Liquid purification or separation – With means to add treating material – Chromatography
Patent
1991-02-04
1992-08-25
Therkorn, Ernest G.
Liquid purification or separation
With means to add treating material
Chromatography
210656, 55386, B01D 1508
Patent
active
051416352
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a fluid distributor, intended to ensure a uniform distribution of pressures and flow rates in the cross-section of a stream of the said fluid, as well as to a device for treating a fluid, equipped with a distributor of this kind, and employed particularly in chromatography.
Chromatographic techniques are at present enjoying an increasing success, in particular those according to which a liquid is passed through a mass of beads of porous material, in order to separate the components present in this liquid. Among the most important applications there may be mentioned blood treatment, as well as many processes in the field of biotechnologies. Progress in the methods leads to the use of chromatography columns of increasing size, capable of reaching a diameter of the order of 1 meter, and a height of 0.9 meter. The material required for chromatography, which, in the case of low pressures, is made up of beads 20 to 200 micrometers in diameter, made of spongy gelatine, and, in the case of high pressures, of silica particles of similar shapes and dimensions, is very costly. It must therefore be employed as efficiently as possible and this means that the distribution of the stream of fluid through these large columns must be as uniform as possible.
Chromatography columns usually consist of a vertical cylindrical enclosure, generally made of glass, closed at its lower and upper ends by a distributor comprising a separator consisting of a plate of porous material with open porosity, for example sintered polypropylene, and a distribution plate which rests on the separator and comprises at least one channel on its side facing the separator, this plate being crossed by at least one conduit connecting the said channel, or the said channels, to a single feed channel situated on the opposite side.
In the most commonplace embodiment, such as described in patent GB-A-2 085 614, the conduit is central, and the channels go out diverging from the centre towards the periphery, branching, so as to offer, substantially over the whole surface of the plate, an approximately constant ratio between the areas devoted to the flow of fluid and those used to support the separator. The depth or the width of the grooves must increase on approaching the centre, so as to ensure a uniform flow of liquid. As a result of this, production of such components, which is usually performed by moulding, is very costly. In fact, the machining of a suitable mould in a highly resistant steel is difficult to obtain and requires much time and care. An imperfect mould results in defects in the plate, which can give rise to cleaning difficulties.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a distributor in which the production of the distribution plate is much simpler and whose cost of manufacture is much more reasonable.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a device for treating fluid, such as a chromatograph, in which the disassembly operations and adjustments are easy and quick.
To obtain this result, the invention provides a fluid distributor intended to ensure a uniform distribution of the pressures and flow rates over the cross section of a stream of the said fluid, this distributor comprising a separator (20) consisting of a plate of porous material with open porosity and a circular distribution plate (21) bearing on the separator comprising at least one open channel on its side facing the separator, and being crossed by at least one conduit connecting the said at least one channel to a single feed or discharge line situated on the opposite edge, said at least one conduit (34-43) connecting the said at least one channel to the feed or discharge line introducing, in operation, a pressure drop between the said line and the corresponding channel, which is inversely proportional to the area of the corresponding channel, measured over the surface of the separator, characterized in that said channels are circular and concentric, said at least one conduit connecting said channels to the feed or discharge l
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Chabrol Daniel
LePlang Michel
Biopass
Therkorn Ernest G.
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