3M Liqui Cel inlet water & sweep gas guideline L

Summary

Product Identification

This document provides guidelines for inlet water and sweep gas conditions for 3M™ Liqui-Cel™ Membrane Contactors.

General Recommendations

When operating a Liqui-Cel membrane contactor system, consider the following:

• A comprehensive water quality analysis should be completed, accounting for seasonal variations.
• A softener or cation exchanger is highly recommended.
• Liquid and gas inlet streams should always be pre-filtered.
• The potential for a pH shift should be assessed (for CO₂ removal applications).

The optimal filtration and pre-treatment will depend on variables including water source, operating conditions, biological matter, organics, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

Feed water

Inlet water quality guidelines for 3M™ Liqui-Cel™ Membrane Contactors are provided below.

• Colloids
  • Silt Density Index: <3
  • Turbidity (NTU): <0.5
  • Total Suspended Solids: <5 mg/L (ppm)
• Particulates
  • Absolute rating: 5 µm
• Total Hardness
  • <10 ppm
• Dissolved Organics
  • TOC: <1 ppm
• Suspended Oil
  • <5 ppm
• Chlorine, free
  • Continuous: 0.5 ppm
  • Shock treatment: 100 ppm (for 30 minutes, 300 cycles)
  • Cumulative: 24000 ppm-hrs
• pH
  • 0.5 - 14 units
• Silica - Colloidal
  • <5 mg/L
• Surfactants
  • 0 ppm
• Langelier Saturation Index
  • <0
• Ozone
  • 0 ppm
• Chlorine Dioxide
  • 0 ppm

A softener or cation exchanger followed by a 5 µm absolute pre-filter is recommended as a minimum requirement. Seawater needs to be filtered to ≤ 5 microns, and placement downstream of a Sulphate Removal Unit (SRU) is highly recommended.

Feedwater should be free of surfactants/solvents or oxidants (e.g., ozone, chlorine) to prevent wet-out or oxidation of the hydrophobic membrane. Small amounts of chlorine and oil can be removed by activated carbon.

Gas-side Inlet Guidelines

• Gas stream (lumenside)
  • 0.2 µm for high-purity applications
  • 1 - 3 µm is sufficient for industrial applications
  • Must be oil- and aerosol-free.

Operating Limits

The physical operating limitations of 3M™ Liqui-Cel™ Membrane Contactors, such as maximum operating temperatures or pressures, should be considered.

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Disclaimer: This summary is based on extracted text and may not include all figures, footnotes, or the latest revisions. Contractual data must match the OEM PDF revision used on the project.

Official datasheet (PDF)

PDF datasheet