Application of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) has a great potential in the desalination of high salinity wastewaters where treatment by reverse osmosis membranes is not feasible. Application of DCMD for many such wastewaters, most notably RO reject, yielded high permeate flux with excellent quality. In this study, an ASPEN Plus simulation of direct contact membrane distillation has been developed for the desalination of water produced during unconventional gas extraction. The model incorporates fundamental heat and mass transfer principles to calculate membrane surface temperatures and permeate flux based on the actual driving force and membrane mass transfer coefficient obtained from experiments with distilled water feed. It was assumed that water vapor is the only permeant passing through the membrane and the effect of concentration polarization at the membrane surface was taken into account. Thermodynamic models present in ASPEN Plus platform are used to calculate the driving force, i.e. the vapor pressure difference across the membrane. Produced water from unconventional gas extraction used for experimental validation of the model was obtained from hydraulic fracturing sites in the Marcellus Shale region. Model formulation will be presented together with predictions that are generally in good agreement with experimental data. The effects of feed and permeate temperatures and hydrodynamic conditions on DCMD flux will be discussed. The model can be extended to include varying composition and types of dissolved species in produced water as will be discussed at the conference.

Modeling and simulation of direct contact membrane distillation system for produced water treatment using Aspen Plus platform

251st National Meeting (2016)

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