partition walls formed in the inflow water channel are formed by curing using an adhesive liquid, thereby minimizing deformation that may occur during operation, thereby improving the durability of the membrane module.

In addition, since the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the present invention increases the fluid linear velocity by the partition walls, the contamination index of the membrane surface can be improved.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a view showing a state in which a membrane is unfolded from a porous outlet pipe in the reverse osmosis membrane module of FIG. 1;
3 is a view showing another example of the shape of the partition wall.
4 is a view illustrating a process of testing a deformation state of a separation membrane module according to a pressure in a state where the membrane is wound on a porous outflow tube.
5 is a graph for explaining the deformation state of the membrane according to the pressure.
6 is a photograph of a state after pressure is applied to a separation membrane module in which a membrane is wound around a porous outlet pipe without using any adhesive liquid or adhesive tape.
7 is a photograph of a state after pressure is applied to a separation membrane module in which a partition wall is formed with an adhesive tape and the membrane is wound around a porous outflow tube.
8 is a photograph of a state after forming a partition wall with an adhesive liquid and applying a pressure to a separation membrane module in which a membrane is wound around a porous outflow tube.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. The present invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the specification.

In addition, in the various embodiments, elements having the same configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals and only representative embodiments will be described. In other embodiments, only the configurations other than the representative embodiments will be described.

Throughout the specification, when a part is referred to as being "connected" to another part, it includes not only "directly connected" but also "indirectly connected" between other parts. Also, when a part is referred to as "including " an element, it does not exclude other elements unless specifically stated otherwise.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a state in which a membrane is opened from a porous outlet tube in the reverse osmosis membrane module of FIG.

1 and 2, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a porous outlet pipe 110, a membrane 130, and a partition 120.

The porous outlet pipe 110 is a portion where the fluid enters and exits. The detailed structure of the porous outflow pipe 110 will be described later.

Membrane 130 filters raw water. The membrane 130 is formed by winding a reverse osmosis membrane used for filtration of raw water on the outer peripheral surface of the porous outlet pipe 110, for example. The membrane 130 is wound on the outer circumferential surface of the porous outlet pipe 110 together with a mesh as an inflow channel forming the fluid to which the fluid can be moved. The mesh forming the flow path may be formed with an inflow passageway through which the fluid flows and an effluent passageway through which the fluid flows.

That is, the membrane 130 may be a conventional reverse osmosis membrane having a flat membrane form capable of removing a salt, so that a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The exterior of the membrane 130 may be protected by a housing (not shown). Such a housing is a component included in a general reverse osmosis membrane module, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The barrier 120 is formed in at least a portion of the membrane 130 to guide the flow of fluid such that the flow of fluid entering the membrane 130 is zigzag. For this, the partition 120 may partition the inside of the membrane 130 into various portions. Accordingly, an inflow channel and an outflow channel may be formed in the membrane 130.

The membrane 130 may be divided into an inlet section F1 through which the fluid is introduced by the partition 120, a transfer section F2 through which the fluid is transferred, and a discharge section F3 through which the fluid is discharged.

The fluid introduced into the membrane 130 moves in the first direction parallel to the porous outlet pipe 110 at the inlet section F1 and changes its direction to the second direction opposite to the first direction at the transport section F2 And the direction can be changed again to move in the first direction in the discharge section F3.

Here, the width L1 of the inlet section F1 and the width L2 of the outlet section F3 may be variously changed according to the design of the reverse osmosis membrane module 100. However, the width L1 of the inlet section F1 and the width L2 of the outlet section F3 may vary L1 may be smaller than the length of the membrane 130 wound on the porous outlet pipe 110, for example.

2, the width L1 of the inlet section F1 and the width L2 of the outlet section F3 in the reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention are the same as those of the porous outlet May be 1/3 of the length of the membrane 130 wound on the tube 110. At this time, the widths of the inflow section F1, the transfer section F2, and the discharge section F3 may be similar.

3, the width L3 of the inflow section F1 of the reverse osmosis membrane module 200 according to another embodiment of the present invention is smaller than the width L3 of the membrane 130 wound on the porous outflow pipe 110 / RTI > < RTI ID = 0.0 > And the width L4 of the discharge section F3 may be 1/4 of the length of the membrane 130 wound around the porous outlet pipe 110. [ That is, the width of the transfer section F2 may be similar to the discharge section F3.

