Computational fluid dynamics modeling and experimental studies of oil-in-water emulsion microfiltration in a flat sheet membrane using Eulerian approach

• Microfiltration of oil-in-water emulsion was studied experimentally and numerically.
• Predicted permeate flux showed good agreement with experimental data in single phase runs.
• Conservation laws were separately solved for both dispersed and continuous phases.
• Due to a better representation of CP, Eulerian model was better at data prediction.

In the present study, microfiltration of oil-in-water emulsion was experimentally and numerically studied in a flat sheet membrane module. Due to the significance of fluid flow hydrodynamics on the concentration polarization phenomenon and membrane performance, 2D computational fluid dynamics modeling was conducted to simulate oil concentration profile in the mass boundary layer and to predict permeate flux. Multi-phase flow equations, based on an Eulerian multiphase model, for continuous and dispersed phase were solved using Navier–Stokes equations coupled with Darcy׳s law for the porous media. This novel approach considered the interparticle interactions of oil droplets which led to much more accurate results in comparison with other previous works. Besides, the capabilities of this new model in predicting oil concentration profile and mass boundary layer behavior were checked in different operating conditions, in which the predicted data showed good accordance to the experimental results and CP theory.