Letter to the Editor

摘要

We are pleased to find that our paper (An analytical approach to the gas pressure drop in hollow fiber membranes, J. Membr. Sci. 271 (2006) 69-76) attracted readers' attention, and Mr. Choong also presented his comment on the paper in J. Membr. Sci. 280 (2006) 990. This offers the authors an opportunity to address once more this important topic. Though the gas pressure drop in hollow fibers has been a well-documented subject in the membrane-based gas separation, an analytical solution to this issue remains of interests for both scientists and engineers working on this fascinating area. To the authors, two desires were found to be the driver of this research. One is that we are always eager to find out what factors are responsible for the pressure drop, and in which ways these factors propagate their effects to the pressure drop. This exploration can finally lead us to finding appropriate ways to avoid or balance this undesired effect. The other lies in knowing the properties of the profile itself. By investigating the characteristics of the profile, a better understanding on the phenomena can be built up, making possible creating efficient yet reasonable approximate solutions for practical applications. For some reasons, the authors feel that some more endeavors should be made to justify the assumptions made in the article, and the analysis on the fundamental aspect of the profile should also be reinforced to help better convince the readers. All these efforts constitute a reply, which are as follows.