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showing 10 items of 3263 documents
ASSESSMENT OF THE MINIMUM POWER REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPLETE SUSPENSION IN TOP-COVERED UNBAFFLED STIRRED TANKS
2012
A parametric CFD study of hollow fiber membrane modules for hemodialysis
2022
Hemodialysis is a membrane-based process in which solute transport from the patient’s blood to a rinsing solution (dialysate) occurs by diffusion and ultrafiltration. Devices used in hemodialysis are cylindrical modules filled with hollow-fiber membranes which allow the removal of toxic substances and metabolic wastes from the blood, but inhibit the passage of proteins and cells to the dialysate. A predictive porous-media model of hemodialysis was developed and validated against experimental data. Unlike previous literature models, it requires only basic membrane properties (hydraulic and diffusive permeabilities and reflection coefficients) instead of relying on empirically adjusted global…
On the simulation of stirred tank reactors via computational fluid dynamics
2000
Abstract Predictions of flow fields in a stirred tank reactor, obtained by computational fluid dynamics, were used for the simulation of a mixing sensitive process consisting of two parallel reactions competing for a common reagent: A + B → Prod .1 A + C → Prod .2. Experimental data were obtained for A = OH − , B = 1 2 Cu ++ and C=ethyl-chloroacetate. For this reaction scheme the final selectivity of the process, easily measured by a simple colorimetric analysis of the residual Cu++, was found to depend on agitation speed and therefore on the mixing history during the batch process. The flow field-based three-dimensional simulations performed here led to predictions that compared very well …
A porous media CFD model for the simulation of hemodialysis in hollow fiber membrane modules
2022
A computational model was developed to predict the performance of hollow fiber membrane hemodialyzers. Blood and dialysate were modelled as fluids flowing through two interpenetrating porous media. Concerning hydrodynamics, experimental Darcy permeabilities measured for commercial hemodialyzers were used for both compartments. Concerning mass transfer, both diffusion and ultrafiltration were simulated. On the blood side theoretical Sherwood numbers for parallel flow in pipes were adopted. On the dialysate side Sherwood numbers were derived from CFD predictions for regular hexagonal fiber bundles. Solute concentrations on the two sides were alternatively computed in an iterative way and were…
AN INITIAL STUDY INTO THE ENERGETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SEVERAL VEGETATIVE SPECIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN MAQUIS
2008
Recent years have seen an ever increasing interest in renewable energy resources. The use of these renewable resources plays a key role in the reduction of greenhouse gases and in guaranteeing a supply of energy for the future. A promising alternative to fossil fuels are lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks; a widely available, versatile source of energy able to substitute fossil fuels in many ways. The continuing growth of the Biomass sector is leading to a flurry of research into new plant species with good calorific properties and combustion persistence. It would seem that a large number of native Mediterranean maquis shrubs, once used by the local populations for heating and cooking, (car…
Performance of a RED system with ammonium hydrogen carbonate solutions
2016
The use of closed-loop salinity gradient power (SGP) technologies has been recently presented as a viable option to generate power using low-grade heat, by coupling a SGP unit with a thermally-driven regeneration process in a closed loop where artificial solutions can be adopted for the conversion of heat into power. Among these, the closed-loop reverse electrodialysis (RED) process presents a number of advantages such as the direct production of electricity, the extreme flexibility in operating conditions and the recently demonstrated large potentials for industrial scale-up. Ammonium hydrogen carbonate (NH4HCO3) is a salt suitable for such closed-loop RED process thanks to its particular …
REAPOWER – USE OF DESALINATION BRINE FOR POWER PRODUCTION THROUGH REVERSE ELECTRODIALYSIS
2015
Salinity gradient power (SGP) represents a viable renewable energy source associated with the mixing of two solutions of different salinities. Reverse electrodialysis (SGP-RE or RED) is a promising technology to exploit this energy source and directly generate electricity. However, although the principle of this technology is well known since several years, further R&D efforts are still necessary in order to explore the real potential of the SGP-RE process. With this regard, the aim of the REAPower project ( [GRAPHICS] ) is the development of an innovative system for power production by SGP-RE process, using sea (or brackish) water as a diluted solution and brine as a concentrate. The use o…
Performance Comparison of Alternative Hollow-Fiber Modules for Hemodialysis by Means of a CFD-Based Model
2022
Commercial hemodialyzers are hollow-fiber cylindrical modules with dimensions and inlet–outlet configurations dictated mostly by practice. However, alternative configurations are possible, and one may ask how they would behave in terms of performance. In principle, it would be possible to depart from the standard counter-flow design, while still keeping high clearance values, thanks to the increase in the shell-side Sherwood number (Sh) due to the cross-flow. To elucidate these aspects, a previously developed computational model was used in which blood and dialysate are treated as flowing through two interpenetrating porous media. Measured Darcy permeabilities and mass transfer coefficients…
Investigation of Reverse ElectroDialysis Units by Multi-Physical Modelling
2016
Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is an electrochemical membrane process that converts the salinity gradient energy between two solutions into electric current, by using ion exchange membranes. A novel multi-physical approach for RED modelling is proposed. 2-D simulations of one cell pair with tertiary current distribution (Nernst–Plank equation and local electroneutrality) were performed. Moreover, the Donnan exclusion theory was implemented for simulating double layer phenomena. Transport phenomena and electrochemical behavior were well described. The influence of membrane/channel configuration, dilute concentration and feeds velocity on the process performance was assessed. For a dilute conc…
Limiting current phenomena in electro-membrane processes: local occurrence or stack-dependent one?
2021
Background Electro-membrane processes are gaining great interest in the field of desalination and brine valorisation. However, limiting current phenomena can be a bottleneck for their techno-economic performances. In the present work, the in-out distribution of current density is measured to elucidate the achievement of limiting conditions in real stacks. Materials and Methods A 10-cell pairs Electrodialysis stack (10×40 cm2 active area), equipped with four-segmented electrodes, was tested. NaCl solutions at an inlet concentration ranging from 0.5 to 60 g/l were fed at velocities of either 2 or 4 cm/s in parallel flow. Current density-voltage curves were built by applying equal increasing s…