The Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena in Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Desalination

Authors: Bhausaheb L. Pangarkar, M. G. Sane, Saroj B. Parjane, Rajendra M. Abhang, Mahendra Guddad

Abstract:

Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process can be used for water purification or the desalination of salt water. The process simply consists of a flat sheet hydrophobic micro porous PTFE membrane and diaphragm vacuum pump without a condenser for the water recovery or trap. The feed was used aqueous NaCl solution. The VMD experiments were performed to evaluate the heat and mass transfer coefficient of the boundary layer in a membrane module. The only operating parameters are feed inlet temperature, and feed flow rate were investigated. The permeate flux was strongly affected by the feed inlet temperature, feed flow rate, and boundary layer heat transfer coefficient. Since lowering the temperature polarization coefficient is essential enhance the process performance considerable and maximizing the heat transfer coefficient for maximizes the mass flux of distillate water. In this paper, the results of VMD experiments are used to measure the boundary layer heat transfer coefficient, and the experimental results are used to reevaluate the empirical constants in the Dittus- Boelter equation.

Keywords: Desalination, heat and mass transfer coefficient, temperature polarization, membrane distillation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1334049

References:

[1] Drioli E., and Wu Y., "Membrane desalination an experimental study," Desalination, vol. 53, 1985, pp. 339-346.
[2] Sarti G.C., Gostoli C., and Matulli S., "Low energy cost desalination process using hydrophobic membranes," Desalination, vol. 56, 1985, pp. 277-286.
[3] Kubota S., Ohta K., Hayano I., Hirai M., Kikuchi K., and Murayama Y., "Experiments on sea water desalination by membrane distillation," Desalination, vol. 69, 1988, pp. 19-26.
[4] Ohta K., Kikuchi K., Hayano I., Okabe T., Goto T., and Kimura S., "Experiments on seawater desalination by membrane distillation," Desalination, vol. 78, 1990, pp. 177-185.
[5] Ohta K., Hayano I., Okabe T., Kimura S., and Ohya H., "Membrane distillation with fluro-carbon membranes," Desalination, vol. 81 1991, pp. 107-115.
[6] M. Khayet, M.P. Godino, J. I. Mengual, "Theoretical and experimental studies on desalination using the sweeping gas membrane distillation method," Desalination, vol. 157, 2003, pp. 297-305.
[7] Jingli Xu, Michio Furuswa, Akira Ito, "Air-sweep vacuum membrane distillation using fine silicone rubber, hallow -fiber membranes," Desalination, vol. 191, 2006, pp. 223-231.
[8] Kevin W. Lawson, Douglas R. Lloyd, "Membrane distillation: I. Module design and performance evaluation using vacuum membrane distillation," J. Membr. Sci., vol. 120, 1996, pp. 111-121.
[9] T. Mohammadi, M. Akbarabadi, "Separation of ethylene glycol solution by vacuum membrane distillation (VMD)," Desalination, vol. 181, 2005, pp. 35-41.
[10] Ying Xu, Bao-Ku. Zhu, You-yi Xu, "Pilot test of vacuum membrane distillation for desalination on a ship," Desalination, vol. 189, 2006, pp. 165 - 169.
[11] Zhao Jin, Da Ling Yang, Shou Hai Zhang, Xi Gao Jian, "Hydrophobic modification of poly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) hollow fiber membrane for vacuum membrane distillation," J. Membr. Sci., vol. 310, 2008, pp. 20-27.
[12] J.I. Mengual, M. Khayet, M.P. Godino, "Heat and mass transfer in vacuum membrane distillation," Inter. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 47, 2004, pp. 865-875.
[13] K.W. Lawson, D.R. Lloyd, "Membrane distillation," J. Membr. Sci., vol. 124, 1997, pp. 1-25.
[14] J.I Mengual, L. Pena, "Membrane distillation," Colloid Surf. Sci., vol. 1, 1997, pp. 17-29.
[15] R.W.A. Schofield, A.G. Fane, C.J.D. Fell, "Heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation," J. Membr. Sci., vol. 33, 1987, pp. 299-313.
[16] E.A. Mason, A.P. Malinauskas, "Gas transport in porous media: The Dusty Gas Model," Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983, PP. 30-42.
[17] L.Martinez-Diez, M.I. Vazquez-Gonzalez, "Temperature polarization in mass transport through hydrophobic porous membranes," AIChE J. vol. 42, 1996, pp. 1844-1852.
[18] S. Bandini, C. Gostoli, G.C. Sarti, "Separation efficiency in vacuum membrane distillation," J. Membr. Sci., vol. 73, 1992, pp. 217-229.