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Indexed by:期刊论文

Date of Publication:2021-12-15

Journal:CHEMICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH & DESIGN

Volume:157

Page Number:77-91

ISSN No.:0263-8762

Key Words:Computational fluid dynamics; Profiled membranes; Mass transfer; Mixing promoter; Reverse electrodialysis

Abstract:Profiled membranes, the membranes with microstructures on one side or two sides, are expected to be a viable alternative to the spacers and enhance the power output of the reverse electrodialysis (RED) process. However, there are some problems for the present single-sided profiled membranes such as flow stagnating and insufficient fluid mixing. As for double-sided profiled membranes, the membrane preparation and exact stack assembling are still difficult. With respect to these problems, a single-sided wave-profiled membrane with wavy sub-corrugations as additional mixing promoters is proposed in this study. Based on the Computational Fluid Dynamics method, the flow and mass transfer characteristics in the wave-profiled membrane channel and several other channels (for purposes of comparison) are simulated. Results show that the single-sided wave-profiled membrane channel has more advantages than the single-sided pillar-profiled membrane channels especially at low Reynolds numbers typically used in RED applications, although its performance is still inferior to that of the double-sided chevron-profiled membrane channel and woven spacer channel. Furthermore, it can be proved that the wavy sub-corrugations can enhance the mass transfer and reduce the concentration polarization, while they have a better influence on the surface where the sub-corrugations are located. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.