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Vacuum membrane distillation: Experiments and modeling
Author(s) -
Bandini Serena,
Saavedra Aldo,
Sarti Giulio Cesare
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690430213
Subject(s) - membrane distillation , membrane , vacuum distillation , chemistry , distillation , mass transfer , aqueous solution , chromatography , membrane technology , microporous material , acetone , separation process , pervaporation , chemical engineering , evaporation , vacuum evaporation , fractional distillation , volumetric flow rate , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , materials science , permeation , biochemistry , physics , thin film , desalination , engineering , nanotechnology
Vacuum membrane distillation is a membrane‐based separation process considered here to remove volatile organic compounds from aqueous streams. Microporous hydrophobic membranes are used to separate the aqueous stream from a gas phase kept under vacuum. The evaporation of the liquid stream takes place on one side of the membrane, and mass transfer occurs through the vapor phase inside the membrane. The role of operative conditions on the process performance is widely investigated in the case of dilute binary aqueous mixtures containing acetone, ethanol, isopropanol, ethylacetate, methylacetate, or methylterbutyl ether. Temperature, composition, flow rate of the liquid feed, and pressure downstream the membrane are the main operative variables. Among these, the vacuum‐side pressure is the major design factor since it greatly affects the separation efficiency. A mathematical model description of the process is developed, and the results are compared with the experiments. The model is finally used to predict the best operative conditions in which the process can work for the case of benzene removal from waste waters.