Study on the Effect of Operating Parameters on Water Yield of Hollow Fibre Vacuum Membrane Distillation Using CFD Simulation and Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Coal chemical bases in Northwest China are suffering from geographical water scarcity and a large amount of highly saline wastewater that needs to be treated during the production process, resulting in water and energy consumption becoming a key issue in the process of confined zero discharge. Membrane distillation is a thermally driven water treatment technology that can achieve higher water production efficiency and lower energy consumption by using hollow fibre membrane distillation in combination with a vacuum permeation side. In this study, CFD simulation calculations and response surface method analysis of hollow fibre membrane modules were carried out to further reveal the effects of different process operating parameters on water yield and the interactions between the operating parameters. It was found that the influence of the parameters on the membrane flux was as follows: feed inlet temperature > vacuum pressure ≈ feed inlet flow rate > feed inlet sanility, and the optimal operating parameters were predicted to be vacuum pressure of 38.88 kPa, feed solution temperature of 353.15 K, feed solution concentration of 4.13%, and inlet velocity of 0.60 m/s, which achieve membrane flux of 38.90 kg∙m − 2 ∙h − 1 according to the response surface method. This study provides more in-depth theoretical guidance for the application of hollow fibre vacuum membrane distillation technology in the treatment of coal chemical high salt wastewater.