Produced water treatment by ceramic membrane: A numerical investigation by computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

The disposal of industrial effluents into the environment is an issue that has attracted attention of researchers and engineers with particular reference for produced water originating from the petroleum industry. Separation process using ceramic membranes has been an alternative used to obey requirements of environmental agencies in Brazil related to disposal of oil and grease. Accordingly, we have studied numerically the fluid flow into a separation module with tubular membrane. The conservation equations for mass, linear momentum, and mass transport in conjunction with the re-normalization group k- ε turbulence model were resolved with aid of the ANSYS CFX 12 commercial package. Results of the streamlines, vector velocity, pressure, velocity, and concentration fields are presented and analyzed. It was concluded that the proposed mathematical model predicts the behavior of the flow within the separation module and that increasing the level of turbulence and putting an impermeable section into the inlet region of the membrane reduce the effect of the polarization layer.