ANALYSIS OF THE FLUID DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF THE REVERSE OSMOSIS DESALINATION PROCESS FOR DIFFERENT GEOMETRIES OF SPACERS

Resumo

Water scarcity is a problem that has affected humanity for decades and, in recent years, has been getting
worse, even more so with global warming, population growth, and droughts. Therefore, desalination processes
have been seen as essential alternatives for producing drinking water around the world. Finally, several
technologies are used for the desalination of brackish water; among these techniques, desalination by membrane
separation processes via reverse osmosis (RO) stands out, a promising technology, considering that it is a simple
process and presents low investment. However, the disadvantage that there is in its use is the sensitivity of the
membrane to fouling. In this context, this work aimed to define computational modeling capable of understanding
the behavior of the reverse osmosis process from different spacer geometries. The mathematical model used to
carry out the simulations was based on mass conservation equations, movement, species transport, and Spiegler
and Kedem's model. All simulations were performed using the ANSYS FLUENT software and ICEM CFD to
create the geometry and the mesh. The simulation results showed a good representation of the transfer phenomena
involved in the reverse osmosis separation process; moreover, these results enabled a detailed analysis of fluid
behavior under the effects of turbulence promoters in the flow channel to be permeated. Finally, when analyzing
these parameters, it was observed that the lozenge-type spacers had better process performances in the geometries
studied.