Claims
- 1. A filtration apparatus for receiving a liquid feedstock and a gas and for separating the feedstock into a filtrate and a gas-containing retentate, comprising:
at least one inlet to the apparatus for introduction of the feedstock and the gas to a feed end face of a filtration device; the filtration device comprising at least one monolith of porous material, the monolith containing a plurality of passageways extending longitudinally from the feed end face to a retentate end face of the monolith, through which the liquid feedstock and gas flow to pass the gas-containing retentate from the device; a filtrate collection zone external to the device; at least one filtrate conduit within the device, isolated from the feed and retentate end faces, for carrying filtrate toward the filtrate collection zone, the filtrate conduit providing a path of lower flow resistance than that of alternative flow paths through the porous material; at least one outlet from the apparatus for withdrawal of the gas-containing retentate from the outlet end face of the device; and at least one seal to separate the feedstock and the gas-containing retentate from the filtrate collection zone.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the surface area of the monolith passageway wall surfaces is at least 150 square meters per cubic meter of the monolith.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the porous material of the filtration device is a ceramic.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 3 in which the ceramic is selected from the group consisting of cordierite, alumina, mullite, silica, zirconia, titania, spinel, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, and mixtures thereof.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the porous material has a porosity of at least 30% and a mean pore size of at least 3 microns.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the filtration device is comprised of a single monolith.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the filtration device is comprised of a monolith assembly.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a housing, in which the filtration device is contained within the housing for filtrate collection and the filtrate collection zone is the annular space between the device and the housing.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the filtration device is sealed along its exterior surface and the filtrate is withdrawn from at least one end face of the device.
- 10. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the apparatus is oriented vertically and the inlet is at the bottom of the apparatus.
- 11. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the apparatus is oriented vertically and the inlet is at the top of the apparatus.
- 12. The filtration apparatus of claim 1 further including a permselective membrane of a pore size smaller than that of the porous material, the permselective membrane being applied to the passageway wall surfaces of the filtration device.
- 13. The filtration apparatus of claim 12, wherein the permselective membrane applied to the filtration device is selected from the group consisting of membranes suitable for microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, or pervaporation.
- 14. The device of claim 13 in which the membrane is a microfiltration membrane with a pore size from about 0.1 to about 1 micron.
- 15. The device of claim 13 in which the membrane is an ultrafiltration membrane with a pore size from about 2 nm to about 0.1 micron.
- 16. A method for separating a liquid feedstock in a filtration apparatus into a filtrate and gas-containing retentate which method comprises: providing a filtration apparatus of claim 1;introducing a liquid feedstock and a gas into the feed end face of the filtration device contained in the apparatus and into a plurality of the device passageways for separation into filtrate and gas-containing retentate; flowing the filtrate from the passageways through the filtrate conduit in the filtration device toward the external filtrate collection zone; collecting the filtrate in the filtrate collection zone; and removing the retentate and the gas-containing retentate from the retentate end face of the device and the retentate end of the apparatus.
RELATED CASES
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 10/261,107, filed Sep. 30, 2002, “Airlift Membrane Device and Membrane Bioreactor and Bioreactor Process Containing Same”, by Robert L. Goldsmith, which is a utility application claiming priority of provisional application U.S. Ser. No. 60/404,944 filed on Aug. 21, 2002.
Government Interests
[0002] The results in Example 1 of this invention were obtained with Government support under the SBIR Phase I Grant DE-FG02-03ER83621 awarded by the Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in this invention for the application to the removal of catalyst particulates from Fischer-Tropsch catalyst/wax slurries.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60404944 |
Aug 2002 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10261107 |
Sep 2002 |
US |
Child |
10853976 |
May 2004 |
US |