Design considerations for plate and frame ultrafiltration modules by computational fluid dynamics analysis

Pressure and flow maldistributions were studied in a full-scale industrial plate and frame ultrafiltration module, operating in a Z flow pattern, for the recovery of used motor oils. Solutions were obtained using (1) a three-dimensional solution of the Navier-Stokes equation using computational fluid dynamics and (2) Bernoulli's equation and a momentum balance in one dimension. Fluid decelerations and accelerations generated pressure increases and decreases in the distributor and collector, respectively, biasing the flow distribution to the last channel. Several modifications to the original design were evaluated; the most effective was larger distributor and collector diameters, which greatly improved the uniformity of the flow distribution and transmembrane pressure, and, reduced the overall pressure drop in a bank. A variable diameter distributor and collector module was designed using the 1-D model. Flow distribution was significantly improved but also yielded an undesirable overall higher pressure drop and a pressure maldistribution in the bank. The maldistribution of the main inlet manifold to the distributors in the first bank was strongly dependent on the module design. The flow distribution across the width of a channel became uniform within a short distance, essentially eliminating the need to consider this design aspect any further. Flows at the bank outlets, and hence inlets of the following bank, showed uniform lateral distribution in all cases, suggesting that future modelling work can be limited to a fraction of the module width, based on symmetry, in order to gain computational efficiency.