Fouling in direct contact membrane distillation process

The formation of deposit on the membrane surface (fouling) is one of the major operating problems of membrane distillation process. The influence of fouling on the performance of this process was investigated during the concentration of wastewater with proteins, bilge water, brines, and the production of demineralized water. The experiments were performed with polypropylene capillary membranes. The morphology and composition of the fouling layer were studied using Fourier transform infrared with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with the energy dispersing spectrometry. Fouling with various intensity was observed in most of the studied cases. Permeate flux decline was mainly caused by an increase in the heat resistance of the fouling layer. However in the case of non-porous deposit, a magnitude of the permeate flux was also determined by a resistance of water transport through the deposit layer. It was found the deposits were formed not only on the membrane surface, but also inside the pores. Salt crystallization in the membrane pores besides their wetting, also caused the mechanical damage of the membrane structure. The intensity of the fouling can be limited by the pretreatment of feed and a selection of the operating conditions of membrane distillation.     

Bulk and measured temperatures in direct contact membrane distillation

The aim of this work is the development of a transport model for a direct contact membrane distillation process in laminar flow that allows knowing the velocity and temperature profiles within the flow channels as a function of externally measured temperatures just at the entrances and exits of the flow channels in the membrane module. The second aim is to apply this model to a conventional membrane module, and so calculate the difference between the bulk temperatures and the externally measured ones. For the system studied here, moderately important differences between both temperatures have been obtained when working at low flow rates and high temperatures. It can be concluded from the trends observed in this study that an estimation of this temperature difference has to be made before considering the bulk temperature as equal to the externally measured temperature, above all, in those systems where the thermal boundary layers represent an important portion of the flow channels height, and important temperature drops exist through them.     

Concentrating the extract of traditional Chinese medicine by direct contact membrane distillation

This study applies direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to concentrating the extract of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The trans-membrane flux under various operation conditions was measured in real-time during concentration process. By decoupling the factors affecting the trans-membrane flux decline, it was found that the observed flux decline throughout the process could be attributed to the membrane fouling, the reduction of water vapor pressure and the increase of transport resistance at feed side. Analysis of the combined factors was given to show in detail the mechanism of flux decline. Factors that may affect the flux level, such as feed velocity, feed temperature and pretreatment were experimentally examined. Gas bubbling or sparging was introduced into DCMD system for reducing membrane fouling, and it was found that both gas–liquid two-phase flow at the feed side and gas back-washing within membrane module are effective ways to control membrane fouling.     

Theoretical modeling and experimental analysis of direct contact membrane distillation

A two-dimensional mathematical model was theoretically developed to predict the temperature polarization profile of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) processes. A concurrent flat-plate device was designed to verify the theoretical prediction of pure water productivity on saline water desalination. The numerical results from the temperature polarization profile were obtained using the finite difference technique to reduce the two-dimensional partial differential equations into an ordinary differential equations system. The resultant simultaneous linear equations system was solved with the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The results show theoretical prediction agreement with the measured values from the experimental runs. A combination of the Knudsen flow and Poiseuille flow models in the present mathematical formulation for membrane coefficient estimation was used to establish theoretical agreement. The influence of the inlet saline water temperature and volumetric flow rate on the pure water productivity as well as the hydraulic dissipated energy are also delineated.     

Direct contact membrane distillation of humic acid solutions

Direct contact membrane distillation process has been conducted for the treatment of humic acid solutions using microporous polytetrafluoroethylene and polyvinylidene fluoride membranes. The membranes were characterized in terms of their non-wettability, pore size and porosity. Water advancing and receding contact angles on the top membrane surfaces were measured. Experiments were also carried out employing pure water as feed at different mean temperatures and the water vapor permeance of each membrane was determined. Different humic acid concentrations in the feed solution, pH values and transmembrane temperature difference were tested. The direct contact membrane distillation technique is more adequate for the treatment of humic acid solutions than the applied pressure-driven separation processes, as lower membrane fouling was detected.     

Experimental study of desalination using direct contact membrane distillation: a new approach to flux enhancement

New membrane distillation configurations and a new membrane module were investigated to improve water desalination. The performances of three hydrophobic microporous membranes were evaluated under vacuum enhanced direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) with a turbulent flow regime and with a feed water temperature of only 40 °C. The new configurations provide reduced temperature polarization effects due to better mixing and increased mass transport of water due to higher permeability through the membrane and due to a total pressure gradient across the membrane. Comparison with previously reported results in the literature reveals that mass transport of water vapors is substantially improved with the new approach. The performance of the new configuration was investigated with both NaCl and synthetic sea salt feed solutions. Salt rejection was greater than 99.9% in almost all cases. Salt concentrations in the feed stream had only a minor effect on water flux. The economic aspects of the enhanced DCMD process are briefly discussed and comparisons are made with the reverse osmosis (RO) process for desalination.     

