Abstract
This paper deals with the efficiency of capillary modules without an external housing, which were used as submerged modules in the membrane distillation process. The commercial hydrophobic capillary membranes fabricated for the microfiltration process were applied. Several constructional variants of submerged modules were discussed. The influence of membrane arrangement, packing density, capillary diameter and length on the module performance was determined. The effect of process conditions, i.e., velocity and temperature of the streams, on the permeate flux was also evaluated. The submerged modules were located in the feed tank or in the distillate tank. It was found that much higher values of the permeate flux were obtained when the membranes were immersed in the feed with the distillate flowing inside the capillary membranes. The efficiency of submerged modules was additionally compared with the conventional membrane distillation (MD) capillary modules and a similar performance of both constructions was achieved.
Highlights
The membrane processes are carried out in the membrane modules, usually composed of the membranes assembled in a tubular housing
The membrane module was located in the feed tank and the module was immersed in a distillate tank and the feed flowed inside the capillaries
Only a few of them raise the issue of submerged modules, which can be an interesting alternative to the classical capillary modules with
Summary
The membrane processes are carried out in the membrane modules, usually composed of the membranes assembled in a tubular housing Such a configuration enables the desired cross-flow velocity under different conditions of pressure and flow rate in order to control the concentration polarization and to achieve the appropriate values of the transmembrane pressure (TMP). In Japan (1988–1989) an idea was presented in which the bundles of submerged hollow fibres were assembled inside a non-pressure vessel and the filtration was realized by the removal of permeate by suction [1]. This low-pressure variant of micro- and ultrafiltration (MF and UF) was commercialised and applied in the water and wastewater industry [1,2,3]. A periodic backwashing and additional chemical cleaning is employed for the removal of deposits from the membrane surface, enabling its long-term exploitation [4,7,8,9,10]
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