Tratamento de efluentes da indústria de petróleo via membranas cerâmicas - modelagem e simulação.

Abstract

One of the main problems associated with membrane separation process is the permeate flux decline, which limits the application of the process in the food sector, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, industrial water treatment and supply due to the increase in the concentration of components in the membrane thus calling for a polarization concentration. A quantification of the concentration polarization as a function of the process conditions and the amount of feed water system is required to estimate the performance of the system satisfactorily. The search for new alternatives to maintain of constant permeate flow was the main motivation of this work will be evaluated the geometric shape of the separation module, the distribution of membranes inside the module and operating parameters such as feed flow rate, viscosity dynamic mixing and permeability of the porous medium. In this sense, the numerical study of the process of separating oil/water through porous membranes was performed with the aid of the commercial software ANSYS CFX® Release 12.0. A mathematical model in steady state, applied to an incompressible fluid flowing in laminar and/or turbulent inside filtration modules scheme is proposed. Numerical results show that the mathematical model used was capable of providing for the formation and growth of the boundary layer concentration (concentration polarization) along the length of tubular ceramic membranes. The formation of concentration polarization was influenced by the hydrodynamic behavior of flow, geometry of the separation and mixing and porous properties, such as viscosity and permeability, respectively module. The model found in turbulent flow regime of a favoring mass transfer and dispersion of the boundary layer concentration.