TY - JOUR
T1 - Modelling of air gap membrane distillation and its application in heavy metals removal
AU - Attia, Hadi
AU - Osman, Muhammad S.
AU - Johnson, Daniel J.
AU - Wright, Chris
AU - Hilal, Nidal
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are thankful for the financial support of the PhD scholarship for Hadi Attia which is provided by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research/Iraq and Al-Mustansiriya University /Baghdad.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/12/15
Y1 - 2017/12/15
N2 - In the present study, theoretical and experimental investigations were carried out to examine the effect of changing the operating parameters of an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) system on the performance of electrospun and commercial membranes. These parameters include feed, cooling water temperature and feed flow rate. Analytical models were used, with the aid of MATLAB, to predict the permeate flux of AGMD based on heat and mass transfer. Heat transfer was used to predict the temperature on the membrane surface on the feed side and the thin film layer in the cooling plate on the air gap side, which was used later to calculate the vapour pressure and the permeate flux. The molecular diffusion model corresponded well with the experimental measurements in terms of predicting the permeate flux by varying the feed temperature, while it was poor in term of coolant temperature and feed flow rate. The results also illustrate that high rejection rates of around 99% of heavy metals can be achieved by using superhydrophobic electrospun membranes. The electrospun membrane flux increased with increasing feed tank temperature and flow rate while it was reduced with an increase of cooling line temperature.
AB - In the present study, theoretical and experimental investigations were carried out to examine the effect of changing the operating parameters of an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) system on the performance of electrospun and commercial membranes. These parameters include feed, cooling water temperature and feed flow rate. Analytical models were used, with the aid of MATLAB, to predict the permeate flux of AGMD based on heat and mass transfer. Heat transfer was used to predict the temperature on the membrane surface on the feed side and the thin film layer in the cooling plate on the air gap side, which was used later to calculate the vapour pressure and the permeate flux. The molecular diffusion model corresponded well with the experimental measurements in terms of predicting the permeate flux by varying the feed temperature, while it was poor in term of coolant temperature and feed flow rate. The results also illustrate that high rejection rates of around 99% of heavy metals can be achieved by using superhydrophobic electrospun membranes. The electrospun membrane flux increased with increasing feed tank temperature and flow rate while it was reduced with an increase of cooling line temperature.
KW - Air gap membrane distillation
KW - Experimental and theoretical studies
KW - Heat and mass balance
KW - Superhydrophobic membrane
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032281388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85032281388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.desal.2017.09.027
DO - 10.1016/j.desal.2017.09.027
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032281388
SN - 0011-9164
VL - 424
SP - 27
EP - 36
JO - Desalination
JF - Desalination
ER -