Investigate of Hydrodynamic and Mass Transfer in the Spacer-Filled Channel of Reverse Osmosis Module

Abstract

The feed channel spacers cause the membrane plates to be separated. These mesh spacers increase the pressure drop in the channel and, in contrast, improve the mass transfer process. In this study, investigate hydrodynamics and mass transfer in the spacer-filled channel in the reverse osmosis module by using the simulation of computational fluid dynamics coupled with the response surface method. Input parameters include the average inlet velocity, the attack angle, the mesh angle, and the output parameters include the pressure drop over the computational domain and the water flux across the membrane walls. The Latin hypercube sampling design method was used to sample the input parameters and the Kriging model has been used for the response surface model. Also, genetic algorithms and screening were used to determine the optimal output parameters. The sensitivity analysis of the input parameters on the output parameters indicates that the average inlet velocity and the attack angle are the most and the least influential parameters, respectively. The optimum configuration geometry taking the values of both output parameters (pressure drop and water flux) into account was stood up at the attack angle of 72.74 degrees, the mesh angle of 85.19 degrees, and the inlet velocity of 0.13 m/s.