Abstract
Abstract This paper investigates the effect of operating conditions such as coil pitch, fiber diameter, distance between fiber and absorber internal wall and absorber diameter for a vacuum membrane installation coupled with solar energy and using helically coiled fiber to maximize the permeate flow rate. The model is based on a system of equations composed of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Matlab and FemLab were used to solve this system of equations. The results showed that the best values of fiber geometric configuration are 3.22 cm for the coil pitch, 6 mm for the fiber diameter, 4.3 mm for the distance between the fiber and the absorber internal wall and 14 cm for the absorber diameter. For this configuration, the permeate flow rate is 18.6 10-5 kg/s. In conclusion, these results are important in the membrane module design for practical membrane distillation applications.
Highlights
Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven separation process
Owing to the configuration of the thermal solar membrane distillation installation (TSMD), we have a symmetric flow about a vertical plane passing through the axis of the absorber, which leads to study only the half-plane (Figure 2)
We present the results of our study in order to enhance the heat and mass transfer performance and to maximize the permeate flow rate
Summary
Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven separation process. In this process, only vapor molecules pass through a porous and hydrophobic membrane. Qtaishat and Banat (2013) classified MD into four configurations. This solution flows inside the hollow fiber and has Re about 160 and inlet temperature of 54°C Under these conditions, a flux enhancement of 47% can be observed for the helical hollow fiber when compared to the linear hollow fiber flux. For the case of the feed flow in the lumen side of the hollow fiber, an increase of about 20% in water flux was remarked for the helical hollow fiber when compared to the linear hollow fiber. This increment is explained by the provoked turbulence on the membrane surface. These equations have been solved using Matlab and Femlab software
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