Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation
Despite membrane distillation (MD) being well acknowledged as a green technology for water treatment, it remains unattractive for commercial implementation due to limited energy efficiency, and temporal fluctuations in sustainable energy sources like waste heat and solar. The induction heating of me...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1555232022-03-07T08:03:06Z Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation Tan, Yong Zen Chandrakant, Sairaj Patil Ang, Joan Shu Ting Wang, Hou Chew, Jia Wei School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Engineering::Bioengineering Localized Heating Induction Heating Despite membrane distillation (MD) being well acknowledged as a green technology for water treatment, it remains unattractive for commercial implementation due to limited energy efficiency, and temporal fluctuations in sustainable energy sources like waste heat and solar. The induction heating of metallic spacers addresses these shortcomings. In this study, we harnessed the high thermal conductivity of nickel (Ni) spacers and their capacity to be inductively heated to improve the energy efficiency of direct contact MD, and benchmarked the performance against the conventional external heating of the bulk feed and the use of polypropylene (PP) spacers. Both simulations and experiments were performed. Noteworthy results include: (i) induction heating gave higher flux and energy efficiency than the conventional external heating and use of PP mesh, particularly at lower flowrates; and (ii) induction heating was able to supplement external heating without a decrease in energy efficiency, which makes it a promising method to circumvent the problem of temporal fluctuations of waste or solar heat. This study demonstrated the feasibility of localized induction heating of metallic spacers in MD, which has potential for further improvements through optimizations of the thermal conductivity and geometry of the spacer, and energy efficiency of the induction heater. Economic Development Board (EDB) Ministry of Education (MOE) Nanyang Technological University We acknowledge funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 Grant (2019-T1-002-065), the Singapore GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) – EDB (Economic Development Board) Trust Fund, the Singapore Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Project Grant (MOE/2019/MDT75), and the Singapore National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster @ Nanyang Technological University (NAMIC@NTU) Grant (2018256). 2022-03-07T08:03:06Z 2022-03-07T08:03:06Z 2020 Journal Article Tan, Y. Z., Chandrakant, S. P., Ang, J. S. T., Wang, H. & Chew, J. W. (2020). Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation. Journal of Membrane Science, 606, 118150-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118150 0376-7388 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/155523 10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118150 2-s2.0-85084052781 606 118150 en 2019-T1-002-065 MOE/2019/MDT75 2018256 Journal of Membrane Science © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
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Engineering::Bioengineering Localized Heating Induction Heating Tan, Yong Zen Chandrakant, Sairaj Patil Ang, Joan Shu Ting Wang, Hou Chew, Jia Wei Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
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Despite membrane distillation (MD) being well acknowledged as a green technology for water treatment, it remains unattractive for commercial implementation due to limited energy efficiency, and temporal fluctuations in sustainable energy sources like waste heat and solar. The induction heating of metallic spacers addresses these shortcomings. In this study, we harnessed the high thermal conductivity of nickel (Ni) spacers and their capacity to be inductively heated to improve the energy efficiency of direct contact MD, and benchmarked the performance against the conventional external heating of the bulk feed and the use of polypropylene (PP) spacers. Both simulations and experiments were performed. Noteworthy results include: (i) induction heating gave higher flux and energy efficiency than the conventional external heating and use of PP mesh, particularly at lower flowrates; and (ii) induction heating was able to supplement external heating without a decrease in energy efficiency, which makes it a promising method to circumvent the problem of temporal fluctuations of waste or solar heat. This study demonstrated the feasibility of localized induction heating of metallic spacers in MD, which has potential for further improvements through optimizations of the thermal conductivity and geometry of the spacer, and energy efficiency of the induction heater. |
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School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering |
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School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Tan, Yong Zen Chandrakant, Sairaj Patil Ang, Joan Shu Ting Wang, Hou Chew, Jia Wei |
format |
Article |
author |
Tan, Yong Zen Chandrakant, Sairaj Patil Ang, Joan Shu Ting Wang, Hou Chew, Jia Wei |
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Tan, Yong Zen |
title |
Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
title_short |
Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
title_full |
Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
title_fullStr |
Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
title_sort |
localized induction heating of metallic spacers for energy-efficient membrane distillation |
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2022 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/155523 |
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1726885521706188800 |