(316h) Dimensional Analysis of Steady and Unsteady State Permeation Flux for Microfiltration of Oil/Water Emulsion by a Ceramic Membrane
AIChE Annual Meeting
2006
2006 Annual Meeting
Engineering Sciences and Fundamentals
Poster Session in Fluid Mechanics
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 6:30pm to 9:00pm
The main problem in treating oil in water emulsions by membrane technologies is fouling caused by oil adsorption on the membrane surface. Among these technologies, microfiltration has been used in many fields of oil?water emulsions. The effect of operating conditions on a microfilter (home made) with a maximum pore size of 10 ìm was investigated. The results show that by increasing temperature and pressure, the flux factor increases. Also, by increasing oil content, the membrane is fouled rapidly but not significantly and the flux factor decreases. Increasing volumetric flow rate causes an increasing flux factor. While most polymeric membranes are susceptible to fouling, this membrane is not. Steady state and unsteady state dimensional analysis of the mass, length and time shows that the steady state flux and unsteady state flux observed for microfiltration through ceramic membrane can be expressed using three and two dimensionless numbers, respectively. In the case of steady state conditions the three dimensionless numbers were shear stress, resistance and Reynolds number. The shear stress number compares the shear stress against the membrane wall to the pressure, while the resistance number compares the convective cross-flow transport to the derived transport through a layer, whose resistance is the sum of all the resistance induced by the different processes which limit the mass transport. In unsteady state conditions, the two dimensionless numbers were flux factor and dimensionless time. Experimental data obtained in microfiltration of oil/water emulsion were recalculated in terms of these dimensionless groups for the steady state and unsteady state conditions. Straight lines in steady state conditions were plotted whose slope depends solely on the suspension and the membrane and not on the solute concentration. A positive slope of the (NS, Nf) plane means that fouling predominated; this was observed with hydrocarbon emulsion. The results of unsteady state dimensional analysis show that by increasing oil content, the membrane is fouled rapidly but not significantly and the flux factor decreases and increasing volumetric flow rate causes increasing flux factor.
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