Compact spiral-wound filter elements, modules and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10399039-B2
Application number	US-201514750838-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 25, 2014
Publication date	Sep 3, 2019
Grant date	Sep 3, 2019

Abstract

The present invention provides compact spiral-wound filter elements having cassette-like performance. The invention further provides filtration systems (e.g., TFF systems) and processes (e.g., SPTFF processes) employing compact spiral-wound filter elements having cassette-like performance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A spiral-wound filter element comprising:
a) a feed channel having a height of less than about 450 μm and a length that is less than about 800 times the feed channel height, the feed channel including a mesh fiber feed screen;
b) a permeate channel having a height of less than about 300 μm, the permeate channel including a mesh fiber permeate screen; and
c) a filtration membrane having a pore size in the range of about 1 nm to about 100 nm.

2. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the feed channel has a length of about 18 inches (45.72 cm) or less.

3. The filter element of claim 1 , comprising two or more spiral-wound filter sub-elements.

4. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber permeate screen is a woven fiber screen having flattened or removed tangent points along an outer surface of the woven fiber screen.

5. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber feed screen has an uncompressed height of about 600 μm or less.

6. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber permeate screen is configured to compress less than about 130 μm under compression at about 50 psi at an operating temperature of about 15° C. to about 30° C.

7. The filter element of claim 1 , comprising an outermost feed channel layer that is blocked.

8. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber feed screen is imprinted into the membrane, precompressed, or a combination thereof.

9. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber feed screen is capable of expanding and maintaining contact with a surface of a membrane during operation.

10. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the filter element is in a housing, sleeve, or liner.

11. A tangential flow filtration (TFF) system comprising at least one filter element claim 1 .

12. The TFF system of claim 11 , wherein the TFF system can be operated in a single-pass mode.

13. The TFF system of claim 11 , comprising at least two filter elements of claim 1 , and wherein the filter elements are fluidly connected in series, in parallel, or in a configuration having both serial and parallel connections.

14. The TFF system of claim 11 , further comprising a reservoir for diafiltration solution and a conduit for delivering diafiltration to a feed reservoir.

15. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber permeate screen is compressible.

16. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber permeate screen has an uncompressed height of 300 μm or less.

17. The filter element of claim 1 , wherein the mesh fiber permeate screen is woven.

18. A process for filtering a liquid, comprising:
providing at least one spiral-wound filter element comprising:
a feed channel having a height of less than about 450 μm and a length that is less than about 800 times the feed channel height, the feed channel including a mesh fiber feed screen,
a permeate channel having a height of less than about 300 μm, the permeate channel including a mesh fiber permeate screen, and
a filtration membrane having a pore size in the range of about 1 nm to about 100 nm;

passing a liquid feed through the at least one filter element;
separating the liquid feed into permeate and retentate in the filter element; and
recovering the permeate and at least a portion of the retentate from the filter element.

19. The process of claim 18 , wherein the process is a tangential flow filtration (TFF) process.

Assignees

• Emd Millipore Corp

Inventors

• Steen Jonathan

Classifications

• B01D2313/146

  on the permeate side · CPC title

• B01D2313/143

  on the feed side · CPC title

• C02F1/444

  by ultrafiltration or microfiltration · CPC title

• B01D61/025 Primary

  Reverse osmosis; Hyperfiltration · CPC title

• B01D63/12 Primary

  comprising multiple spiral-wound assemblies · CPC title