Macroporous ceramic membrane condenser for water and heat recovery from flue gas

Abstract

In this work, we experimentally study a macroporous ceramic membrane condenser (MCMC) with an average pore size of 3 µm for water and heat recovery from flue gas. Firstly, the heat and mass transfer mechanisms of MCMC are analyzed. The membrane surface is only wetted and no condensate accumulation, suggesting that the condensation rate is the key factor affecting the water recovery performance. Moreover, the thermal resistance in MCMC is concentrated at gas side, and the conductive resistance of the membrane occupies only about 1% of total resistance. The results also show that the experimental Sherwood numbers are larger than the correlated Sherwood numbers obtained by heat and mass transfer analogy. It may be caused by the hydrophilic properties of the membrane surface. Finally, the effects of operating conditions on water and heat recovery performance are investigated. The CMCM shows excellent performance in recovering water and heat, and the gas flow rate and gas/cooling water temperature have significant effect on recovered water/heat flux. In the future, we will further explore the coupled heat and mass transfer process and clear up the cause of the mass transfer enhancement.