Indexed by:Journal Article

Date of Publication:2017-06-01

Journal:AICHE JOURNAL

Included Journals:EI、SCIE

Volume:63

Issue:6

Page Number:2187-2197

ISSN:0001-1541

Key Words:crystallization; membrane separations; nucleation; process control; simulation; process

Abstract:Membrane distillation crystallization (MDC) was introduced and investigated for the simultaneous treatment of saline organic wastewater generated from oil extraction, in this article. The developed process model of MDC for the investigated ternary system was validated by the experiments with good agreement. Under the tested feed ethylene glycol (EG) composition and operation conditions, the highly concentrated EG (residual side, recovery ratio>98.7%), pure water (permeate side, purity>99%), pure crystals with narrow crystal-size distribution, and desired morphology were simultaneously manufactured. By this simultaneous recovery of EG and H2O in the feed flow, the overall separation efficiency was enhanced. The impact factors of the crystal properties during MDC were also revealed by comprehensive analysis. Moreover, the diverse metastable zone width and crystal morphology obtained in different feed EG composition indicated the change of the nucleation barrier and the kinetic crystallization control mechanism. (c) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2187-2197, 2017