• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.435-445
• /
• 2018

In this work, desalination experiments were performed on vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Process parameters such as feed flow rate, vacuum degree on permeate side, feed bulk temperature and feed salt concentration were optimized using sensitivity analysis and Taguchi method. The optimum values of process parameters were found to be 2 lpm of feed flow rate, $60^{\circ}C$ of feed bulk temperature, 5.5 kPa of permeate-side pressure and 5000 ppm of salt concentration. The permeate flux at these conditions was obtained as $26.6kg/m^2{\cdot}hr$. The rejection of salt in permeate was found to be 99.7%. The percent contribution of various process parameters using ANOVA results indicated that the most important parameter is feed bulk temperature with its contribution of 95%. The ANOVA results indicate that the percent contribution of permeate pressure gets increased to 5.384% in the range of 2 to 7 kPa as compared to 0.045% in the range of 5.5 to 7 kPa.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.113-123
• /
• 2017

This study investigated effects of physical and chemical cleaning methods on the initial flux recovery of fouled membrane in membrane distillation process. A laboratory scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiment was performed to treat digested livestock wastewater with 3.89 mg/L suspended solids, 874.7 mg/L COD, 543.7 mg/L nitrogen, 15.6 mg/L total phosphorus, and pH of 8.6. A hydrophobic PVDF membrane with an average pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and a porosity of 75 % was installed inside a direct contact type membrane distillation module. The temperature difference between feed and permeate side was maintained at $40^{\circ}C$ with the feed and permeate stream velocity of 0.18 m/s. The results showed that the permeate flux decreased from $22.1L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ to $19.0L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ after 75 hours of distillation. The fouled membrane was cleaned first by physical flushing and consecutively by chemicals with NaOCl and citric acid. After the physical cleaning the flux was recovered to 92 % as compared with the initial clean water flux of the virgin membrane. Then 94 % of the flux was recovered after cleaning by 2,000 ppm NaOCl for 90 minutes and finally 97 % of flux recovered after 3 % citric acid for 90 minutes. SEM-EDS and FT-IR analysis results presented that the foulants on the membrane surface were removed effectively after each cleaning step. The contact angle measurement showed that the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface was also restored gradually after each cleaning step to reach nearly the same hydrophobicity level as the virgin membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.341-352
• /
• 2017

Butyl acetate is produced from acetic acid and butanol via an esterification reaction in a reactive distillation column. Entrainer can be used for efficient removal of produced water from the reaction region, leading to significant improvement of the column performance. Batch reactive distillation has clear advantages over continuous one in terms of flexibility and adaptability in a small plant. We studied batch and semi-batch reactive distillation processes through process simulation and pilot-scale experiments. We investigated process configuration and type of entrainer for improvement of the column performance and suggested a novel cyclic operation strategy using the semi-batch reactive distillation column. The cyclic strategy was shown to give relatively high production rate and stable operation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.223-236
• /
• 2013

The paper presents an experimental set-up for osmotic membrane distillation, which can be operated continuously for several weeks. NaCl solutions were used as an osmotic solution. The influence of osmotic solution concentration on the obtained permeate flux is presented. The experimental set-up was equipped with a system for the regeneration of dilute brine. The regeneration was carried out using a method of natural evaporation to the air surrounding the installation. The evaporation area was created by the Białecki rings, assembled in the form of tower. The obtained evaporation rate was sufficient to maintain a constant NaCl concentration (over 300 g/L), for air with the relative humidity in the range of 30-80%. Accurel PP S6/2 hydrophobic polypropylene membranes were used in the study. The membranes exhibited 100% rejection for 600 h of the process duration.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.6 no.6
• /
• pp.451-476
• /
• 2015

Membrane distillation (MD), which can utilize low-grade thermal energy, has been extensively studied for desalination. By incorporating solar thermal energy, the solar membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) is a potential technology for resolving the energy and water resource problems. Small-scale SMDDS (s-SMDDS) is an attractive and viable option for the production of fresh water for small communities in remote arid areas. The minimum-cost design and operation of s-SMDDS are determined by a systematic method, which involves a pseudo steady state approach for equipment sizing and the dynamic optimization using overall system mathematical models. The s-SMDDS employing three MD configurations, including the air gap (AGMD), direct contact (DCMD) and vacuum (VMD) types, are optimized. The membrane area of each system is $11.5m^2$. The AGMD system operated for 500 kg/day water production rate gives the lowest unit cost of $5.92/m^3$. The performance ratio and recovery ratio are 0.85 and 4.07%, respectively. For the commercial membrane employed in this study, the increase of membrane mass transfer coefficient up to two times is beneficial for cost reduction and the reduction of membrane heat transfer coefficient only affects the cost of the DCMD system.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.3-10
• /
• 1997

