Renewable energy powered membrane technology: Computational fluid dynamics evaluation of system performance with variable module size and fluctuating energy

摘要

Renewable energy powered membrane systems operate with fluctuating energy. Such fluctuations affect pressure and feed flow and as such the hydrodynamic conditions in a membrane system. Hydrodynamic variations alter the membrane surface concentration and boundary layer thickness which in turn determines permeate water quality. In this work this is calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the three most predominant energy levels obtained during such fluctuations and compared with experimental data.