CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance

Reverse osmosis (RO) processes are among the most popular solutions for brackish water and seawater desalination. One of the major issue faced in RO membrane is concentration polarisation (CP). As feed spacer geometry has major impacts on the flow and CP in the spiral wound membrane (SWM), optimizin...

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Main Author:	Toh, Kang Yang
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	QD Chemistry
Online Access:	http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/35238/1/CFD%20and%20techno-economic%20modelling%20of%20the%20effect%20of%20feed%20spacer.wm.pdf
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record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-ump-ir.352382023-05-11T07:42:42Z CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance 2020-10 Toh, Kang Yang QD Chemistry TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Reverse osmosis (RO) processes are among the most popular solutions for brackish water and seawater desalination. One of the major issue faced in RO membrane is concentration polarisation (CP). As feed spacer geometry has major impacts on the flow and CP in the spiral wound membrane (SWM), optimizing its geometry remains an ongoing research goal. This thesis systematically investigates the effect of feed spacer geometry on RO membrane performance through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and technoeconomic modelling. For CFD study, two different spacer designs are considered: 1) spacer with perforations and 2) spacer with different floating characteristics. The main finding from the spacer perforation is that it does not improve mass transfer for the cases simulated using conventional spacers. It was also shown that spacers with larger perforation decrease mass transfer by over 10% due to weakening of the flow velocity and suppression of vortex shedding. The simulation results also reveal that the floating ratio (Rf) is not a determining factor for permeate flux enhancement. This is because the transport mechanism is more dependent on other geometric characteristics, such as a 2 -or 3-layer design. The techno-economic modelling reveals that advanced spacers are more effective than conventional spacers in improving flux in the region close to the inlet for high-permeance membranes. This is due to the fast decrease in feed flow along the channel. This thesis found that an increase in membrane permeance (up to 10 L m−2h−1 bar−1) can reduce total processing cost of SWRO and BWRO by 7.5% and 32%, respectively regardless of spacer type used. The main finding from technoeconomic analysis is that improving spacer design is more crucial than increasing permeance at same recovery. 2020-10 Thesis http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/35238/ http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/35238/1/CFD%20and%20techno-economic%20modelling%20of%20the%20effect%20of%20feed%20spacer.wm.pdf pdf en public masters Universiti Malaysia Pahang Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology Liang, Yong Yeow
institution	Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah
collection	UMPSA Institutional Repository
language	English
advisor	Liang, Yong Yeow
topic	QD Chemistry QD Chemistry
spellingShingle	QD Chemistry QD Chemistry Toh, Kang Yang CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
description	Reverse osmosis (RO) processes are among the most popular solutions for brackish water and seawater desalination. One of the major issue faced in RO membrane is concentration polarisation (CP). As feed spacer geometry has major impacts on the flow and CP in the spiral wound membrane (SWM), optimizing its geometry remains an ongoing research goal. This thesis systematically investigates the effect of feed spacer geometry on RO membrane performance through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and technoeconomic modelling. For CFD study, two different spacer designs are considered: 1) spacer with perforations and 2) spacer with different floating characteristics. The main finding from the spacer perforation is that it does not improve mass transfer for the cases simulated using conventional spacers. It was also shown that spacers with larger perforation decrease mass transfer by over 10% due to weakening of the flow velocity and suppression of vortex shedding. The simulation results also reveal that the floating ratio (Rf) is not a determining factor for permeate flux enhancement. This is because the transport mechanism is more dependent on other geometric characteristics, such as a 2 -or 3-layer design. The techno-economic modelling reveals that advanced spacers are more effective than conventional spacers in improving flux in the region close to the inlet for high-permeance membranes. This is due to the fast decrease in feed flow along the channel. This thesis found that an increase in membrane permeance (up to 10 L m−2h−1 bar−1) can reduce total processing cost of SWRO and BWRO by 7.5% and 32%, respectively regardless of spacer type used. The main finding from technoeconomic analysis is that improving spacer design is more crucial than increasing permeance at same recovery.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Toh, Kang Yang
author_facet	Toh, Kang Yang
author_sort	Toh, Kang Yang
title	CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
title_short	CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
title_full	CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
title_fullStr	CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
title_full_unstemmed	CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
title_sort	cfd and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Pahang
granting_department	Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology
publishDate	2020
url	http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/35238/1/CFD%20and%20techno-economic%20modelling%20of%20the%20effect%20of%20feed%20spacer.wm.pdf
_version_	1783732222387290112

CFD and techno-economic modelling of the effect of feed spacer on reverse osmosis membrane performance

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