Thin film composite hollow fiber membranes for osmotic power generation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10987846-B2
Application number	US-201916298861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2019
Priority date	Jun 19, 2013
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed is a thin film composite hollow fiber that includes an outer support layer having a thickness of 10 to 1000 μm and a polyamide thin film layer having a thickness of 1 to 10000 nm; and has a transmembrane pressure resistance rate of higher than 15 bar and a pure water permeability rate of higher than 0.8 Lm −2 h −1 bar −1 . Also disclosed are methods of preparing the above-described support and composite hollow fiber.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of generating osmotic power comprising:
providing a thin film composite (TFC) hollow fiber including an outer support layer and an inner thin film layer,
wherein the outer support layer is formed of polyethersulfone and has a thickness of 10 to 10,000 μm, a sponge-like structure, an overall porosity of about 75%, a mean pore diameter within the range of about 8 nm to about 12 nm, and a geometric standard deviation of about 1.2,
the inner thin film layer is adherent to the outer support layer, is formed of cross-linked polyamide, and has a thickness of 1 to 10,000 nm, and
the hollow fiber has a transmembrane pressure resistance rate of about 20 bar or higher, a pure water permeability rate of about 3.3 Lm −2 h −1 bar −1 or higher, and a salt permeability rate of about 0.4 Lm −2 h −1 bar −1 or lower; and
subjecting the TFC hollow fiber to a pressure-retarded osmosis process by contacting the inner thin film layer with a pressurized draw solution and contacting the outer support layer with a feed solution so as to provide a power density rate of about 8 Wm −2 or higher.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hollow fiber has a power density rate of higher than 20 Wm −2 .

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the outer support layer has a thickness of 100 to 300 μm and the inner thin film layer has a thickness of 50 to 500 nm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outer support layer has a thickness of 50 to 1000 μm and the inner thin film layer has a thickness of 20 to 1000 nm.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the outer support layer has a thickness of 100 to 300 μm and the inner thin film layer has a thickness of 50 to 500 nm.

Assignees

• Nat Univ Singapore

Inventors

• Zhang Sui
• Sukitpaneenit Panu
• Chung Tai-Shung
• Wan Chunfeng

Classifications

• B01D69/08 Primary

  Hollow fibre membranes (manufacture of hollow fibres D01D5/24, D01F1/08) · CPC title

• B01D69/107

  Organic support material · CPC title

• B01D69/1251

  by interfacial polymerisation · CPC title

• B01D69/087

  Details relating to the spinning process · CPC title

• B01D71/68

  Polysulfones; Polyethersulfones · CPC title