US 12,257,552 B2
Separation membrane element
Shu Taniguchi, Otsu (JP); Kentaro Takagi, Otsu (JP); and Takeshi Konda, Otsu (JP)
Assigned to TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC., Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 17/638,063
Filed by Toray Industries, Inc., Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Aug. 26, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/032195
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 24, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/039846, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-157773 (JP), filed on Aug. 30, 2019; application No. 2019-231577 (JP), filed on Dec. 23, 2019; and application No. 2020-094335 (JP), filed on May 29, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0314171 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. B01D 63/10 (2006.01); B01D 65/08 (2006.01); B01D 69/02 (2006.01); C02F 1/44 (2023.01)
CPC B01D 63/10 (2013.01) [B01D 69/02 (2013.01); C02F 1/44 (2013.01); B01D 65/08 (2013.01); B01D 2325/24 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A separation membrane element comprising at least a water collecting pipe, separation membranes, a supply-side channel member, and a permeation-side channel member, wherein:
the supply-side channel member is interposed between two surfaces of the separation membranes to form a supply-side channel;
the supply-side channel member has a net shape in which plural fibrous rows X comprising fibrous objects A and arranged in one direction and plural fibrous rows Y comprising fibrous objects B and arranged in a different direction than the fibrous rows X cross each other sterically to form intersections;
at least one of the fibrous objects A and the fibrous objects B have a large diameter portion and a small diameter portion along a longitudinal direction;
in a longitudinal cross section including an arbitrary fibrous row and taken along a longitudinal direction of the arbitrary fibrous row, at least one of the fibrous objects A and the fibrous objects B comprise a thread that is thinner at a central portion located between intersection portions of the fibrous rows X and the fibrous rows Y than at the large diameter portion;
a supply-side channel area ratio is in a range of 45% to 65% defined by A1/A2×100 where A1 is the average area of the entire space within the thickness of the intersection portions in a longitudinal cross section taken along a longitudinal direction of a fibrous row, and A2 is the average area within the thickness of intersection portions between two adjacent intersection portions in the longitudinal cross section; and
when a surface of the supply-side channel member is observed from a thickness direction, a fiber between an arbitrary intersection and an adjacent intersection is a tapered fiber whose diameter increases like a taper in a direction from one intersection to the other intersection.