Prediction of mass transfer coefficient with suction for turbulent flow in cross flow ultrafiltration

Non-Isothermal Treatment of Oily Waters Using Ceramic Membrane: A Numerical Investigation

Currently, the oil industry deals with the challenge of produced-water proper disposal, and the membrane-separation technology appears as an important tool on the treatment of these waters. In this sense, this work developed a mathematical model for simulating the oil/water separation by a ceramic membrane. The aim was to investigate the thermal aspects of the separation process via computational fluid dynamic, using the Ansys CFX® 15 software (15, Ansys, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA). Oil concentration, pressure, and velocity distributions, as well as permeation velocity, are presented and analyzed. It was verified that the mathematical model was capable of accurately representing the studied phenomena and that temperature strongly influences the flow behavior.

Assessment of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis potentialities to recover metals, sulfuric acid, and recycled water from acid gold mining effluent

This work assessed the potential of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) to treat acid streams contaminated with metals, such as effluent from the pressure oxidation process (POX) used in refractory gold ore processing. NF and RO were evaluated in terms of rejections of sulfuric acid and metals. Regarding NF, high sulfuric acid permeation (∼100%), was observed, while metals were retained with high efficiencies (∼90%), whereas RO led to high acid rejections (<88%) when conducted in pH values higher than 1. Thus, sequential use of NF and RO was proved to be a promising treatment for sulfuric acid solutions contaminated by metals, such as POX effluent. In this context, a purified acid stream could be recovered in NF permeate, which could be further concentrated in RO. Recovered acid stream could be reused in the gold ore processing or commercialized. A metal-enriched stream could be also recovered in NF retentate and transferred to a subsequent metal recovery stage. In addition, considering the high acid rejection obtained through the proposed system, RO permeate could be used as recycling water.

Concentration polarization phenomenon during the nanofiltration of multi-ionic solutions: influence of the filtrated solution and operating conditions

One of the major difficulties for the prediction of separation performances in the case of multi-ionic mixtures nanofiltration lies in the description of the concentration polarization phenomenon. Usual models available in literature do not take account of the polarization phenomenon or only describe it cursorily. Very few studies dedicated to the understanding and the specific description of the concentration polarization phenomenon are available in literature and a 2-D multi-ionic model describing the layer heterogeneity along the membrane length has never been proposed yet. The model used in the present work, called Pore and Polarization Transport Model (PPTM), allows an accurate description of the concentration polarization layer occurring during the filtration of multi-ionic solutions by taking account of the radial electromigrative transport in the layer, the turbulence, as well as the axial heterogeneity. In this context, the present paper aims at proposing a numerical investigation of the influence of operating conditions on the behavior of the polarization layer occurring at the membrane vicinity. The input parameters governing the transport through the membrane have been assessed in a previous study in the same experimental conditions so that only the polarization layer is investigated here. The proposed model which was previously validated on experimental observed rejection curves is then used to understand how operating conditions, such as applied pressure, feed flow-rate, or divalent ion proportion, govern the polarization phenomenon. For this purpose, concentration and thickness axial profiles along the membrane length and radial profiles within the polarization layer are investigated for various conditions. Finally, the impact of the type of divalent ion and the number of ions is also studied on various mixtures.