CFD技术在膜过滤过程中的应用

计算流体动力学(Computational Fluid Dynamics,CFD)模拟应用于膜过滤过程是近年新发展起来的一种膜过滤研究方法.综述了CFD模拟在膜过滤过程中的应用,从膜组件过滤特性和反应容器水力特性2个角度概述了CFD模拟膜内部浓差极化、质量传递系数等流态特性,膜面压力、渗透速率等流体特性参数,膜组件优化和反应器内流场分布,为膜过滤过程的评价提供了理论依据,对于实际应用具有极其重要的意义.     

Application of microfiltration and ultrafiltration processes to cork processing wastewaters and assessment of the membrane fouling

The filtration of wastewaters generated in the cork industrial process is investigated by using three membranes in tangential filtration laboratory equipment. The three membranes used were two microfiltration membranes with pores sizes of 0.65 and 0.1 μm (DUR-0.65 and DUR-0.1 membranes), and a ultrafiltration membrane with a molecular weight cut-off of 300 kDa (BIO-300K membrane). The water hydraulic permeability was determined for each membrane (values of 860, 248 and 769 L h⁻¹ m⁻² bar⁻¹ were found), and the influence on the permeate flux of the main operating variables, such as transmembrane pressure, feed flow rate, temperature and nature of the membranes, was established. The effectiveness of the different membranes and operating conditions was evaluated by determining the removal obtained for several parameters which measure the global pollutant content of the effluent: COD, absorbance at 254 nm, tannic content, color and ellagic acid, which is selected as a major model pollutant among the different organic compounds present in this wastewater. The values of the corresponding retention coefficients depended on the operating conditions, but in all cases were in the sequence: ellagic acid and color > absorbance at 254 nm > tannic content > COD. Globally, the higher removals were obtained for the BIO-300K membrane at 20 °C, with Q_F = 5.3 L h⁻¹ and TMP = 1.8 bar. Finally, the fouling of the membranes was assessed, and the corresponding mechanism for each membrane was established by fitting the experimental data to various filtration fouling models reported in the literature.     

Numerical simulation and experimental study of emulsification in a narrow-gap homogenizer

The present experimental and theoretical study investigates the fragmentation of the oil phase in an emulsion on its passage through a high-pressure, axial-flow homogenizer. The considered homogenizer contains narrow annular gap(s), whereupon the initially coarse oil drops break into fine droplets. The experiments were carried out using either a facility with one or two successive gaps, varying the flow rate and the material properties of the dispersed phase. The measured drop size distributions in the final emulsion clearly illustrated that the flow rate, as well as the dispersed-phase viscosity, and the interfacial tension can significantly affect the drop size after emulsification. The larger mean and maximum drop diameters obtained for the homogenizer with one gap in comparison to those obtained with two gaps (at the same Reynolds number and material parameters of the emulsion phases), highlighted the strong relevance of the flow geometry to the emulsification process. The numerical simulation of the carrier phase flow fields evolving in the investigated homogenizer was proven to be a very reliable method for providing appropriate input to theoretical models for the maximum drop size. The predictions of the applied droplet breakup model using input values from the numerical simulations showed very good agreement with the experimental data. In particular, the effect of the flow geometry—one-gap versus two-gaps design—was captured very well. This effect associated with the geometry is missed completely when using instead the frequently adopted concept of estimating input values from very gross correlations. It was shown that applying such a mainly bulk flow dependent estimate correlation makes the drop size predictions insensitive to the observed difference between the one-gap and the two-gaps cases. This obvious deficit, as well the higher accuracy, strongly favors the present method relying on the numerical simulation of the carrier phase flow.     

Application of asymmetric Si3N4 hollow fiber membrane for cross-flow microfiltration of oily waste water

The asymmetric morphology of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) ceramic hollow fiber membrane with a selective spongiform outer layer was optimized by the air gap distance and the internal rate of coagulate for oil/water emulsion microfiltration. The effect of trans-membrane pressure (TMP), feed flow rate (FFR), and pH of the feeding emulsion on the separation performance were determined experimentally. Membrane fouling has increased by dissociation of oil droplets during filtration at high TMP and FFR values. Fouling phenomena were studied based on standard pore blocking model. The pH by affecting the surface charge of the Si₃N₄ hollow fibers and zeta potential of the feed emulsion has also been introduced as a prominent influential factor on separation efficiency. The highest values of permeate flux (390 Lm^?2h^-1) and oil rejection (95%) were recorded in alkaline pH. The fabricated Si₃N₄ ceramic membranes were completely recovered (≤99%) by simple thermal treatment at 400 °C.     

