Optimal Design of Thermal Membrane Distillation Networks Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 2015 Elsevier B.V. Thermal membrane distillation (TMD) is a promising separation technology which involves simultaneous heat and mass transfer through a hydrophobic semi-permeable membrane. Studies of this technology have focused on the performance of individual modules. However, due tospecific purity and recovery requirements in some processes, multiple TMD modules have to be used in different configurations such as series, parallel, and combinations, which might require to reroute streams from one module to another or to recycle a stream to the same unit. This paper presents a systematic approach to synthesize an optimal TMD network. All the potential configurations are embedded within a structural representation of the problem which is then formulated as an MINLP optimization model, in which the objective function is the minimization of the total cost of the system. The advantages of the presented approach over conventional design procedures is shown through a case study dealing with the desalination of water (i.e,. integrated TMD modules yield better results with respect to usual configurations).

published proceedings

  • 12TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON PROCESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (PSE) AND 25TH EUROPEAN SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER AIDED PROCESS ENGINEERING (ESCAPE), PT A

author list (cited authors)

  • Gonzalez-Bravo, R., Napoles-Rivera, F., Maria Ponce-Ortega, J., Serna-Gonzalez, M., & El-Halwagi, M. M.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • González-Bravo, Ramón||Nápoles-Rivera, Fabricio||Ponce-Ortega, José María||Serna-González, Medardo||El-Halwagi, Mahamoud M

publication date

  • January 2015