• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.353-361
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• 2020

The present study deals with a numerical investigation of heat and mass transfer in a Sweeping Gas Membrane Distillation (SGMD) used for desalination. The governing equations expressing the conservation of mass, momentum, energy and species with coupled boundary conditions were solved numerically. The slip boundary condition applied on the feed saline solution-hydrophobic membrane interface is taken into consideration showing its effects on profiles and process parameters.The numerical model was validated with available experimental data and was found to be in good agreement particularly when the slip condition is considered. The results of the simulations highlighted the effect of slip boundary condition on the velocity and temperature distributions as well as the process effectiveness. They showed in particular that as the slip length increases, the permeate flux of fresh water and process thermal efficiency rise.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.347-353
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• 2019

Although membrane distillation (MD) has great promise for desalination of saline water sources, it is crucial to improve its thermal efficiency to reduce the operating cost. Accordingly, this study intended to examine the thermal energy efficiency of MD modules in a pilot scale system. Two different modules of hollow fiber membranes were compared in direct contact MD mode. One of them was made of polypropylene with the effective membrane area of $2.6m^2$ and the other was made of polyvinylidene fluoride with the effective membrane area of $7.6m^2$. The influence of operation parameters, including the temperatures of feed and distillate, feed flow rate, and distillate flow rate on the flux, recovery, and performance ratio (PR), was investigated. Results showed that the two MD membranes showed different flux and PR values even under similar conditions. Moreover, both flow rate and temperature difference between feed and distillate significantly affect the PR values. These results suggest that the operating conditions for MD should be determined by considering the module properties.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.529-541
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• 2017

A multi-effect air gap membrane distillation (ME-AGMD) module for pesticide wastewater treatment is studied with internal heat recovery, sensible heat of brine recovery, number of stages and the use of fresh feed as cooling water in a single module is implemented in this study. A flat sheet polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE) membrane was used in the 4-stage ME-AGMD module. The maximum value of permeate flux could reach $38.62L/m^2h$ at feed -coolant water temperature difference about $52^{\circ}C$. The performance parameter of the module like, specific energy consumption and gain output ratio (GOR) was investigated for the module with and without heat recovery. Also, the module performance was characterized with respect to the separation efficiency of several important water quality parameters. The removal efficiency of the module was found to be >98.8% irrespective water quality parameters. During the experiment the membrane fouling was caused due to the deposition of the salt/crystal on the membrane surface. The membrane fouling was controlled by membrane module washing cycle 9 h and also by acidification of the feed water (pH=4) using 0.1M HCl solution.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.30-34
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• 2014

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermal driven separation process in which separation a hydrophobic membrane is a barrier for the liquid phase, letting the vapor phase pass through the membrane pores. Therefore, a porous and hydrophobic membrane should be used in membrane distillation. MD cannot work if water penetrates into the pores of the membrane (membrane wetting). Accordingly, it is necessary to prevent wetting of MD membranes and to remove water inside the pores of the wetted membranes if possible. In this context, our study aimed to develop methods to recover wetted membranes in MD processes. Poly-vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were used in this study. A laboratory-scale direct contact MD (DCMD) system was used to examine the effect of operating parameters on wetting. For dewetting the wetted membranes, specific techniques including the use of high temperature air were applied. The performances of the membranes before and after dewetting were compared in terms of flux, salt rejection and liquid entry pressure(LEP). The surface morphology of dewetted membrane was confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2024

In this paper, a new technology to obtain electronic grade, highly pure carbon dioxide by using membrane and liquefied natural gas (LNG) cold heat assisted cryogenic distillation has been proposed. PRO/II with PROVISION release 2023.1 from AVEVA company was used, and Peng-Robinson equation of the state model with Twu's alpha function to predict pure component vapor pressure versus temperature more accurately was selected for the modeling of the membrane and cryogenic distillation process. Advantage of using membrane separation instead of selecting absorber-stripper configuration for the concentration of carbon dioxide was the reduction of carbon dioxide capture cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.74-74
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• 2017

