DRYING AND

MEMBRANES
• Drying involves removal of water this is carried out most frequently by
either mechanical means, e.g. pressing or thermally – the application of
heat via a hot air stream.
• After distillation and evaporation, drying is the next major prominent
process.
• Majority of dryers use heat to remove the moisture.
• To intensify the drying process electric fields are used instead of passing
hot air over the material.
• Crystallization is also the process removes the moisture from the
solution to form a solid but it is not considered as separation process in
context of process intensification and energy saving.
• Types of electric drying methods:
 Microwave dryers
Radio frequency dryers
Microwave drying:
The drying method is based on microwaves penetrating the moist
material, where the microwaves are converted into heat. The moisture
turns into vapor and is transported from the solids using a fan or a
blower.
 It is much faster method to dry moist solids.
• The microwaves are produced by a magnetron inside the drying
machine. Microwave ovens have the same kind of magnetron. The
drying machine is placed up against the area with the moisture
damage so that the machine will dry it effectively.
• It was most cost-effective to use the microwave dryer for the final drying,
from 20% to 10% moisture instead of drying from 80% to 10%, resulting in
a 30% reduction in energy costs of the final drying stage since the
generation of microwaves is expensive.
• Radio Frequency Fields:
This method uses an r. f.(radio frequency) field and vacuum which allows
the easier removal of water vapour.
In radio frequency drying system alternating electric field between two
electrodes is created by RF generator. The material to be dried is kept
between the electrodes, where the alternating energy causes polar molecules
in the water to continuously re-orient them to face opposite poles - much the
same way magnets move in an alternating magnetic field. This movement
causes the friction and due to this water in the material to rapidly evaporate
throughout the material.
Radio frequency (RF) heating is an advanced and emerging technology for food application because of its higher
penetration depth, heat distribution and low energy consumption.
• Membranes for dehydration:
Membrane dehydration with zeolitic membranes are simple, low cost
and compact alternatives and can be used an alternative for distillation
process.
They can remove water down to very low concentrations.
 The selectivity of the membranes is very high.
 A separate sweep is required to collect the water and take it away
from the membrane. This is done by vacuum or another pick-up gas,
such as nitrogen.
MEMBRANES
• Membranes:
Membranes separate the components of a gas or liquid mixture on
the basis of their different permeabilities through the membrane.
Driving force such as pressure or concentration is required for the
separation.
Energy requirement in these membranes are minimum hence they
are highly energy efficient.
The membrane behaves like a high efficiency packing with an
extremely large surface area for mass transfer.
Efficiency of the membrane depends on the pore size of the
membrane.
• Membrane distillation is a thermal-membrane enhanced separation
process driven by a partial-vapor pressure difference due to a
temperature gradient across a hydrophobic porous membrane.
• The four main configurations that are commonly employed in the
MD(Membrane Distillation) process are direct contact membrane
distillation (DCMD), air gap membrane distillation (AGMD), sweeping
gas membrane distillation (SGMD), and vacuum membrane distillation
(VMD).

Direct contact membrane distillation:

A condensing fluid (usually pure water) colder than feed stream flows
across the permeate side of the membrane by means of circulating pump.
 At the time, the volatile component (water or volatile organic compounds)
evaporates at the hot liquid/vapor interface, passes through the pores, and
condense in the condensing fluid inside the MD cell. This type of configuration is
known as direct contact membrane distillation
Air-gap membrane distillation:
A stagnant air layer is placed between the permeate side of the membrane
and condensing wall to reduce heat loss by conduction. In this
configuration, vapor molecules pass across both the membrane wall and
air layer and eventually condense and exits from the condensation
chamber by the use of the gravity. This type of configuration is called air
gap membrane distillation.
• Sweeping Gas membrane distillation:
In sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD), a cold inert gas is blown
into the condensation chamber and sweeps permeated vapor molecules
taking them out of the column. A cold wall is improvised in the permeate
side of the module to minimize the temperature of the sweeping gas.
• Vacuum membrane distillation:
Vacuum is applied in the permeate side of the module by vacuum pumps
in which vapor molecules are sucked out through membrane pores.
Condensation occurs outside of the condensing chamber by means of an
external condenser due to the applied vacuum in the permeate side of the
module. This type of configuration is known as vacuum membrane
distillation (VMD).
• Applications:
1. The use of ultra sound in membrane separations enhances the
operation.
2. These membranes are employed in air separation operations.
3. Membranes can also be combined with the chemical operations and
now extended to nano sized channels in ceramic membrane
structures.
4. Membrane separations are also employed for carbon capture process.
5. Membrane separations are employed in reactive distillation process
also.
THANK YOU