Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers

Feed spacers are an essential part of spiral wound modules for reverse osmosis (RO). They create flow channels between membrane sheets and manipulate hydrodynamic conditions to control membrane fouling. In this work, additive manufacturing (Polyjet) was used to print novel sinusoidal spacers with wa...

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Main Authors: Koo, Jing Wee, Ho, Jia Shin, Tan, Yong Zen, Tan, Wen See, An, Jia, Zhang, Yi, Chua, Chee Kai, Chong, Tzyy Haur
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159639
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1596392022-06-28T05:06:08Z Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers Koo, Jing Wee Ho, Jia Shin Tan, Yong Zen Tan, Wen See An, Jia Zhang, Yi Chua, Chee Kai Chong, Tzyy Haur School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Singapore Centre for 3D Printing Engineering::Environmental engineering Sinusoidal Spacers Additive Manufacturing Feed spacers are an essential part of spiral wound modules for reverse osmosis (RO). They create flow channels between membrane sheets and manipulate hydrodynamic conditions to control membrane fouling. In this work, additive manufacturing (Polyjet) was used to print novel sinusoidal spacers with wavy axial filaments connected by perpendicular (ST) or slanted (SL) transverse filaments. When tested with 2 g/L NaCl solution, conventional and SL spacers had similar flux while the ST spacer had about 5-7% lower flux. The pressure losses for ST and SL spacers increased by up to 3 folds depending on the flow condition. In the colloidal silica fouling and biofouling tests, the sinusoidal spacers showed lower membrane permeability decrease of 46% for ST, 41% for SL vs 56% for conventional and 26% for ST, 22% for SL vs 33% for conventional, respectively. Optical coherence tomography images from colloidal silica fouling and confocal images from biofouling tests revealed that fouling patterns were closely associated with the local hydrodynamic conditions. Overall, sinusoidal spacers showed promising results in controlling membrane fouling, but there is potential for further optimizations to reduce channel pressure loss. National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore Centre for 3D Printing (SC3DP) is funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Medium-Sized Centre funding scheme. 2022-06-28T05:06:08Z 2022-06-28T05:06:08Z 2021 Journal Article Koo, J. W., Ho, J. S., Tan, Y. Z., Tan, W. S., An, J., Zhang, Y., Chua, C. K. & Chong, T. H. (2021). Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers. Water Research, 207, 117818-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117818 0043-1354 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159639 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117818 34749103 2-s2.0-85118540633 207 117818 en Water Research © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Environmental engineering
Sinusoidal Spacers
Additive Manufacturing
spellingShingle Engineering::Environmental engineering
Sinusoidal Spacers
Additive Manufacturing
Koo, Jing Wee
Ho, Jia Shin
Tan, Yong Zen
Tan, Wen See
An, Jia
Zhang, Yi
Chua, Chee Kai
Chong, Tzyy Haur
Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
description Feed spacers are an essential part of spiral wound modules for reverse osmosis (RO). They create flow channels between membrane sheets and manipulate hydrodynamic conditions to control membrane fouling. In this work, additive manufacturing (Polyjet) was used to print novel sinusoidal spacers with wavy axial filaments connected by perpendicular (ST) or slanted (SL) transverse filaments. When tested with 2 g/L NaCl solution, conventional and SL spacers had similar flux while the ST spacer had about 5-7% lower flux. The pressure losses for ST and SL spacers increased by up to 3 folds depending on the flow condition. In the colloidal silica fouling and biofouling tests, the sinusoidal spacers showed lower membrane permeability decrease of 46% for ST, 41% for SL vs 56% for conventional and 26% for ST, 22% for SL vs 33% for conventional, respectively. Optical coherence tomography images from colloidal silica fouling and confocal images from biofouling tests revealed that fouling patterns were closely associated with the local hydrodynamic conditions. Overall, sinusoidal spacers showed promising results in controlling membrane fouling, but there is potential for further optimizations to reduce channel pressure loss.
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Koo, Jing Wee
Ho, Jia Shin
Tan, Yong Zen
Tan, Wen See
An, Jia
Zhang, Yi
Chua, Chee Kai
Chong, Tzyy Haur
format Article
author Koo, Jing Wee
Ho, Jia Shin
Tan, Yong Zen
Tan, Wen See
An, Jia
Zhang, Yi
Chua, Chee Kai
Chong, Tzyy Haur
author_sort Koo, Jing Wee
title Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
title_short Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
title_full Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
title_fullStr Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
title_full_unstemmed Fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3D printed sinusoidal spacers
title_sort fouling mitigation in reverse osmosis processes with 3d printed sinusoidal spacers
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159639
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