Scale-up Design of a Spacer-Filled Disk-Type Membrane Module Using CFD

The scale-up design of a spacer-filled disk-type membrane module has been conducted by using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique. A three-dimensional CFD technique was used to analyze fluid flow in the membrane module, permeate flux, permeate volumetric flow rate and the distribution of permeation rates on the membrane surfaces. The numerical results showed that there were variations in the volumetric flow rate and permeation rates with different membrane module sizes. As radius ratio of the collection tube to radius of the spacer-filled disk-type membrane module was smaller than 0.162, a series of membrane module could be considered instead of large membrane module sizes based on the same total membrane areas. Microscopic understanding derived from the CFD analysis can improve the design of collection tubes, spacer thicknesses and membrane module sizes to enhance module performance and assist the construction of new designs.