Reduced lateral leakage in reverse osmosis devices

Abstract

Spiral wound reverse osmosis devices with reduced lateral leakage and thereby increased salt rejection are made by compacting a microporous layer within a composite reverse osmosis membrane longitudinally along its lengthwise periphery. Means and method for causing longitudinal indentations in composite membranes during manufacturing operations are disclosed and described.

Claims

1. A reverse osmosis membrane suitable for seawater desalination comprising a length of a nonwoven web coated with a microporous layer of a plastic upon which a semipermeable salt-rejecting discriminating layer is deposited, the membrane characterized by having at least one longitudinally indented surface strip along an edge of the membrane, the indented surface being in contact with an underlying compacted strip of the microporous plastic coating.

2. The membrane of claim 1 wherein a pair of longitudinally indented surfaces are positioned in parallel, one adjacent to each edge of the membrane along its length.

3. The membrane of claim 1 wherein the longitudinally indented surface is formed by contact of the membrane with an embossing roller.

4. The membrane of claim 3 wherein the contact with the embossing roller takes place in a manufacturing step wherein the microporous layer of the plastic is coated on the nonwoven web.

5. The membrane of claim 3 wherein the embossing roller has at least one raised ridge around its circumference, the raised ridge causing the indented surface.

6. The membrane of claim 5 wherein the embossing roller has at least two raised ridges, at least one each embossing an indented surface strip adjacent each edge of the membrane along its length.

7. A spirally wound membrane device capable of producing potable water from seawater by reverse osmosis, comprising sequential layers of feed water channel spacer, reverse osmosis membrane, permeate water channel spacer, and reverse osmosis membrane, wherein the reverse osmosis membrane comprises a nonwoven web support, a microporous plastic layer disposed thereon, and a semipermeable salt rejecting polymer layer disposed on a topmost surface of the microporous plastic layer, the device being further characterized by having at least one longitudinally indented surface strip along a portion of each lengthwise edge of the membrane, the indented surface being in contact with an underlying compacted strip of the microporous plastic coating.

8. The spirally wound membrane device of claim 7 having a plurality therein of membrane leaves bonded together by means of cured glue, the combination of glue and the indented strips along each lengthwise edge of the membrane leaves restricting lateral leakage of seawater through the microporous plastic layer.

9. A method of making a reverse osmosis membrane with reduced lateral leakage comprising embossing a sheet of the membrane along its length to generate a longitudinally indented surface adjacent a side edge along the length of the membrane.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the surface is indented by contact of a sheet of the membrane with a device comprising a cylindrical disk having a raised ridge positioned on the circumference thereof.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the sheet is part of a continuous web comprising a nonwoven web coated with a microporous plastic layer upon which an ultrathin salt-rejecting layer is deposited.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the embossing is performed by contact of a sheet comprising a layer of a microporous plastic on a nonwoven web with an embossing disk, the nonwoven web being supported by an idler roller, a drive roller, or a stationary shoe at the point of contact.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein at least two longitudinally indented surfaces are generated, at least one each of which is adjacent each edge of the web.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein embossing is done by means of a cylindrical roller having at least two raised ridges, at least one being adjacent a first edge of the web and at least one being adjacent a second edge of the web.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein more than one longitudinally indented surface is generated adjacent each edge of the web.

Description

LIST OF FIGURES

[0013] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing features of a spiral wound device design.

[0014] FIG. 2 is a schematic showing location of longitudinal indentations in a section of a composite membrane.

[0015] FIG. 3 shows a magnified cross-sectional view of composite membrane with indentations.

[0016] FIG. 4 is a frontal view of a device for forming a longitudinal indentation.

[0017] FIG. 5 is a view from an angle of the device for forming a longitudinal indentation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0018] A method by which reverse osmosis membranes suitable for application in seawater desalination are made involves generally the following basic steps. A nonwoven web is coated with a solution of an engineering plastic (commonly polysulfone) dissolved in a water-miscible solvent. The coated web is passed through a water bath, which extracts the solvent and precipitates the plastic under conditions that generate a porous coating of the plastic. The coated web is impregnated with an aqueous solution containing an aromatic amine having on average at least two amino groups. Excess solution is removed as by a nip roller or an air knife or other suitable means. The impregnated web is then contacted with a nonaqueous solution containing preferably one or more aromatic acyl halides, having on average 2.2 to 3.0 acyl halide groups per aromatic ring. An aromatic polyamide forms at the interface between the aqueous and nonaqueous phases. The polyamide-coated web is subsequently passed through a drying oven.

