The Navy is interested in a crossflow membrane separation system to recover fuel in tank/filter bottoms and/or recover fuel system icing inhibitor additive for eventual reblending. New logic research has developed a new technique that surpasses crossflow separators in every category including, the permeate flux rate, energy efficiency, separation factor and lifetime of the membranes. The technique involves inducing high intensity shear waves in the diffusion limited boundary layer by applying a vigorous torsional vibration to the membrane. This technique dubbed v*sep(TM) (vibratory shear enhanced processing) produces shear waves over 100 times as intense as are produced by crossflow techniques. The resultant decrease in the diffusion limited boundary layer allows a v*sep separator to make separations that are uneconomical or impossible to make with crossflow hollow fiber units. New logic research proposes to test its prototype v*sep system with various membranes to determine the best performance for icing inhibitor additive separation.
