The potential of hollow fiber vacuum multi-effect membrane distillation for brine treatment

Li, Q; Omar, A; Cha-Umpong, W; Liu, Q; Li, X; Wen, J; Wang, Y; Razmjou, A; Guan, J; Taylor, RA

The potential of hollow fiber vacuum multi-effect membrane distillation for brine treatment

Li, Q Omar, A Cha-Umpong, W Liu, Q Li, X Wen, J Wang, Y Razmjou, A Guan, J Taylor, RA

Permalink

Publisher:: ELSEVIER SCI LTD
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Applied Energy, 2020, 276
Issue Date:: 2020-10-15

Closed Access

	Filename	Description	Size
	1-s2.0-S0306261920309491-main.pdf		8.41 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Closed Access

This item is closed access and not available.

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Li, Q
dc.contributor.author	Omar, A
dc.contributor.author	Cha-Umpong, W
dc.contributor.author	Liu, Q
dc.contributor.author	Li, X
dc.contributor.author	Wen, J
dc.contributor.author	Wang, Y
dc.contributor.author	Razmjou, A
dc.contributor.author	Guan, J
dc.contributor.author	Taylor, RA
dc.date.accessioned	2021-03-04T05:45:15Z
dc.date.available	2021-03-04T05:45:15Z
dc.date.issued	2020-10-15
dc.identifier.citation	Applied Energy, 2020, 276
dc.identifier.issn	0306-2619
dc.identifier.issn	1872-9118
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/146768
dc.description.abstract	© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Vacuum membrane distillation can extract pure water from degraded sources, but it requires relatively high energy inputs as compared to other thermal-driven technologies. As a commercially successful example, Memsys Water Technologies GmbH has addressed this key limitation by developing a flat sheet-based vacuum membrane distillation module where the latent heat recycled internally by using multiple distillation effects. In this paper, we propose an alternative hollow fiber-based design which also recycles the latent heat with multiple effects, but with an even more compact membrane packing format. The proposed design uses 3-dimensional printing to ‘unlock’ this configuration via a hollow aluminium alloy baffle which relies on its low thermal resistance to recover the latent heat effectively. The printed metal baffle (0.8 mm wall thickness) was calculated to have a very high conductive heat transfer coefficient, ~180 kW/m2K (surpassing even the ~20 μm polypropylene foil used in the Memsys module, which has a conductance of ~10 kW/m2K). Our experimental and theoretical results indicate that this design uses a condensation-convection-distillation heat and mass transfer mechanism which enables a three-effect system to reduce the energy consumption by ~60% over a single-effect design (i.e. from 672 kWh/m3 to 263 kWh/m3) for synthetic geothermal brine (~200 g/L salt concentration). Furthermore, the prototype reached a high average permeate flux of ~5.1 LMH and a salt rejection rate of >99.99%, approaching zero liquid discharge. Overall, this work suggests that hollow fiber membranes can indeed be used in a multi-effect mode and represents a promising new pathway for membrane distillation.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	ELSEVIER SCI LTD
dc.relation.ispartof	Applied Energy
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115437
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	09 Engineering, 14 Economics
dc.subject.classification	Energy
dc.title	The potential of hollow fiber vacuum multi-effect membrane distillation for brine treatment
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	276
utslib.for	09 Engineering
utslib.for	14 Economics
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2021-03-04T05:45:13Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	276

Abstract:

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Vacuum membrane distillation can extract pure water from degraded sources, but it requires relatively high energy inputs as compared to other thermal-driven technologies. As a commercially successful example, Memsys Water Technologies GmbH has addressed this key limitation by developing a flat sheet-based vacuum membrane distillation module where the latent heat recycled internally by using multiple distillation effects. In this paper, we propose an alternative hollow fiber-based design which also recycles the latent heat with multiple effects, but with an even more compact membrane packing format. The proposed design uses 3-dimensional printing to ‘unlock’ this configuration via a hollow aluminium alloy baffle which relies on its low thermal resistance to recover the latent heat effectively. The printed metal baffle (0.8 mm wall thickness) was calculated to have a very high conductive heat transfer coefficient, ~180 kW/m2K (surpassing even the ~20 μm polypropylene foil used in the Memsys module, which has a conductance of ~10 kW/m2K). Our experimental and theoretical results indicate that this design uses a condensation-convection-distillation heat and mass transfer mechanism which enables a three-effect system to reduce the energy consumption by ~60% over a single-effect design (i.e. from 672 kWh/m3 to 263 kWh/m3) for synthetic geothermal brine (~200 g/L salt concentration). Furthermore, the prototype reached a high average permeate flux of ~5.1 LMH and a salt rejection rate of >99.99%, approaching zero liquid discharge. Overall, this work suggests that hollow fiber membranes can indeed be used in a multi-effect mode and represents a promising new pathway for membrane distillation.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/146768