Generating buoyancy-driven convection in membrane distillation

Mabry, Miles; Municchi, Federico; Liu, Yiming; Wang, Jingbo; Cath, Tzahi Y.; Turchi, Craig S.; Heeley, Michael B.; Hoek, Eric M.V.; Jassby, David; Martinand, Denis; Tilton, Nils

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2024.123043

Generating buoyancy-driven convection in membrane distillation

Journal Article · Thu Jul 04 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Journal of Membrane Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2024.123043· OSTI ID:2397290

Mabry, Miles ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; Wang, Jingbo ^[3]; Cath, Tzahi Y. ^[2]; Turchi, Craig S. ^[4]; Heeley, Michael B. ^[5]; ^[6]; Jassby, David ^[3]; ^[7]; ^[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 Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Aix-Marseille University, Marseille (France)

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally-driven desalination process that can treat hypersaline brines. Considerable MD literature has focused on mitigating temperature and concentration polarization. This literature largely neglects that temperature and concentration polarization increase the feed density near the membrane. With gravity properly oriented, this increase in density could trigger buoyancy-driven convection and increase permeate production. Convection could also be strengthened by heating the feed channel wall opposite the membrane. To investigate that possibility, we perform a series of experiments using a plate-and-frame direct contact MD system with an active membrane area of 300 cm² and a feed channel wall heated using a resistive heater. The experiments measure the average transmembrane permeate flux for two gravitational orientations, feed Reynolds numbers between 128 and 1128, and wall heat fluxes up to 12 kW/m². The results confirm that with gravity properly oriented, wall-heating can trigger buoyancy-driven convection for a wide range of feed Reynolds numbers, and increase permeate production between roughly 20 and 130 %. We estimate, however, that at high Reynolds numbers (Re > 800), more than 70 % of the wall heat is carried out of the MD system by the feed flow, without contributing to permeate production. Furthermore, this suggests the need for longer membranes and heat recovery steps in any future practical implementation.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008391

OSTI ID:: 2397290

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2403390
OSTI ID: 2417627

Journal Information:: Journal of Membrane Science, Journal Name: Journal of Membrane Science Vol. 709; ISSN 0376-7388

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (32)

