A model of direct contact membrane distillation for black currant juice Original Research Article

A model to predict the progress of a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process is presented. This model is based on the dusty gas model (DGM), describing the flow inside the membrane pores. The DGM is incorporated into mass and energy balances over a tubular membrane module. These balances include corrections for temperature and concentration polarization at the membrane surface estimated by empirical correlations for mass and heat transfer coefficients. Physical properties of the tube and shell side solutions and physical properties of the membrane have been estimated based on values and correlations given in literature. The size of membrane tortuosity has been estimated based on experiments on pure water feed. Evaluated with experimental data obtained from DCMD experiments on black currant juice the model was capable of predicting fluxes in DCMD on black currant juice with an average percental error below 10%.