Electrorefining is a key step in pyroprocessing. The electrorefining process is generally composed of two recovery steps - the deposit of uranium onto a solid cathode and the recovery of the remaining uranium and TRU elements simultaneously by a liquid cadmium cathode. Uranium deposit recovered from the solid cathode is a dendritic powder. It is necessary to separate the adhered salt from the deposits prior to the consolidation of uranium deposit. The adhered salt is composed of lithium, potassium, uranium, and rare earth chlorides. Distillation process was employed for the cathode processing. One of the operation methods is distillation of the salt at low temperature ($900^{\circ}C$), and then melting of the deposit at high temperature to avoid a backward reaction. For the development of the salt distiller, the distillation behavior of the low vapor pressure chlorides should be studied. Rare earth chlorides in the adhered salt of uranium deposits have relatively low vapor pressures compared to the process salt (LiCl-KCl). In this study, the evaporation rates of the lanthanum and neodymium chlorides were measured for the salt separation from electrorefiner uranium deposits in the temperature range of $825{\sim}910^{\circ}C$. The evaporation rate of both chlorides increased with an increasing templerature. The evaporation rate of lanthanum chloride varied from 0.12 to $1.68g/cm^2/h$. Neodymium chloride was more volatile than lanthanum chloride. The evaporation rate of neodymium chloride varied from 0.20 to $4.55g/cm^2/h$. The evaporation rate of both chlorides are more than $1g/cm^2/h$ at $900^{\circ}C$. Even though the evaporation rates of both chlorides were less than that of the process salt, the contents of the lanthanide chlorides were small in the adhered salt. Therefore it can be concluded that $900^{\circ}C$ is suitable for the operation temperature of the salt distiller.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.293-310
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• 2017

An ultrasonic assisting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system was designed to promote the heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation (MD) process. Both the effects of operating conditions and ultrasonic parameters to permeation flux in this process were investigated; the heat and mass transfer mechanism was also being discussed in this paper. The results showed that the performance of VMD process was improved significantly by ultrasonic assisting. The permeation flux was boosted at a certain feed solution temperature, pressure at permeate side and feed solution velocity whether or not to PP and PTFE. The results also indicated that ultrasonic power and frequency also was the key factor affecting the mass and transfer efficiencies. The feed side transfer coefficient ($K_f$), corresponding to ultrasonic power ($K_f=4.406-0.026{\times}P+7.824{\times}10^{-5}{\times}P^2$) and ultrasonic frequency ($K_f=0.941+0.598{\times}f-0.012{\times}f^2+6.283{\times}10^{-5}f^3$), was obtained and employed in the modeling of ultrasonic assisting VMD process. The modeling results showed that the calculated value of $K_f$ aligned with experimental results well. Both variations of temperature polarization coefficient (TPC) and concentration polarization coefficient (CPC) were studied based on the obtained data. The results showed that both TPC and CPC were improved obviously by the ultrasonic parameters.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.342-350
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• 2010

Membrane distillation (MD) is a separation process which higher vapor pressure components are evaporated in mixed liquid solution through hydrophobic membrane with 0.1 or $0.5{\mu}m$ pore size. In this study, direct contact membrane distillation process for hollow fiber module were interpreted numerically using the "COMSOL Multiphysics" software. The variables for the system were temperatures and flow rates of lumen and shell side solutions. The permeate flux increased from 1.0 to $3.8L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ as temperature of the feed solution for lumen increased from 30 to $50^{\circ}C$. However the effect of shell solution temperature on permeate flux was relatively low. Also, the optimum velocity of lumen feed was obtained at 0.15 m/s ($Re_L=135$) by considering MD permeate flux as well as operating pressure loss.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.84-89
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• 2003

Pyrolysis of high density polyethylene(HDPE) was carried out to find the effects of temperature and time on the pyrolysis. The starting temperature and activation energy of HDPE pyrolysis increased with increasing heating rate. In general, conversion and liquid yield continuously increased with pyrolysis temperature and pyrolysis time. This tendency is very sensitive with pyrolysis time, especially at 45$0^{\circ}C$. Pyrolysis temperature has more influence on the conversion than pyrolysis time. Each liquid product formed during pyrolysis was classified into gasoline, kerosene, light oil and wax according to the distillation temperature based on the petroleum product quality standard of Korea Petroleum Quality Inspection Institute. As a result, the amount of liquid products produced during HDPE pyrolysis at 45$0^{\circ}C$ was in the order of light oil > wax > kerosene > gasoline, and at 475$^{\circ}C$ and 50$0^{\circ}C$, it was wax > light > oil > kerosene > gasoline.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate physical and chemical characteristics of the distillates and residue of Athabasca oilsand bitumen obtained from Canada, using a vacuum distillation unit. The distillates and residue produced from the vacuum distillation were characterized through atomic analysis, SARA analysis, and measurement of boiling point distribution, molecular weight, and API gravity. The vacuum distillation equipment consisted of a 6-litter volume vessel, a glass-packed column, a condenser, a reflux device, a flask fer collecting distillates, and a temperature controller. The cutting of distillates was performed with four steps under the condition of full vacuum and maximum temperature of $320^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the sulfur amount and average molecular weight of the distillates were significantly reduced compared to those of oilsand bitumen. As the cutting temperature increased, the hydrogen amount decreased but the sulfur amount and average molecular weight increased in the distillates.