Experiment and CFD Simulation to Investigate Two Kinds of Condensation in Ceramic Nanoporous Membranes

A nano-porous tubular ceramic membrane(TCM) is developed to recover water vapor and its significant amount of latent heat from flue gas to save water and reduce the acid dew point. The experimental and numerical investigation on both normal condensation(NCD) and capillary condensation(CCD) by insetting a horizontal TCM into membrane module. By taking user defined function(UDF) of Fluent14.5, source terms of governing equations are conducted to illuminate the NCD, capillary condensation and effects of the inertia force(Fi) on heat and mass transfer. Several cases with feed gas inlet velocity(Uin), mass fraction of non-condensable gas (Wcon), cooling water inlet temperature(Tcool) and time steps(t) are simulated, and the errors between experimental and numerical results are less than 1.14%. The results show that the thermal performance of TCM in the NCD is more significant than which in the CCD. The NCD proceeds significantly during flow in the TCM, while the CCD proceeds mainly in the backside of TCM(x-coordinate is larger than 500mm nearly). The Uin, Wcon and Tcool have a remarkable effect on thermal and mass-transfer characteristics.