Electric are furnace dust (EAF dust) generated in steel production based on scrap melting is contained Zn and Fe about 25 and 30 percent by weight, respectively. From a metallurgical point of view, the dust could be regarded as a raw material for Zn and Fe source. To recover the Zn in the metal from EAF dust, many system are proposed such as Arc Plasma Furmace and Pb splasher method. In this study, to recover high purity Zn from Pb splasing alloy, Zn distillation is carried out at the temperature of 1123, 1173, 1223, 1273 K, the gas flow rate of 2.5, 5.0, 8.0 Ni/min and the distilling time of 10, 30, 60, 90 minutes. The main results obtained from this study are as follows:(1) The amount of evaporated Zn and its evaporating rate increased with increasing temperature, but purity of Zn decreased with increasing temperature. Optimum temperature range was found out to be between 1173∼1223K. (2) The amount of evaporated Zn and evaporation rate increased with increasing gas flow rate at a given temperature and distillation time. Gas flow rate has more influence over the amount of evaporated Zn and evaporation rate with increasing temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.73-87
• /
• 2016

Combining power generation and water production by desalination is economically advantageous. Most desalination projects use fossil fuels as an energy source, and thus contribute to increased levels of greenhouse gases. Environmental concerns have spurred researchers to find new sources of energy for desalination plants. The coupling of nuclear power production with desalination is one of the best options to achieve growth with lower environmental impact. In this paper, we will per-form a sensitivity study of coupling nuclear power to various combinations of desalination technology: {1} thermal (MSF [Multi-Stage Flashing], MED [Multi-Effect Distillation], and MED-TVC [Multi-Effect Distillation with Thermal Vapour Compression]); {2} membrane RO [Reverse Osmosis]; and {3} hybrid (MSF-RO [Multi-Stage Flashing & Reverse Osmosis] and MED-RO [Multi-Effect Distillation & Reverse Osmosis]). The Korean designed reactor plant, the APR1400 will be modeled as the energy production facility. The economical evaluation will then be executed using the computer program DEEP (Desalination Economic Evaluation Program) as developed by the IAEA. The program has capabilities to model several types of nuclear and fossil power plants, nuclear and fossil heat sources, and thermal distillation and membrane desalination technologies. The output of DEEP includes levelized water and power costs, breakdowns of cost components, energy consumption, and net saleable power for any selected option. In this study, we will examine the APR1400 coupled with a desalination power plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as a prototypical example. The KSA currently has approximately 20% of the installed worldwide capacity for seawater desalination. Utilities such as power and water are constructed and run by the government. Per state practice, economic evaluation for these utilities do not consider or apply interest or carrying cost. Therefore, in this paper the evaluation results will be based on two scenarios. The first one assumes the water utility is under direct government control and in this case the interest and discount rate will be set to zero. The second scenario will assume that the water utility is controlled by a private enterprise and in this case we will consider different values of interest and discount rates (4%, 8%, & 12%).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.351-355
• /
• 2007

It is necessary to convert butene-2 into butene-1 with higher added-values through positional isomerization. In this study, hydro-isomerization of butene-2 with hydrogen over Pd/alumina catalysts was investigated in a fixed bed reactor. The yield of butene-1 over Ld-265 catalyst was higher than that over other catalysts. The yield of butene-1 was highest (5.3%) under the conditions of reaction temperature of $75^{\circ}C$, reaction pressure of 150 psig, 2-butene flow rate of 48 cc/h and hydrogen flow rate of 3 cc/min. We conducted simulation for the process composed of a hydro-isomerization reactor and a distillation tower. In the case of 78% of tray efficiency, we obtained over 99% pure butene-1 through a distillation tower with 171 steps (R=120).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.259-266
• /
• 2020

In this study, a pilot-scale (3 ㎥/day) membrane distillation (MD) process was operated to treat digestate produced from anaerobic digestion of livestock wastewater. In order to evaluate the performance and energy cost of MD process, it was compared with the pilot scale (10 ㎥/day) reverse osmosis (RO) process, expected competitive process, under same feed condition. As results, MD process shows stable permeate flux (average 10.1 L/㎡/hr) until 150 hours, whereas permeate flux of RO process was decreased from 5.3 to 1.5 L/㎡/hr within 24 hours. In the case of removal of COD, TN, and TP, MD process shows a high removal rate (98.7, 93.7, and 99% respectively) stably until 150 hours. However, in the case of RO process, removal rate was decreased from 91.6 to 69.5% in COD and from 93.7 to 76.0% in TP during 100 hours of operation. Removal rate of TN in RO process was fluctuated in the range of 34.5-62.9% (average 44.6%) during the operation. As a result of energy cost analysis, MD process using waste heat for heating the feed shows 18% lower cost compare with RO process. Thus, overall efficiency of the MD process is higher then that of the RO process in terms of permeate flux, removal rate of salts, and operating cost (in the case of using waste heat) in treating the anaerobic digestate of livestock wastewater.

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