Journal article
Enhanced performance of membrane distillation using radio-frequency induction heated thermally conducting feed spacers
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, v 250, 117276
01 Nov 2020
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
In the last decade, there is a growing interest in membrane distillation (MD) technology for treating hypersaline water and wastewater. However, MD commercialization is still limited by technical challenges such as temperature polarization, high energy required for heating the bulk feed solution, and heat losses. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept approach to overcome these limitations using stainless steel thermally conducing feed spacers. Feed spacers were directly heated by induction heating, a contactless and instant heating method, using radio frequency (RF) altering electromagnetic fields. Results show that heat was efficiently transferred to the water-membrane interface by conduction and advection, thus, eliminating the need to continuously heat the bulk feed solution. Furthermore, the RF heated spacers were shown (experimentally and by numerical simulations) to reduce temperature polarization. The influence of operating conditions (i.e., flow velocity, vacuum pressure, and power) and the spacer's material and geometry were evaluated and results were compared to a conventional MD process using a polymeric spacer. Overall, results show that higher spacer mass and larger porosity led to an increase in distillate flux and that the use of thermally conducing spacers heated by RF significantly enhance the distillate flux while reducing the specific heating energy.
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Details
- Title
- Enhanced performance of membrane distillation using radio-frequency induction heated thermally conducting feed spacers
- Publication Details
- SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, v 250, 117276
- Publisher
- ELSEVIER; AMSTERDAM
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000552061600120
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85086923041
- Other Identifier
- 991021860782704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Engineering, Chemical