Flow rate influence on direct contact membrane distillation experiments: Different empirical correlations for Nusselt number

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiments using distilled water are reported. Influence on the process of feed and permeate flow rates through the cell has been investigated in a wide flow range, from 2 to 8 l/min. Two main effects have been studied, its effect on the heat transfer coefficient and on the effective membrane thickness. An empiric dependence of the membrane thickness with linear velocity through the cell has been included in the equation for mass flux through the membrane obtained from the “Dusty-Gas” model with satisfactory results.     

Concentration of radioactive components in liquid low-level radioactive waste by membrane distillation

The paper addresses some aspects of liquid low-level radioactive waste (LLLW) purification. Since the volume of liquid low-level wastes is usually large and the activity is rather low, the radioactive substances separated from the non-active portion have to be concentrated into the small volume for subsequent conditioning and disposal. The need for the improvement of decontamination and minimisation of the costs have led to new specific methods being under examination and development. The method proposed in the paper is membrane distillation. The experimental work described below supports the statement that membrane distillation can be an attractive alternative for liquid radioactive waste treatment. The advantages of membrane distillation over the other processes commonly used for the processing of LLLW are discussed in the paper.     

Chemical pretreatment of feed water for membrane distillation

Membrane distillation was used to produce demineralized water from ground water. The influence of feed water pretreatment carried out in a contact clarifier (softening with Ca(OH)₂ and coagulation with FeSO₄ · 7H₂O) followed by filtration, on the process effectiveness was evaluated. It was found that the chemical pretreatment decreased the membrane fouling; however, the degree of water purification was insufficient because precipitation of small amounts of deposit on the membrane surface during the process operation was still observed. The permeate flux was gradually decreasing as a result of scaling. The morphology and composition of the fouling layer were studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersion spectrometry. The presence of significant amounts of silica, apart from calcium and magnesium, was determined in the formed deposit. The removal of foulants by heterogeneous crystallization performed inside the filter (70 mesh), assembled directly at the module inlet, was found to be a solution preventing the membrane scaling. Presented at the 34th International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering, Tatranské Matliare, 21–25 May 2007.     

Fenton-UASB-生物接触氧化处理Fischer-Tropsch合成废水的研究

用Fenton-UASB-生物接触氧化组合工艺对Fischer-Tropsch合成废水进行处理。实验结果表明,采用Fenton法对废水进行预处理,在pH值为3,H2O2的投加量为30 mL/L,Fe2+投加量为1.2 g/L,反应时间为120 min时,去除了63%的CODCr,有效地提高了废水的可生化性;Fenton预处理出水经UASB厌氧生物处理后,CODCr去除率达90%以上;最后经接触氧化后,出水CODCr达100 mg/L以下,达到了GB8978-1996《污水综合排放标准》中化工类废水的二级排放标准。     

Pilot scale membrane separation of electroplating waste water by reverse osmosis

Electroplating waste water containing copper was treated by means of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane separation on a pilot scale. The copper concentration in the untreated waste water was 340 ppm. After the treatment, the concentration in the treated water was below 4 ppm which is the Hong Kong government discharge limit. It is shown that, by increasing transmembrane pressure drop, metal concentrations in the treated water can be further reduced. This study suggests that larger scale operations on treating electroplating waste water by RO membrane separation is possible and effective. Effects of operating variables including transmembrane pressure drop and temperature on membrane separation performance were studied and explained based on the solution-diffusion model. The present study is part of the recent investigation of industrial waste water management sponsored by the Hong Kong Government. The purpose of this project is to provide guidelines to the local industries for waste minimization which is closely monitored by the Hong Kong legislature.     

A comparison between average and local thermal evaluations to improve the performance of a direct contact membrane distillation for the solar desalination purposes

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Local parameter evaluation needs so much computing effort and reduces the fastness of code capability. Hence, in this paper a comparison of local and...     

The application of polypropylene membranes for production of fresh water from brines by membrane distillation

Scaling and wettability of hydrophobic membranes were studied during the membrane distillation applied for the production of fresh water from the concentrated salt solutions. The studies were performed with the use of membrane modules in which the capillary membranes from polypropylene were assembled. A saline ground water containing several sparingly soluble salts was used as a feeding solution. The presence of such compounds caused an intensive surface and internal scaling. Due to the scaling, a partial wetting of the membrane walls and the permeation of salts into distillate were observed. These phenomena were eliminated for the membranes with thicker walls when the amount of deposit was limited by a periodic rinsing of the module with water. During this study, the feed was concentrated up to the supersaturation state, which caused a salt crystallization on the membrane surface, and as a consequence, the permeate flux was reduced to zero. In this case, the internal scaling can be limited using the capillary membranes with a net covering their surface.     

