A twenty year case history: B-9 Hollow fiber permeator

Abstract

It was exactly 20 years ago that Du Pont, capitalizing on thirty years of nylon chemistry, revolutionized an industry by introducing its proprietary, brackish water, hollow fiber, aramid B-9 permeator. The desalination market, a province of ion exchange and various thermal processes for so many years was permanently altered as reverse osmosis, a one-time laboratory curiosity, was now a fully economically viable technological competitor. Since introduction, over a hundred thousand permeators representing in excess of three quarters of a billion gallons (over 3 million cubic meters) of product water per day have been supplied to all areas of the world for use in potable, commercial and industrial applications. This paper reviews the chemistry and engineering of this most successful desalination device, discusses significant long lived applications and foretells and road of future improvement.