The partition 120 may include two first guide walls 120a and two second guide walls 120b.

The two first guide walls 120a are formed so as to be orthogonal to the porous outlet pipe 110 and one end thereof is connected to the porous outlet pipe 110 to form the width of the inlet section F1 And one end of the other is connected to an end of the membrane 130 to form a width of the discharge section F3.

The two second guide walls 120b are formed in parallel with the porous outlet pipe 110 and have one end connected to the end of each of the two first guide walls 120a.

The first guide wall 120a may control the width L1 or L3 of the inlet section F1 of the reverse osmosis membrane module and the width L2 or L4 of the outlet section F3. The second guide wall 120b can control the interval between the inlet section F1 and the transfer section F2 and the interval between the transfer section F2 and the discharge section F3 in the reverse osmosis membrane module. In addition, the second guide wall 120b allows the fluid to be stably moved in the inflow section F1, the transfer section F2 and the discharge section F3.

Meanwhile, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a third guide wall 120c. The third guide wall 120c is formed along the end of the membrane 130.

The partition wall 120 may be formed by injecting a liquid adhesive liquid into the membrane 130 and curing it. Here, the adhesive liquid may be any one selected from, for example, a bond, a glue, a polyurethane and a polyepoxy. The thickness of the partition 120 formed by such a method may be in the range of 1 mm to 10 mm.

When the adhesive liquid is applied and wound as described above, the membrane-inlet channel structure (mesh) -the sandwich structure of the membrane is coated with the adhesive liquid, So that the inflow water can be guided in a sequential flow to the inlet section F1 and the F2 outlet section F3 by controlling the flow of the inflow water.

Hereinafter, it will be described that the reverse osmosis membrane modules 100 and 200 having the above-described structures are improved in recovery rate and linear velocity as compared with the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example.

Table 1 shows the filtration flow cross-sectional areas of the membrane of the influent and the production water of the reverse osmosis membrane module of Examples 1, 2 and Comparative Example, respectively, and the fluid linear velocity at each of the inlet section F1 and the outlet section F3 . division Flow rate (L / hr) Filtration area (m ² ) Fluid linear velocity (m / s) Inlet section Discharge section Recovery rate (%) Inlet section Discharge section Inlet section Discharge section Comparative Example 42 12.6 30 0.000643 0.000643 0.018 0.013 Example 1 (Figure 1) 25.2 12.6 50 0.000214 0.000214 0.033 0.016 Example 2 (Fig. 2) 25.2 12.6 50 0.000321 0.000161 0.022 0.022

Here, the membrane included in the reverse osmosis membrane module according to Examples 1, 2, and Comparative Example may be in the form of a flat membrane, and the flat membrane has a thickness of 0.15 mm, a width of 250 mm, and a length of 1,150 mm. The thickness of the filtrate flow path forming member (mesh) wound together with the flat membrane was 0.558 mm. Therefore, the cross-sectional area of the filtration flow path of the membrane of the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example is 0.000643 m ² multiplied by the thickness of the flow path forming body and the length of the flat membrane.

And, a first embodiment of the reverse osmosis membrane filtration flow path cross-sectional area of the inlet section of the module (100), (F1) and a discharge section (F3), each of the membrane 130 is a third of 0.000643m ² 0.000214m ^2. Then, the membrane 130 of the second embodiment of the reverse osmosis membrane module 200 includes the inlet section and the flow path cross-sectional area of the filtration membrane 130 in (F1) is 1/2 of 0.000321 0.000643m ^2, the discharge section (F3) of filtered, flow path cross-sectional area of which is 1/4 of 0.000161m ² 0.000643m ^2.

In the reverse osmosis membrane module of Comparative Example in which no partition was formed in this state, the flow rate of the raw water was 42 L / hr and the flow rate of the produced water was 12.6 L / hr, so that the recovery rate was 30%. However, in the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 of Examples 1 and 2, the flow rate of raw water is 25.2 L / hr and the flow rate of produced water is 12.6 L / hr. Therefore, the recovery rate is 50%.

