This paper presents a newly developed filter made with hydrophobic expanded ePTFE membrane. The filter offers HEPA efficiency with the ability to block water and salt penetration. The multilayered media significantly improves the capture efficiency of submicron particles, without the burden of high pressure loss and short filter lifetime typically associated with HEPA filters. A full-scale study was conducted to evaluate the performance of HEPA composite filter membrane. The new filters were installed at an oil refinery site equipped with two gas turbines from July 2008 to June 2010. The results showed that the HEPA membrane composite filters dramatically reduced fouling and resulted in no noticeable performance loss of the gas turbine over 22.5 months. Filters returned for analysis showed only 0.2 inwg increase in pressure loss, indicating that the filters can easily achieve two years or more service in this oil refinery environment.

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• W. L. Gore

• Article