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The representative measurement of gas concentration and fluxes in heterogeneous soils is one of the current challenges when analyzing the interactions of biogeochemical processes in soils and global change. Furthermore, recent research projects on CO2-sequestration have an urgent need of CO2-monitoring networks. Therefore, a measurement method based on selective permeation of gases through tubular membranes has been developed. Combining the specific permeation rates of gas components for a membrane and Dalton's principle, the gas concentration (or partial pressure) can be determined by the measurement of physical quantities (pressure or volume) only. Due to the comparatively small permeation constants of membranes, the influence of the sensor on its surrounding area can be neglected. The design of the sensor membranes can be adapted to the spatial scale from the bench scale to the field scale. The sensitive area for the measurement can be optimized to obtain representative results. Furthermore, a continuous time-averaged measurement is possible where the time for averaging is simply controlled by the wall-thickness of the membrane used. The measuring method is demonstrated for continuous monitoring of O2 and CO2 inside of a sand filled Lysimeter. Using three sensor planes inside the sand pack, which were installed normal to the gas flow direction and a reference measurement system, we demonstrate the accuracy of the gas-detection for different flux-based boundary conditions.

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Ultrafiltration membrane modules suffer from performance losses that arise during filtration from concentration polarization and fouling. Such performance losses are frequently mitigated by controlling the hydrodynamic conditions at the membrane/fluid interface. For instance, the hydrodynamic conditions are manipulated using mesh spacers that act as a static mixer. The design of such spacers is rarely optimized to effectively maintain mass transport through the membrane. Also, the spacer is an additional part added to the feed channel of the membrane module, improving mass transport in general, yet accepting less transport in dead zones.Here, we present a mini module with spacers embedded in the module housing of a flat-sheet ultrafiltration membrane to attain high permeation rates. The performance of two new embedded spacer geometries -staggered herringbone and sinusoidal corrugation -prove experimentally that indeed a CFD-simulated flux increase can be realized during bovine serum albumin (BSA) filtration. The flow characteristics inside the mini module are further investigated using magnetic resonance velocity imaging. The new embedded sinusoidal corrugation spacers outperform conventional mesh spacer inlays. The fabrication of such module-embedded spacers has been conceptually implemented through an in-silico design and a 3D-printing production process. The latter can be easily realized using injection molding processes, as is now done for the Sartorius ambr ® crossflow product line.

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