Application of gas/liquid two-phase flows during crossflow microfiltration of skimmed milk under constant flux conditions

This work constitutes a first approach to determine the critical zone of stability during gas-sparged crossflow microfiltration () of skimmed ultra-high temperature (UHT) and reconstituted milks for the separation of casein micelles from soluble proteins. Conditions for stable operation were investigated with and without air sparging by imposing, at a constant wall shear stress, different levels of permeate flux while monitoring the variation in the transmembrane pressure (TMP). The determination of the critical fluxes allowed to assume a common domain of stability for single- and two-phase flows conditions, thus confirming the relevance of the wall shear stress value during microfiltration of skimmed milk whichever way it is generated (standard crossflow filtration or unsteady gas/liquid flow). Whatever the filtration conditions (single-phase flows/two-phase flows), during the phase of increasing flux, a significant decrease in soluble protein transmission was observed: for reconstituted milk, under two-phase flow conditions, the transmission decreased from 80% to 60% for α-lactalbumin (α-LA) and from 50% to 30% for β-lactoglobulin (β-LG). This was due to the sharp increase in TMP when the flux was close to the limiting flux. During the phase of decreasing J, separation performance was strongly altered: for the same J, the TMP was significantly higher and lower soluble protein transmissions were observed, especially for the β-LG. These results showed the transition to an irreversible fouling, which led to a more tightly packed, thus less porous, cake structure. Unsteady filtration conditions, as well as standard ones, failed to disrupt it.     

Application of CFD for simulation of a baffled tubular membrane

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation of a tubular membrane channel containing a set of baffles was conducted for predicting turbulent flow. Simulation was performed using an array of baffles oriented either in the flow or in the reverse direction. A range of local parameters such as stream function, velocity, static pressure, wall shear stress, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent dissipation energy on the membrane surface was computed using CFD code FLUENT. The simulation results indicate that the presence of baffle can improve the local shear stress on the membrane surface and produces eddy activities which enhance the filtration performance. The observed flux enhancement can be attributed to the intense fluctuations of wall velocity and shear stress which can disrupt the growth of boundary layer on the membrane surface. The experimental evaluation was performed through cross flow microfiltration of titanium dioxide suspension which showed an acceptable agreement with the CFD predictions.     

Study on the cleaning of new ultrafiltration spiral-woundmodules to prevent membrane fouling (including biological fouling)

A study of cleaning a Bulgarian OF 60 PAN spiral-wound module was carried out on an ultrafiltration unit(Millipore, USA). Chemical cleaning of the membrane with a 0.25% solution of sodium metabisulfite did not prevent biological fouling. When treated with a 1% solution of formaldehyde, membrane fouling was diminished and the ultrafiltrate obtained contained a significantly lower number of microorganisms and colloid formations including iron and humic acids. After treatment with the two cleaning agents, the membrane maintained its flux for the water studied within a range of 1.58 to 1.64 m³/m²/d. The effect on the contaminants to be removed was also found to be comparatively constant. Membrane selectivity remained constant at different permeate yields.     

Numerical study on gas and liquid slugs for Taylor flow in a T-junction microchannel

The rapid development of microfabrication techniques creates new opportunities for applications of microchannel reactor technology in chemical reaction engineering. The extremely large surface-to-volume ratio and the short transport path in microchannels enhance heat and mass transfer dramatically, and hence provide many potential opportunities in chemical process development and intensification. Multiphase reactions involving gas/liquid reactants with a solid as a catalyst are ubiquitous in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The hydrodynamics of the flow affects the reactor performance significantly; therefore it plays a prominent role in reactor design. For gas/liquid two-phase flow in a microchannel, the Taylor slug flow regime is the most commonly encountered flow pattern. The present study deals with the numerical simulation of the Taylor flow in a microchannel, particularly on gas and liquid slugs. A T-junction empty microchannel with varying cross-sectional width (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3 mm) served as the model micro-reactor, and a finite volume based commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, FLUENT, was adopted for the numerical simulation. The gas and liquid slug lengths at various operating and fluid conditions were obtained and found to be in good agreement with the literature data. Several correlations in the T-junction microchannel were developed based on the simulation results. The slug flows for other geometries and inlet conditions were also studied.     

