MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A VACUUM MEMBRANE DISTILLATION PLANT COUPLED WITH SOLAR ENERGY AND USING HELICAL HOLLOW FIBERS

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of operating conditions such as coil pitch, fiber diameter, distance between fiber and absorber internal wall and absorber diameter for a vacuum membrane installation coupled with solar energy and using helically coiled fiber to maximize the permeate flow rate. The model is based on a system of equations composed of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Matlab and FemLab were used to solve this system of equations. The results showed that the best values of fiber geometric configuration are 3.22 cm for the coil pitch, 6 mm for the fiber diameter, 4.3 mm for the distance between the fiber and the absorber internal wall and 14 cm for the absorber diameter. For this configuration, the permeate flow rate is 18.6 10-5 kg/s. In conclusion, these results are important in the membrane module design for practical membrane distillation applications.