Numerical study of a hybrid membrane cell with semi and fully permeable membrane sub-sections

Abstract

Hybrid membrane cells with up to 128 sections, each one comprising a fully and a semi-permeable membrane sub-section and, the limit case of a cell with an infinite number of membrane sections were studied by numerical methods. These hybrid cells separate a feed stream into two parts: a solvent stream which crosses the semi-permeable membranes and a concentrate stream which crosses the fully permeable membranes. The concentrate stream has a cleaning effect on the mass boundary layer over the semi-permeable membranes. The numerical results show that concentration polarization in hybrid cells is much lower than the polarization in conventional cells. Additionally, a highly concentrated solution is recovered. The cell with an infinite number of membrane sections (n) has the best performance: the lowest polarization and the highest concentration in the concentrate stream. As n increases to infinite, the concentration in the concentrate stream tends to the concentration over the semi-permeable membrane, i.e., to the maximum concentration inside the mass boundary layer. The number of membrane sections needed to achieve a performance similar to that of a cell with an infinite number of sections is very high, greater than 128. The velocity of the concentrate stream also plays an important role. As this velocity is increased (until an upper limit), the cleaning effect of the boundary layer intensifies but the purity of the concentrate stream decreases (dilution effect). An intermediate value for the velocity of the concentrate stream (between the lower and upper limit) should be used to optimize both effects.