TY - JOUR
T1 - Novel hole-pillar spacer design for improved hydrodynamics and biofouling mitigation in membrane filtration.
AU - Qamar, Adnan
AU - Kerdi, Sarah
AU - Ali, Syed Muztuza
AU - Shon, Ho Kyong
AU - Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.
AU - Ghaffour, NorEddine
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-03-30
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): BAS/1/1086-01-01
Acknowledgements: This study was funded by KAUST faculty baseline (BAS/1/1086-01-01).
PY - 2021/3/27
Y1 - 2021/3/27
N2 - Feed spacers are the critical components of any spiral-wound filtration module, dictating the filtration performance. Three spacer designs, namely a non-woven commercial spacer (varying filament cross-section), a symmetric pillar spacer, and a novel hole-pillar spacer (constant filament diameter) were studied using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), 3-D printed and subsequently experimentally tested in a lab-scale ultrafiltration set-up with high biofouling potential feed water at various feed pressures. Independent of the applied pressure, the novel hole-pillar spacer showed initially the lowest feed channel pressure drop, the lowest shear stress, and the highest permeate flux compared to the commercial and pillar spacers. Furthermore, less biofilm thickness development on membrane surface was visualized by Optical Coherent Tomography (OCT) imaging for the proposed hole-pillar spacer. At higher feed pressure, a thicker biofilm developed on membrane surface for all spacer designs explaining the stronger decrease in permeate flux at high pressure. The findings systematically demonstrated the role of various spacer designs and applied pressure on the performance of pre-treatment process, while identifying specific shear stress distribution guidelines for engineering a new spacer design in different filtration techniques.
AB - Feed spacers are the critical components of any spiral-wound filtration module, dictating the filtration performance. Three spacer designs, namely a non-woven commercial spacer (varying filament cross-section), a symmetric pillar spacer, and a novel hole-pillar spacer (constant filament diameter) were studied using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), 3-D printed and subsequently experimentally tested in a lab-scale ultrafiltration set-up with high biofouling potential feed water at various feed pressures. Independent of the applied pressure, the novel hole-pillar spacer showed initially the lowest feed channel pressure drop, the lowest shear stress, and the highest permeate flux compared to the commercial and pillar spacers. Furthermore, less biofilm thickness development on membrane surface was visualized by Optical Coherent Tomography (OCT) imaging for the proposed hole-pillar spacer. At higher feed pressure, a thicker biofilm developed on membrane surface for all spacer designs explaining the stronger decrease in permeate flux at high pressure. The findings systematically demonstrated the role of various spacer designs and applied pressure on the performance of pre-treatment process, while identifying specific shear stress distribution guidelines for engineering a new spacer design in different filtration techniques.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/666413
UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86459-w
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-021-86459-w
DO - 10.1038/s41598-021-86459-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 33772069
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 11
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
ER -