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Numerical Simulation and Optimization of Sea Water Desalination by Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Fouladi Moghaddam, Farshad | 2017

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 49634 (58)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology, International Campus, Kish Island
  5. Department: Science and Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Mousavi, Ali
  7. Abstract:
  8. Reverse osmosis (RO) is by far the most widely used membrane desalination process worldwide. The RO process depends on the properties of semi-permeable membranes which allow the separation of water from a salt solution by applying external pressure higher than the osmotic pressure on the seawater. The main problem in membrane separation process is the fouling of the membrane walls, which decreases the permeate flux. Having spacer filaments in the feed channel has been proven to dynamically change the concentration boundary layer and preventing fouling. The impact of spacer configurations (cavity, zigzag and submerged) on the alleviation of concentration polarization and the enhancement of permeate flux in the crossflow reverse osmosis membrane channels was investigated. In this study, the wall concentration and permeate flux were directly determined from the numerical solutions of the fully coupled governing equations of momentum and mass transfer in the feed channel. It was demonstrated that the average permeate flux could be significantly enhanced by the spacers, especially those with zigzag configuration. Simulations showed that the zigzag configuration was the most effective one to alleviate concentration polarization and to enhance permeate flux while the submerged configuration is the least
  9. Keywords:
  10. Reverse Osmosis ; Concentration Polarization ; Membranes ; Numerical Simulation ; Desalination ; Seawater Desalination

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