Three-Dimensional Membrane Imaging with X-ray Ptychography: Determination of Membrane Transport Properties for Membrane Distillation

Membrane distillation (MD) is a desalination technique that uses a membrane to thermally separate potable water from sea or brackish water. The mass transport processes through the membrane are commonly described by the dusty gas model. These processes are modeled assuming uniform, ideally cylindrical capillaries and are adjusted for the membrane geometry by including porosity and tortuosity. The tortuosity is usually set to 2 or is used as an adjusting parameter to fit theoretical models to experimentally measured data. In this work, ptychographic X-ray computed tomography is employed to map the three-dimensional (3D) structure of three commercial state-of-the-art PTFE membranes in MD. The porosity, tortuosity and permeability (viscous flow coefficient) of the samples are computed using the lattice Boltzmann method. The intrinsic permeability is compared to the dusty gas model and an apparent permeability is proposed which is corrected for Knudsen slip effects at the membrane structure. Article Highlights 3D structure of membranes for distillation measured at full height at an unprecedented detail using X-ray ptychography for the first time. Comparison of the dusty gas model to 3D direct numerical simulation: permeability and Knudsen effects. Membrane characterization and calculation of the hydraulic tortuosity factor from 3D flow field simulations.

Numerical Simulation of Methane and Propane Reforming Over a Porous Rh/Al2O3 Catalyst in Stagnation-Flows: Impact of Internal and External Mass Transfer Limitations on Species Profiles

Hydrogen production by catalytic partial oxidation and steam reforming of methane and propane towards synthesis gas are numerically investigated in stagnation-flow over a disc coated with a porous Rh/Al2O3 layer. A one-dimensional flow field is coupled with three models for internal diffusion and with a 62-step surface reaction mechanism. Numerical simulations are conducted with the recently developed computer code DETCHEMSTAG. Dusty-Gas model, a reaction-diffusion model and a simple effectiveness factor model, are alternatively used in simulations to study the internal mass transfer inside the 100 µm thick washcoat layer. Numerically predicted species profiles in the external boundary layer agree well with the recently published experimental data. All three models for internal diffusion exhibit strong species concentration gradients in the catalyst layer. In partial oxidation conditions, a thin total oxidation zone occurs close to the gas-washcoat interface, followed by a zone of steam and dry reforming of methane. Increasing the reactor pressure and decreasing the inlet flow velocity increases/decreases the external/internal mass transfer limitations. The comparison of reaction-diffusion and Dusty-Gas model results reveal the insignificance of convective flow on species transport inside the washcoat. Simulations, which additionally solve a heat transport equation, do not show any temperature gradients inside the washcoat.

Analytical Expression for Concentration Overpotential of Anode-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Based on the Dusty Gas Model

The Dusty Gas model (DGM), despite being arguably the most accurate representation of gas diffusion in electrodes, is not readily adopted in the literature as it entails relatively expensive numerical integration of differential equations for concentration polarization calculations. To address this issue, this article demonstrates an analytical procedure to solve the DGM equations in a fuel cell electrode setting. In the process, it highlights the differences with previous attempts in the literature and improves upon the shortcomings. This paper specifically provides explicit expressions of concentration overpotentials of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) for binary and ternary gas systems via the analytical solution of DGM equations in one dimension without considering the viscous effects. The model predictions match very well with the experimental data available in the open literature. This paper also provides a semi-analytical framework for higher-order multicomponent systems. Finally, the effect of the pore-size distribution in the porous electrode on the concentration polarization is thoroughly explored.