Concentrating aqueous hydrochloric acid by multiple-effect membrane distillation

Abstract

Multiple-effect membrane distillation (MEMD) using a hollow fiber-based air-gap membrane distillation module was experimentally examined for concentrating dilute aqueous hydrochloric acid. The effects of the hot and cold feed-in temperatures, and the feed-in volumetric flow rates on the performance of the MEMD process were studied. The performance was evaluated using the performance ratio (PR), the average selectivity of water over HCl (β_avg) and the permeation flux (N). Two types of porous fibers made from polypropylene were used to fabricate the MEMD modules. The experimental data indicated that hollow fibers with high porosity were preferred for the MEMD process. The PR, β_avg and N all decreased as the feed concentration increased. When the feed concentration was below 12 wt-%, the PR was 6.0 – 9.6 and β_avg was 10 – 190. When the concentration of HCl reached 18 wt-%, the PR and β_avg were about 4.4 and 2.3, respectively. However, β_avg sharply decreased to around 1.0 when the feed was further concentrated. During an operational stability test that lasted for 30 days, the performance of the MEMD modules remained good.

Keywords

multiple-effect membrane distillation / performance ratio / hydrochloric acid / recovery / stability

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Miaomiao Liu, Kun Yao and Huan Wang for their sincere assistance.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg