Modeling of a spiral-wound reverse osmosis process and parameter estimation

Abstract

Reverse osmosis system has been widely used for the separation of organic and non-organic pollutants present in wastewater. The main aim of this study is to develop a one dimensional steady state model based on the three-parameter Spiegler-Kedem methodology using the gPROMS software and validate it by assessing the performance of membrane rejection for the separation data of aqueous solutions of phenol under different concentrations and pressures. Considerations of the variance of pressure, flow rate, solute concentration, solvent and solute fluxes and mass transfer coefficient along the feed channel were included in the model. Furthermore, an optimization methodology for the gEST parameter estimation tool has been developed in the gPROMS and used with experimental data in order to estimate the best values of the separation membrane parameters and the friction parameter. The simulation results of this model have been corroborated by experimental data.