Separation of Air Components by Countercurrent and Co-Current Gas Permeation

This Demonstration studies enriching the oxygen content of air with a single-stage membrane module. This problem was first treated in [1] and later in [2 and 3]. The binary mixture, (oxygen) and (nitrogen), has an ideal separation factor , the ratio of the permeabilities of the two species. The permeability of oxygen is ). The membrane is more permeable to oxygen and has a thickness . The stage cut, , is set by the user. The values of the pressures in the feed and permeate sides are chosen equal to cmHg and cmHg, respectively, which give a ratio of pressures, , equal to 10. The feed rate and composition are given by , , and . This Demonstration computes the reject and permeate compositions as well as the membrane area for the countercurrent and co-current flow cases.
.