As described above, it can be seen that the recovery rates of the reverse osmosis membrane modules 100 and 200 according to the first and second embodiments are higher than those of the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the comparative example.

The fluid linear velocities of the respective reverse osmosis membrane modules are represented by the following equation (1).

Where V is the fluid linear velocity, Q is the flow rate and A is the filtration cross sectional area.

According to Equation 1, the fluid linear velocity of the inlet section F1 of the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example is a value obtained by dividing the flow rate 42L / hr of the inlet section F1 by 0.000643m ^{2, which} is the cross-sectional filtration flow area of the inlet section F1 0.018 m / s. The fluid linear velocity in the discharge section F3 of the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example is 0.013 m / s.

However, the fluid linear velocity of the inlet section F1 of the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to the first embodiment is 0.033 m / s, and the fluid linear velocity of the outlet section F3 is 0.016 m / s. The fluid linear velocity of the inlet section F1 of the reverse osmosis membrane module 200 according to the second embodiment is 0.022 m / s and the fluid linear velocity of the outlet section F3 is 0.022 m / s.

As described above, it can be confirmed that the fluid linewidths of the reverse osmosis membrane modules 100 and 200 according to the first and second embodiments are higher than those of the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the comparative example.

In particular, the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to the first embodiment significantly increases the fluid linear velocity of the inlet section F1 as compared with the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example and the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the second embodiment, The module 200 significantly increases the fluid linear velocity in the discharge section F3 as compared with the reverse osmosis membrane module of the comparative example. As a result, it was found that the reverse linear velocity of the reverse osmosis membrane modules 100 and 200 according to the first and second embodiments is higher than that of the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the comparative example, It can be seen that the index can be improved.

2, the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the partition wall 120 as an adhesive liquid so that the first guide wall 120a and the second guide wall 120b and the membrane 130 can be firmly formed, and shape deformation due to differential pressure during operation can be prevented.

Therefore, it is possible to prevent the fluid from leaking from the portion where the first guide wall 120a and the second guide wall 120b and the membrane 130 are coupled. In addition, the membrane 130 and the hardened partition 120 can be firmly coupled by applying a liquid adhesive liquid to the membrane 130. That is, the durability of the membrane 130 itself can be further improved by the partition 120.

In addition, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention can minimize the deformation caused during the operation by forming the barrier ribs using an adhesive liquid. The conventional reverse osmosis membrane module is generally manufactured by winding a permeate flow path forming body (tricot), a membrane, and an inflow channel forming body (mesh) into a porous outlet pipe in the form of a sandwich, ) Are adjacent to each other without chemical bonding. For this reason, there may be many cases in which the shape of the module is deformed due to the differential pressure, which is a pressure difference between the inflow section F1 and the discharge section F3, generated during operation.

In order to solve this problem, when the above-described partition is formed of an adhesive tape rather than an adhesive liquid, a leakage of fluid may occur at the connection portion of the adhesive tapes. That is, since the adhesive force between the adhesive tape and the membrane is relatively weak, it may be difficult to solve the deformation caused by the differential pressure in the operation process, which is a structural problem. Also, since a part of the adhesive tape may be folded or curved during the process of manufacturing the reverse osmosis membrane module using the adhesive tape, there is a high possibility that defects occur in the manufactured reverse osmosis membrane module.

However, if the barrier ribs 120 are formed in the membrane 130 with an adhesive solution such as a bond or a glue as described above, the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can prevent the adhesive liquid from flowing into the membrane 130, So that the firmness of the wound module can be further improved. This can be confirmed from the following test.

4 is a view illustrating a process of testing a deformation state of a separation membrane module according to a pressure in a state where a membrane is wound on a porous outflow pipe.

The deformation test of the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to the pressure was performed by using the test equipment 10 in a state in which the membrane 130 was wound on the porous outflow pipe 110, And measuring the displacement of a portion of the membrane 130 where telescoping has occurred after applying a predetermined amount of pressure.

Meanwhile, in the deformation test of the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to the pressure, the reverse osmosis membrane module 100 according to the embodiment is formed with the partition wall 120 inside the membrane 130 using the adhesive liquid. In the reverse osmosis membrane module according to Comparative Example 1, the membrane was wound around the porous outlet pipe without using any adhesive liquid or adhesive tape. In addition, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to Comparative Example 2 is formed with a partition wall inside the membrane using an adhesive tape.

