Application of computational fluid dynamics technique in pervaporation processes

Pervaporation is a technology for molecular separation of liquid mixtures by vaporization of penetrates through a dense membrane. This process is used for separating trace amounts of volatile compounds solution, azeotropic aqueous, close boiling and high boiling point liquid mixtures, and has special features such as high product purity, low-energy consumption, high flexibility, reliable control, simple operation, high product yield, no environmental pollution, compact design, and simple capacity development. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a robust tool employed to analyze fluid flow of systems. CFD simulation studies of PV process are employed to design an efficient membrane, hydrodynamic analysis, specification of optimum operational conditions, improvement of process, and removal of process drawbacks. Consequently, with the use of CFD analysis the number of experiments and the cost and time consumed for PV studies, reduced significantly. In this chapter the procedure of CFD simulation of pervaporation process has been explained, and various studies in this field have been reviewed.