Development of mass and heat transfer coupled model of hollow fiber membrane for salt recovery from brine via osmotic membrane distillation

Background In this research work, a coupled heat and mass transfer model was developed for salt recovery from concentrated brine water through an osmotic membrane distillation (OMD) process in a hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC).The model was built based on the resistance-in-series concept for water transport across the hydrophobic membrane. The model was adopted to incorporate the effects of polarization layers such as temperature and concentration polarization, as well as viscosity changes during concentration. Results The modeling equations were numerically simulated in MATLAB® and were successfully validated with experimental data from literature with a deviation within the range of 1–5%. The model was then applied to study the effects of key process parameters like feed concentrations, osmotic solution concentration, feed, and osmotic solution flow rates and feed temperature on the overall heat and mass transfer coefficient as well as on water transport flux to improve the process efficiency. The mass balance modeling was applied to calculate the membrane area based on the simulated mass transfer coefficient. Finally, a scale-up for the MD process for salt recovery on an industrial scale was proposed. Conclusions This study highlights the effect of key parameters for salt recovery from wastewater using the membrane distillation process. Further, the applicability of the OMD process for salt recovery on large scale was investigated. Sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the key parameters. From the results of this study, it is concluded that the OMD process can be promising in salt recovery from wastewater.