Importance

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Abstract

A permeable membrane system comprised of at least two sheets, at least one of the two sheets being a grooved permeable membrane having regularly spaced grooves on at least one surface, the grooves having a predetermined spacing factor, the grooved permeable membrane either having essentially no barrier layer or having a barrier layer on one grooved surface, the sheets being positioned in a configuration with the grooves of that one grooved surface of the grooved permeable membrane sheet forming feed channels with a surface of another sheet which covers that one grooved surface, the grooves being about 0.5 to about 100 mils wide and deep and the feed channels being used to deliver the feed stream to the membrane surface. Preferably, both sheets are permeable membranes. The grooves in the sheets are preferably about 5 to about 35 mils wide and deep for reverse osmosis, about 0.5 to about 20 mils wide and deep for gas separation, and about 15 to about 75 mils wide and deep for ultrafiltration. The grooves on one side of one sheet may be aligned with the grooves on one side of an adjacent sheet, whereby the grooves on one side of one sheet form parts of the feed channels and the corresponding grooves on one side 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 on one side of the grooved sheets form the feed channels with the adjacent surface of a planar sheet.

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First Claim