Pressure Loss Characterization of micro-engineered membrane spacers by computational fluid dynamics

Abstract:
In general, membrane processes suffer from concentration polarization and fouling. Concentration polarization as well as fouling can be at least partly controlled by the fluid flow conditions across the membrane surface. High shear forces at the membrane result in partial removal of fouling layers on the membrane and minimization of concentration polarization. In membrane systems employing flat sheet membranes, such as spiral wound modules or electrodialysis membrane stacks, spacers are introduced into the flow channel, which separate the membranes from each other with a defined distance in between and introduce eddy mixing. The net type spacer is the dominant spacer geometry in flat sheet membrane systems. In the paper at hand, a new type of micro-engineered membrane spacer is introduced; using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), flow across flat sheet membranes through the new micro-engineered spacer geometry is simulated and correlations for the pressure loss characteristics are derived.

Keywords:
Membrane spacer, flat sheet membranes