A comparative study of tertiary membrane filtration of industrial wastewater treated in a granular and a flocculent sludge SBR

Membrane fouling has been identified by many researchers as an inconvenience for the industrial application of membranes in wastewater treatment plants. Membrane fouling decreases permeability and therefore permeates flow, increasing costs. Although fouling is the result of complex phenomena not completely known, it can be said that fouling takes place by the presence of three different kinds of compounds in the water: suspended solids, colloids and solutes. In this sense, the characteristics of the suspended solid aggregates might be an important aspect in order to diminish the impact of suspended solids on membrane fouling. The main objective of this study was to compare the operation of two similar tertiary membrane filtration units treating the effluent of two different SBRs, respectively: A granular sludge SBR (GSBR) and a membrane flocculent sludge SBR system, at laboratory scale. Two PVDF microfiltration membrane modules were used for tertiary filtration of the effluent treated in the SBRs. Both reactors were used for treating the wastewater generated in a factory of the fish freezing sector. COD of the wastewater was between 700 and 1100 mg/L, total nitrogen concentration was between 110 and 180 mg N/L and total phosphorus ranged around 110 mg P/L. The chemical characteristics of both permeates were similar. Moreover, the presence of either granules or flocs in the tertiary membrane filtration systems did not have an appreciable impact on the membrane filtration. Nevertheless, it was observed that the operation of the membrane on the flocculent system tends to be more instable, showing a major tendency to achieve critical flux.     

Application of O3 and O3/H2O2 as post-treatment processes for color removal in swine wastewater from a membrane filtration system

This study was aimed to evaluate the use of ozone (O₃) alone and peroxone (a combination of ozone and hydrogen peroxide; O₃/H₂O₂) as post-treatment processes for color removal in swine wastewater from a membrane filtration system. Results showed that the application of ozone-alone process or the peroxone process could reduce both capital and operating costs compared to reverse osmosis (RO) treatment. Of the two oxidation processes, the ozone-alone process was the most effective for treating nanofiltration (NF)-filtered wastewater, while the peroxone process was the most effective for treating ultrafiltration (UF)-filtered wastewater.     

Evaluation of coagulation and PAC adsorption pretreatments on membrane filtration for a surface water in Korea: A pilot study

Application of membrane filtration has been significantly expanded throughout the world in two decades. A project was launched to facilitate the application of membrane filtration in drinking water plants in Korea in 2004. Five pilot plants each with a capacity of 500 m³/d were installed in a Gueui Drinking Water Plant. The Han River water was a main raw water source for the plants. Key parameters of the raw water were examined. The raw water characteristics are tremendously varied with seasons and rain fall, especially in terms of turbidity and algae numbers. The operation of pretreatment was of substantial importance due to the variation of the raw water. Coagulation and powdered activated carbon adsorption were performed as pretreatment options of microfiltration. The coagulant doses were optimized with increasing turbidity compared to the conventionally used operational manual. PAC adsorption was applied to overcome fouling by high algae numbers. The addition of PAC relieved the aggravation of fouling. However, the PAC addition could not stop the undergoing fouling. A set of laboratory experiments showed that the removal of floc aggregates after coagulation and PAC was critical to maintain high water flux in the membrane system.     

Numerical investigation of hydrodynamics and mass transfer for in-line fiber arrays in laminar cross-flow at low Reynolds numbers

In this work, mass transfer at the shell side of an in-line hollow fiber array subjected to cross-flow is simulated by applying the domain decomposition method combined with orthogonal grid generation. Two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations written in stream function-vorticity variables, were separately solved along with a species conservation equation for different arrays. The main factors influencing the concentration fields, local mass transfer rates and global mass transfer rates in the laminar flow of Re=10-200 and Pe=10-300 with pitch to tube diameter ratios of 1.45, 1.50, 1.75, 1.85 and 2.00 are discussed in detail. Mass transfer correlations obtained from the numerical simulations show good agreement with typical empirical correlations proposed earlier.     

Application of membrane distillation technology in the treatment of table olive wastewaters for phenolic compounds concentration and high quality water production

Direct contact membrane distillation process (DCMD) is proposed for the treatment of table olive wastewaters (TOW) for high quality water production and concentration of their phenolic compounds. The main objective was to investigate the effectiveness of DCMD process to concentrate phenolic compounds from TOW that can be reused as a potential source for powerful natural antioxidants. The performance of three commercial membranes, made from polytetrafluoroethylene supported by polypropylene net (TF200, TF450 and TF1000), were tested. The permeate fluxes and polyphenols concentration in both the permeate and retentate have been monitored under different DCMD operating temperatures. It was found that the three membranes exhibit an excellent separation coefficient (greater than 99.5%) even after 4 h of DCMD operation with TOW. High concentration factors were obtained with the membrane TF450 at 70 °C, while the membrane TF200 having the lowest pore size was found to be more resistant to fouling phenomenon compared to the other membranes since the reduction of its water permeate flux after TOW treatment did not exceed 2.9%. High quality of the permeate was obtained with phenolic concentration lower than 16 mg of TYE/L. In addition, the values of electrical conductivity of the permeate were lower than 193 μS/cm for the membranes TF450 and TF200, and lower than 355 μs/cm for the membrane TF1000. Consequently, DCMD proved to be an effective process for the treatment of TOW for high quality water production and a phenolic-rich concentrate.     

