A study of osmotic distillation in hollow fibre modul

  • Viet A. Bui

Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis

Abstract

Osmotic distillation is a process of removing water from an aqueous solution, driven by water vapour pressure gradient across a hydrophobic membrane. The process occurs at or below ambient temperature and under atmospheric pressure. This research project investigates the osmotic distillation process in hollow fibre modules using hollow fibres PP375, PV375 and PV660 supplied by Memcor Australia. Operating conditions such as temperature, feed concentration and brine cross flow velocity, but not the feed cross flow velocity, were found to have significant effect on the flux. Models for heat and mass transfers were used to study the polarisation phenomena in osmotic distillation. Temperature and concentration profiles at the membrane surfaces due to polarisation were quantified. Scholfield and Ordinary Diffusion models for flux prediction based on the bulk conditions were developed and validated. Models for water activity and viscosity of aqueous glucose and calcium chloride solutions were also developed and validated in this work.
Date of Award2002
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • osmosis
  • hydrophobic
  • temperature
  • feed concentration
  • brine
  • velocity
  • glucose
  • calcium chloride
  • heat
  • mass

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