5 is a graph for explaining the deformation state of the membrane according to the pressure.

Referring to FIG. 5, in the reverse osmosis membrane module according to Comparative Example 1, the telescoping phenomenon did not occur in the membrane when the pressure value was in the range of about 10 kgf / cm 2 to 20 kgf / cm 2. However, from the time when the pressure value was 20 kgf / cm 2, the telescoping phenomenon occurred in the membrane and gradually increased until the pressure value reached 60 kgf / cm 2. At the time when the pressure value was 60 kgf / cm < 2 >, a part of the membrane was broken, and the value of the Y-axis thereafter was not shown.

In the case of the positive osmosis device according to Comparative Example 2, the pressure was increased to 10 kgf / cm 2 and the telescoping phenomenon was further increased as the pressure gradually increased. However, when the pressure value exceeded 12 kgf / It was damaged. Therefore, the value of the Y-axis when the pressure value exceeds 12 kgf / cm2 is not shown.

In the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the embodiment, the telescoping phenomenon did not occur until the pressure value reached approximately 90 kgf / cm 2 at the initial value. It can be seen that the bonding force of the membrane itself is remarkably improved by the result of the experiment.

FIG. 6 is a photograph of a state after applying a pressure to a membrane that is wound around a porous outflow tube without using a separate adhesive liquid or adhesive tape. FIG. 7 is a photograph showing a state in which a membrane is formed by a porous tape Fig. 8 is a photograph of a state after pressure is applied to a film obtained by forming a partition wall with an adhesive liquid and winding the membrane on a porous outlet tube. Fig.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, it can be seen that the telescoping phenomenon occurs at a predetermined pressure in the reverse osmosis membrane module according to Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8, it can be seen that the telescoping phenomenon does not occur even if a predetermined pressure is applied to the reverse osmosis membrane module according to the embodiment.

As described above, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a partition wall. By increasing the retention time of the raw water, the water content is increased and the recovery rate can be increased as compared with a general reverse osmosis membrane module. Thus, the membrane can be used more efficiently.

In addition, the reverse osmosis membrane module according to one embodiment of the present invention can improve the durability of the membrane by forming the septum using an adhesive liquid.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, And are not used to limit the scope of the present invention described in the scope. Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and equivalent embodiments are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

100: reverse osmosis membrane module 110: porous outlet tube
120: partition wall 120a: first guide wall
120b: second guide wall 120c: third guide wall
130: Membrane F1: Inflow section
F2: Transfer section F3: Discharge section

Claims (8)

Porous effluent pipe;
A membrane wound around the porous outlet tube; And
A partition wall formed on at least a portion of the membrane to guide the flow of the fluid such that the flow of the fluid introduced into the membrane is zigzag;
And a reverse osmosis membrane module. The method according to claim 1,
The membrane is formed with an inflow section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition,
Wherein the width of the inlet section is smaller than the length of the membrane wound on the porous outlet tube. The method according to claim 1,
The membrane is divided into an inflow section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition, a transfer section through which the fluid is transferred, and a discharge section through which the fluid is discharged.
The fluid introduced into the membrane moves in a first direction parallel to the porous outlet pipe in the inlet section, changes direction and moves in a second direction opposite to the first direction in the transfer section, And is moved in the first direction in the discharge section. The method according to claim 1,
The membrane is divided into an inflow section through which the fluid is introduced by the partition, a transfer section through which the fluid is transferred, and a discharge section through which the fluid is discharged.
Wherein,
One end of which is connected to the porous outlet pipe to form a width of the inlet section and the other end of which is connected to an end of the membrane to define a width of the outlet section Two first guide walls to form the first guide walls; And
And two second guide walls formed in parallel with the porous outlet pipe and having one end connected to an end of each of the two first guide walls. 5. The method of claim 4,
Further comprising a third guide wall formed along an end of the membrane. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the partition wall is formed by injecting an adhesive liquid in a liquid state into the membrane and then curing the membrane. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the adhesive liquid is any one selected from the group consisting of a bond, a glue, a polyurethane, and a polyepoxy. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the thickness of the partition wall is in the range of 1 mm to 10 mm.

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