A comparative study of high-order variable-property segregated algorithms for unsteady low Mach number flows Knikker, R. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, Vol. 66, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/fld.2261	journal	May 2011
Experiments on mixed convection heat transfer for airflow in a horizontal and inclined channel Maughan, J. R.; Incropera, F. P. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 30, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/0017-9310(87)90163-3	journal	July 1987
Regions of heat transfer enhancement for laminar mixed convection in a parallel plate channel Maughan, J. R.; Incropera, F. P. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 33, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0017-9310(90)90189-2	journal	March 1990
Numerical study of the coupled heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation Bouguecha, S.; Chouikh, R.; Dhahbi, M. Desalination, Vol. 152, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-9164(02)01070-6	journal	February 2003
Heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation Schofield, R. W.; Fane, A. G.; Fell, C. J. D. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 33, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-7388(00)80287-2	journal	October 1987
Membrane distillation Lawson, Kevin W.; Lloyd, Douglas R. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 124, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-7388(96)00236-0	journal	February 1997
Revue bibliographique sur les écoulements de Poiseuille–Rayleigh–Bénard : écoulements de convection mixte en conduites rectangulaires horizontales chauffées par le bas Nicolas, Xavier International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Vol. 41, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1290-0729(02)01374-1	journal	October 2002
Membrane distillation with laminar flow Gryta, M.; Tomaszewska, M.; Morawski, A. W. Separation and Purification Technology, Vol. 11, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1383-5866(97)00002-6	journal	June 1997
Membrane distillation model based on heat exchanger theory and configuration comparison Swaminathan, Jaichander; Chung, Hyung Won; Warsinger, David M. Applied Energy, Vol. 184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.09.090	journal	December 2016
Membranes and theoretical modeling of membrane distillation: A review Khayet, Mohamed Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 164, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2010.09.005	journal	May 2011
Influence of module orientation and geometry in the membrane distillation of oily seawater Tan, Yong Zen; Han, Le; Chow, Wai Hoong Desalination, Vol. 423 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2017.09.019	journal	December 2017
Joule heating membrane distillation enhancement with multi-level thermal concentration and heat recovery Huang, Jian; He, Yurong; Shen, Zhiheng Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114111	journal	June 2021
Sustainable operation of membrane distillation for enhancement of mineral recovery from hypersaline solutions Hickenbottom, Kerri L.; Cath, Tzahi Y. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 454 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2013.12.043	journal	March 2014
Novel thermal efficiency-based model for determination of thermal conductivity of membrane distillation membranes Vanneste, Johan; Bush, John A.; Hickenbottom, Kerri L. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 548 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2017.11.028	journal	February 2018
Computational fluid dynamics simulations of polarization phenomena in direct contact membrane distillation Lou, Jincheng; Vanneste, Johan; DeCaluwe, Steven C. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 591 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2019.05.074	journal	December 2019
Membrane distillation of high salinity water by induction heated thermally conducting membranes Anvari, Arezou; Kekre, Kartikeya M.; Azimi Yancheshme, Amir Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 589 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2019.117253	journal	November 2019
Computational fluid dynamics simulations of unsteady mixing in spacer-filled direct contact membrane distillation channels Lou, Jincheng; Johnston, Jacob; Cath, Tzahi Y. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 622 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118931	journal	March 2021
Conducting thermal energy to the membrane/water interface for the enhanced desalination of hypersaline brines using membrane distillation Wang, Jingbo; Liu, Yiming; Rao, Unnati Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 626 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119188	journal	May 2021
Numerical simulations of membrane distillation systems with actively heated membranes Lou, Jincheng; Dudley, Mark; Wang, Jingbo Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 668 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2022.121206	journal	February 2023
A reduced-order model of concentration polarization in reverse osmosis systems with feed spacers Johnston, Jacob; Dischinger, Sarah M.; Nassr, Mostafa Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 675 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2023.121508	journal	June 2023
Membrane distillation for concentration of hypersaline brines from the Great Salt Lake: Effects of scaling and fouling on performance, efficiency, and salt rejection Bush, John A.; Vanneste, Johan; Cath, Tzahi Y. Separation and Purification Technology, Vol. 170 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2016.06.028	journal	October 2016
Dead-end membrane distillation with localized interfacial heating for sustainable and energy-efficient desalination Mustakeem, Mustakeem; Qamar, Adnan; Alpatova, Alla Water Research, Vol. 189 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116584	journal	February 2021
Desalinating a real hyper-saline pre-treated produced water via direct-heat vacuum membrane distillation Liu, Yiming; Wang, Jingbo; Jung, Bongyeon Water Research, Vol. 218 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118503	journal	June 2022
Envelope equations for the RayleighBnardPoiseuille system. Part 1. Spatially homogeneous case Carrire, Philippe; Monkewitz, Peter A.; Martinand, Denis Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 502 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112003007778	journal	March 2004
Three-dimensional global instability modes associated with a localized hot spot in Rayleigh–Bénard–Poiseuille convection Martinand, Denis; CarriÈRe, Philippe; Monkewitz, Peter A. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 551, Issue -1 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112005008323	journal	March 2006
Convective versus absolute instability in mixed Rayleigh–Bénard–Poiseuille convection CarriÈRe, Philippe; Monkewitz, Peter A. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 384 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112098004145	journal	April 1999
Photothermal Membrane Water Treatment for Two Worlds Jun, Young-Shin; Wu, Xuanhao; Ghim, Deoukchen Accounts of Chemical Research https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.9b00012	journal	May 2019
Unlocking High-Salinity Desalination with Cascading Osmotically Mediated Reverse Osmosis: Energy and Operating Pressure Analysis Chen, Xi; Yip, Ngai Yin Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 52, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b05774	journal	January 2018
Electrothermally Driven Membrane Distillation for Low-Energy Consumption and Wetting Mitigation Li, Kuiling; Zhang, Yong; Wang, Zhiyong Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 53, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b04861	journal	October 2019
Frequency-dependent stability of CNT Joule heaters in ionizable media and desalination processes Dudchenko, Alexander V.; Chen, Chuxiao; Cardenas, Alexis Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.102	journal	May 2017
Interaction between longitudinal convection rolls and transverse waves in unstably stratified plane Poiseuille flow Fujimura, K.; Kelly, R. E. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.868728	journal	January 1995
Nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation for off-grid water purification Dongare, Pratiksha D.; Alabastri, Alessandro; Pedersen, Seth Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 27 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1701835114	journal	June 2017