(195a) Predicting Performance and Efficiency of Semi-Permeable Membranes with Simulation
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2015
2015 AIChE Spring Meeting and 11th Global Congress on Process Safety
15th Topical Conference on Gas Utilization
Advances in Gas Processing Design and Operation II
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - 1:30pm to 2:00pm
Membranes are widely used in separation processes where particles or species ranging from a few micrometers (microfiltration) down to molecular size are separated from a stream. Well-known examples are the filtration of dust particles from flue gas, reverse-osmosis to gain drinking water from seawater or gas permeation to separate different species of gases.
While the selectivity of membranes is basically a function of its molecular formulation, overall efficiency depends in addition on system parameters like flow, pressure and temperature In this contribution we want to show the predictive capabilities of STAR-CCM+ to model such membrane separation processes. The performance of a membrane is investigated for two examples, where molecular functionality of the membrane is expressed by generally used modeling approaches and combined with flow behavior calculations of classical CFD.
In a first validation study a semi-permeable membrane for a gas separation unit is investigated. A comparison with experiments performed at TU Berlin shows a very good agreement with respect to integral values like permeate stream and pressure drop. Beside this the simulation allows a detailed insight in the flow field and species distribution. A second example shows the successful usage for desalination based on reverse-osmosis, where the osmotic pressure is calculated based on the chemical potential.