TY - JOUR
T1 - CFD simulation of a membrane distillation module channel
AU - Cipollina, Andrea
AU - Rizzuti, Lucio
AU - Micale, Giorgio Domenico Maria
AU - Koschikowski, null
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The interest towards the use of membrane distillation (MD) processes for seawater desalinationhas been rising recently due to the ease of coupling MD with waste and/or solar thermal energy.Notwithstanding the flexibility of the process and its potential for further developments in membrane performances, one of the main drawbacks is the thermal efficiency reduction caused by temperaturepolarization. Because of such phenomenon, only a small amount of the driving forcepotentially available for the separation process, i.e. the temperature difference between evaporating and condensing fluids, is actually used for the separation. In order to reduce temperaturepolarization a study on the effects of spacer and channel geometry has been performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. A simple reference geometry has been built to simulate the flow and temperature fields of a portion of a spiral wound MD module channel. Resultsshow how spacers can significantly affect temperature gradients within the channel, therefore modifying the effective driving force between the faces of the membrane. The main features,which an optimal spacer should possess, have been thus indicated.
AB - The interest towards the use of membrane distillation (MD) processes for seawater desalinationhas been rising recently due to the ease of coupling MD with waste and/or solar thermal energy.Notwithstanding the flexibility of the process and its potential for further developments in membrane performances, one of the main drawbacks is the thermal efficiency reduction caused by temperaturepolarization. Because of such phenomenon, only a small amount of the driving forcepotentially available for the separation process, i.e. the temperature difference between evaporating and condensing fluids, is actually used for the separation. In order to reduce temperaturepolarization a study on the effects of spacer and channel geometry has been performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. A simple reference geometry has been built to simulate the flow and temperature fields of a portion of a spiral wound MD module channel. Resultsshow how spacers can significantly affect temperature gradients within the channel, therefore modifying the effective driving force between the faces of the membrane. The main features,which an optimal spacer should possess, have been thus indicated.
KW - Computational fluid dynamics
KW - Membrane distillation
KW - Spacer
KW - Spiral wound channel
KW - Temperature polarization
KW - Computational fluid dynamics
KW - Membrane distillation
KW - Spacer
KW - Spiral wound channel
KW - Temperature polarization
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10447/56644
M3 - Article
VL - 2009
SP - 177
EP - 183
JO - Desalination and Water Treatment
JF - Desalination and Water Treatment
SN - 1944-3994
ER -