Numerical simulations of membrane distillation systems with actively heated membranes

Lou, Jincheng; Dudley, Mark; Wang, Jingbo; Liu, Yiming; Cath, Tzahi Y.; Turchi, Craig S.; Heeley, Michael B.; Hoek, Eric M.V.; Jassby, David; Tilton, Nils

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2022.121206

Numerical simulations of membrane distillation systems with actively heated membranes

Journal Article · Sun Nov 20 23:00:00 EST 2022 · Journal of Membrane Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2022.121206· OSTI ID:2397285

Lou, Jincheng ^[1]; Dudley, Mark ^[2]; Wang, Jingbo ^[3]; Liu, Yiming ^[3]; Cath, Tzahi Y. ^[2]; Turchi, Craig S. ^[4]; Heeley, Michael B. ^[2]; Hoek, Eric M.V. ^[5]; Jassby, David ^[3]; ^[2]

Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermal desalination process that is gaining attention for treating hypersaline brines. One recent approach uses composite membranes with a thermally conductive layer that delivers heat to the membrane–feed interface, where it drives evaporation. Though this increases single-pass recovery, it comes with the challenge of promoting lateral heat conduction through the thin membrane. Herein, we develop a 3D, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that simulates conjugate heat, mass, and momentum transport in the feed channel and composite membrane. We then use the CFD to verify a simpler numerical model that approximates the feed velocity field analytically. We validate the numerical model experimentally, and use it to investigate the impacts of the conductive layer thickness, feed channel geometry, and operating conditions on temperature and concentration polarization, permeate production, and specific energy consumption. Overall, we find that lateral heating increases permeate production at the expense of increased concentration polarization. In extreme cases, the concentration increases more than four-fold along the membrane surface. Furthermore, we show however, that the feed flow rate and conductive layer thickness can be tailored to mitigate concentration polarization, for only a small reduction in permeate production.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008391

OSTI ID:: 2397285

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1902471
OSTI ID: 1908595

Journal Information:: Journal of Membrane Science, Journal Name: Journal of Membrane Science Vol. 668; ISSN 0376-7388

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Computational fluid dynamics
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Numerical simulations of membrane distillation systems with actively heated membranes

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