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Membranes are a series of hollow fibers that have holes in
the walls. Compressed air is forced through these hollow fibers. The holes in
the wall of the hollow fiber are small enough that CO, CO2 and O2 will exit
through them under pressure. These same holes, however, are too small to accept
N2 or Argon. By forcing air down the fiber, we permeate (force to escape) the
smaller molecules and capture the Ar and N2 at the other end. We generally heat
the air in the membrane to excite the molecules in the hollow fiber and
increase the chance that they will permeate out through the holes. This process
does not decrease the life of the membrane.
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