[0019] Variations will likely exist among different manufacturers of seawater reverse osmosis membranes, but these basic steps are present among the various processes. For instance, the composite membrane may be washed in water baths. It may be impregnated with glycerol for flux enhancement. It may be coated with a polyvinyl alcohol layer for abrasion resistance.

[0020] Membrane fabricated by this general process comes off a manufacturing line as a roll on a core, much like one would wind up a roll of paper. Lengths of membrane would be cut from this roll, folded, receiving an insert of a feed water channel spacer, and the folded sub-assembly stacked upon a sheet of permeate channel spacer. Glue would be deposited. A multiple layer of these materials would be eventually wound up on a perforated water collection core tube. In automated equipment for producing spiral devices, this arrangement may be different, though the result is still an assembly of three-sided membrane leaves bonded by glued edges. After sufficient time for the glue to set and cure, the spiral wound device would be trimmed at or adjacent each end of the core tube, exposing the glue-sealed edges of the membrane leaves. Typically, the manufactured membrane web has a width of 40 inches, and the trimmed spiral devices are trimmed to a width of 38 to 39 inches, and the glue bonded zone extends inward from the trimmed edge by perhaps half an inch or more. The trimming removes selvage and excess glue extruded in the winding step.

[0021] In the case of the present invention herein disclosed, a longitudinal indentation is to be positioned in the membrane running along each edge of the membrane in the manufactured membrane roll, such that in the subsequent spiral winding, gluing, and trimming operations, the longitudinal indentations are located and remain extant within the cured glue zone that extends from the trimmed edges.

[0022] Turning now to FIG. 1, an assembly is shown of layers to be built into a spiral wound reverse osmosis device, this depiction showing a single membrane leaf design. The layers shown in FIG. 1 include a feed water channel spacer 10, two layers of a reverse osmosis membrane 11, a permeate channel spacer 12, all to be wound upon a perforated water collection tube 13. Also indicated are the placement of glue beads 14 along the two sides of the membrane leaf and across the width of the outer, external ends of the membrane leaf.

[0023] FIG. 2 is provided to show the presence and positioning of the longitudinal indentations in a membrane leaf. In FIG. 2, a top view of a glued membrane leaf section shows a zone of glue bond 20 extending inward from a trimmed edge 21 on the two edges 22 and also an end seal 23 glue bond at the leaf end 24. The longitudinal indentations 25 are shown running along the trimmed edges 21 but set in from the trimmed edges while remaining within the glued zone 20.

[0024] FIG. 3 shows a cross-section of a reverse osmosis membrane having the indentation. A microporous layer 30 of an engineering plastic such as polysulfone is present as a layer on a porous nonwoven web 31. An indentation 32, seen in cross-sectional view, is present in the microporous layer 30, and dips down toward but not necessarily all the way to the nonwoven web matrix. The bottom of the trough indicated in this depiction of the indentation is in contact with a compacted zone 33 of the otherwise microporous plastic 30. The shape of the indentation may be varied and need not be exactly according to this depiction.

[0025] FIG. 4 shows a frontal view of a design of an indenting device that may be employed to generate the longitudinal indentation. The indenting device of this figure comprises a wide disk 40 having a raised ridge 41 running around the circumference of the disk 40. The ridge 41 is preferably located at a midpoint on the face 42 of the disk. The disk 40 is to be designed to be mounted on a shaft and ride on the surface of a web, whereupon the raised ridge 41 embosses the web on which the disk rides. FIG. 5 is a view of the same disk taken from an angular perspective. A pair of such disks are meant to be used, one along each side of a membrane web being produced in a membrane manufacturing line, the raised ridges being set in appropriately from the edge of the web, thus positioning longitudinal indentations that will eventually exist in a subsequent cured glue zone of a spiral wound device after trimming. In normal manufacturing practice, of course, a continuous web has a first and a second edge located lengthwise in the machine direction, the two edges running generally in parallel, and the embossing lines are preferably adjacent the edges of the web. A suitable alternative is a single disk or cylinder having a length extending the full width of the web to be embossed and having raised ridges at or near each end of the disk or cylinder by which simultaneous embossing along each edge of the coated web may be attained. Pressure is preferably applied to the disks by means of springs, air cylinders, dead weights, or the like, so that as the disks ride on a coated web surface, the ridges forcibly indent the microporous layer upon which they ride in contact. The embossing disks preferably rotate freely when in contact with the coated web. This may entail the disk rotating on the mounting shaft, or the mounting shaft itself rotating.