Comparison of membrane processes with distillation for alcohol/water separation

The overall objectives of this study were to summarize and evaluate the performance of currently available membranes for purification of fermentation alcohol and to compare the economics of membrane processes with a modern-day energy-efficient distillation scheme.Literature survey showed that very little work had been done on the development of membrane processes for alcohol concentration.Based on laboratory work, it was found that the present-day thin-film composite desalination membranes can be used for partial concentration of beer solution to about 20 to 30% alcohol concentration. The water permeation coefficient for these membranes in reverse osmosis with 7.6% alcohol feed at 60 atm was about 10 kg/m²-day-atm (2 lb/ft²-day-atm).Due to the high osmotic pressures of ethanol/water mixtures, reverse osmosis can be used only for the initial concentration of beer solution and for the final dehydration of 95% alcohol to produce 199 proof alcohol. Thus, a distillation unit would have to be used for the intermediate concentration of alcohol solution. Membrane concentration schemes using distillation for intermediate concentration were prepared for comparison with a conventional distillation process. Based on preliminary analysis it was concluded that while the capital cost of the membrane-augmented distillation schemes can be significantly than that of the conventional system, the annualized cost of these schemes will be approximately equal to that for distillation. The capital and the annualized costs of the membrane process for the final dehydration of alcohol can be significantly lower than those for the conventional dehydration still.     

Uptake of plutonium from nuclear waste water by natural and chemically modified sorbents

The uptake of plutonium from model solution of boric acid labelled with²³⁹Pu by natural sorbents was studied. The range of pH of solution was from 5.1 to 8. For the uptake of Pu were used different natural and chemically modified natural sorbents of different mineralogical composition and from different deposits. The distribution coefficients for plutonium uptake were calculated and the best conditions for uptake were evaluated.     

Flat sheet direct contact membrane distillation desalination system using temperature-dependent correlations: thermal efficiency via a multi-parameter sensitivity analysis based on Monte Carlo method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, a 1D model of direct contact membrane distillation is presented in which all fluid properties are temperature-dependent. In addition, a...     

聚偏氟乙烯膜蒸馏技术在水处理中的应用研究进展

膜蒸馏是一种以膜为介质,利用传统蒸发工艺开发的新型膜分离技术。随着高分子材料行业的进步和制膜工艺的成熟,膜蒸馏技术取得了巨大的进展,在水处理领域拥有十分广阔的市场前景。膜蒸馏技术的核心是膜的通量和使用寿命,而性能优良的膜材料是膜蒸馏技术发展的关键。聚偏氟乙烯(PVDF)因具有成膜性能好、表面张力大、化学稳定性强等优点,在膜蒸馏技术应用研究中备受青睐。同时PVDF与其他聚合物具有良好的相容性,为膜的改性研究奠定了基础,极大地扩展了应用范围。本文介绍了膜蒸馏技术的工作原理及工艺特点以及PVDF膜材料的特点及改性方法,重点对PVDF膜蒸馏技术在水处理领域的应用进行了梳理和总结,讨论了该技术亟待研究和解决的问题,以期为该工艺技术的进一步发展提供科学支撑和理论依据。     

Electrically enhanced crossflow membrane filtration of oily waste water using the membrane as a cathode

The effect of an external electric field on the flux in crossflow membrane filtration of a model oily waste water was studied using a carbon fibre – carbon composite membrane as a cathode. Limiting fluxes for low flow rate increased significantly under the conditions studied, from 75 l/m² h without an electric field to more than 350 l/m² h using an electric field. The experimentally determined increase in the limiting flux showed good agreement with the theoretical value of 430 l/m² h calculated using a simple model. The limiting flux increase was affected by the electrophoretic mobility of the oil droplets and the applied electric field strength. When there were no cakes without an electric field due to the high flow rate, the flux increase when using an electric field under at the same conditions was minor. The critical electric field strength was determined, and experimentally obtained values were corresponded with calculated values. Decreasing the crossflow velocity above the critical electric field strength increased the flux, or had no effect, depending on the size of the particles. Permeate quality was also improved to some extent when using the electric field, and a membrane with a large pore size could be used when an electric field was applied. The main disadvantage in using the membrane as a cathode was foaming at the membrane surface causing decrease in the flux enhancement as the conductivity of the feed increased. It was not possible to restore the flux to the original value by applying an electric field after filtration of the oil emulsion without an electric field. An intermittent electric field was thus not efficient enough for keeping the flux at high level.