滑移效应下纤维绕流场及过滤阻力的数值计算与分析

考虑实际纳米/微米纤维表面的流体滑移效应,采用数值方法求解滑移流动机理下纳米/微米纤维绕流场及过滤阻力,分析讨论了Knudsen数Knf和填充率C对纤维近壁面速度分布及纤维过滤阻力的影响规律.结果表明,对纳米/亚微米纤维过滤情形,纤维表面流体的滑移效应导致纤维绕流场与非滑移条件下情形有显著差异,尤其在高填充率下,纤维表...     

High throughput synthesis and screening of new protein resistant surfaces for membrane filtration

A novel high throughput method for synthesis and screening of customized protein‐resistant surfaces was developed. This method is an inexpensive, fast, reproducible and scalable approach to synthesize and screen protein‐resistance surfaces appropriate for a specific feed. The method is illustrated here by combining a high throughput platform (HTP) approach together with our patented photo‐induced graft polymerization (PGP) method developed for facile modification of commercial poly(aryl sulfone) membranes. This new HTP‐PGP method was validated by comparison with our previous published results obtained using a bench‐scale filtration assay of six well‐studied monomers. Optimally‐performing surfaces for resisting a model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), were identified from a library of 66 monomers. Surfaces were prepared via graft polymerization onto poly(ether sulfone) (PES) membranes and were evaluated using a protein adsorption assay followed by pressure‐driven filtration. Bench‐scale verification was conducted for selected monomers using HTP‐PGP method; a good correlation with HTP‐PGP results was found. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

旋叶动态膜滤技术在酶制剂生产中菌-酶分离过程的应用研究

通过旋叶式动态膜滤机装置的实验,利用核孔膜α 淀粉酶发酵液和２７０９碱性蛋白酶发酵液进行了菌 酶分离。实验结果表明,动态膜滤技术在酶制剂生产中直接用于酶发酵液除菌是可行的     

Analysis of a new type of high pressure homogeniser. A study of the flow pattern

High-pressure homogenisation is a key unit operation used to disrupt fat globules or cells containing intracellular bioproducts (AIChE J. 43(4) (1997) 1100). Modelling and optimisation of a small homogenising unit are often restrained by a lack of information on the flow conditions within the homogeniser valve. A numerical investigation of the flow within such a new homogenising valve, capable to reach pressure as high as (Stansted Fluid Power Ltd, UK) is presented. Results are obtained using the finite-volume technique and a RNG k-ε turbulence model with low Reynolds number near wall treatment conditions. An experimental measurement of the size of the valve gap is presented in order to validate mathematical relations that give valve gap sizes versus homogenising pressure. The modelling results give detailed information on the mechanical stresses and the high shear rates in small disruption valves, and also reveal other phenomena that could not be easily determined experimentally.     

Numerical analysis of the lethality and processing uniformity in a double-pipe helical heat exchanger

A numerical study of a double-pipe helical heat exchanger was performed to ascertain the residence time, temperature, and processing uniformity for food processing applications. A range of laminar flow rates were used, with both parallel flow and counterflow configurations. Both heating and cooling in the inner tube were studied. Heating/cooling uniformity was estimated by using a first-order kinetics model for sterilization. Process uniformity is important in the quest for high quality product and this report is a first study for the uniformity in double-pipe helical heat exchangers.     

Elaboration of new tubular ceramic membrane from local Moroccan Perlite for microfiltration process. Application to treatment of industrial wastewaters

In this study, an original microfiltration tubular membrane (M1) made from local Moroccan Perlite was used to treat three wastewater types: effluents coming from beamhouse section of tannery (effluent A), textile effluent coming from jeans washing process (effluent B), and dicing wafer effluent generated by electronic industries (effluent C). The prepared membrane is composed of two layers of Perlite with two different granulometries: a macroporous support with a pore diameter centered near 6.6 μm and porosity of about 42%, and a microfiltration layer, performed by slip casting method, with a mean pore size of 0.27 μm. The water permeability determined of the membrane is 815 L/h m² bar. Tangential microfiltration using Perlite membrane proved to be effective in removing pollutants from the three effluents with almost the same efficiencies than that obtained with a commercial Alumina membrane (M2) with a pore diameter of 0.2 μm and a water permeability of 1022 L/h m² bar. Tangential microfiltration process operated at lower pressure (1 bar) was seen to remove turbidity from the three feeds completely. Perlite membrane allowed significant reduction of Chemical Oxygen Demand COD (50–54%) and Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen TKN (56%) of beamhouse effluent. It showed a significant decrease of COD (54–57%) and a complete discoloration of textile wastewater.