[0026] The height of the ridge is preferably equal to the thickness of the microporous layer being generated on a nonwoven web. The shape of the ridge is preferably radius-ed so as have rounded rather than sharp corners. This avoids generating cuts in the microporous layer. It also eliminates collecting debris in sharp recessed corners. The primary action of the raised ridge is to be a compressing of the microporous structure, creating an indentation backed by compacted material of the microporous plastic. A narrow disk may be used instead, where the disk itself is no wider than the raised ridge of FIG. 4, the whole face of the disk being the embossing means. However, better control of embossing pressure is at hand through a wide face as depicted in FIG. 4. The face width is preferably less than twelve inches, more preferably less than six inches, most preferably four inches or less. The width of the raised ridge is preferably less one-fourth inch, more preferably one-eighth inch, measured as its base on the face of the disk. The top of the raised ridge preferably produces an indentation that is preferably about one-sixteenth of an inch wide at its widest, but acceptable as an indentation at a width of one-thirty-second at its widest.

[0027] The embossing disks can be employed at almost any step in the manufacturing of a continuous membrane web. However, the optimum location for embossing of the microporous layer is early in a membrane processing machine, preferably in the unit operation where the microporous layer is formed on its nonwoven web support. Thus, where the nonwoven web is coated with a solution of an engineering plastic dissolved in a water-miscible solvent and in passed into contact with water, precipitation of the engineering plastic occurs in the form of a microporous coating. Embossing of the freshly formed microporous layer is most permanent when that layer is still rich in solvent. Location of the pair of embossing disks is conveniently in the machine where the web having the freshly generated microporous layer as a coating passes over a roller, the nonwoven web in contact with the roller and the microporous layer facing outward. The embossing operation may take place submerged in the aqueous bath or at a place where the web emerges either temporarily or permanently from the aqueous bath.

[0028] Embossing the membrane, while preferably performed early in the membrane manufacturing process, can be performed at other places in a membrane production facility. Embossing may be done following formation of the aromatic polyamide discriminating layer by interfacial reaction, but before the newly formed membrane enters a drying oven. Alternatively, embossing may be performed at the membrane's exit from a drying oven. Or embossing may be performed after the membrane is coated with an abrasion resistant top layer of polyvinyl alcohol at the end of a membrane production line. Greater embossing force may be anticipated to be required at these later stages in a membrane production line.

[0029] A single longitudinal indentation near each edge of a spirally wound and trimmed membrane device is sufficient to interrupt the lateral micro-leakage of raw feed water through the microporous layer in the region of the glued zone. However, it is feasible to employ embossing disks having two or more raised ridges, thus providing groupings of two or more longitudinal indentations in the microporous layer in the region of the glued zone.

[0030] Alternate embossing means may be employed other than the disks depicted in FIG. 4. One alternate design would be a full width roller, i.e. a roller whose face extends across the full width of the traveling membrane web, this full width roller having formed on it a raised ridge appropriately positioned near each end. This alternatively designed roller would ride upon the traveling face of the membrane web, with embossing occurring at the contact zones of the raised ridges. The raised ridges could be created on the full width roller by various means, including welding strips around the circumference of the roller, braising or soldering pre-formed collars onto the roller, and even by 3-D printing of raised metallic ribs on the roller circumference. One may even cut O-ring grooves in the surface of the roller and insert O-rings of hard rubber compositions into these O-ring grooves. Any one of these methods may be used as well to engineer the disks depicted in FIG. 4. These and other alternative methods of generating the raised ridges are well within the art of mechanical engineering and may be optimized according to a manufacturer's particular process line, web choice, and formulations of the microporous plastic layer and the polyamide recipe.