Multichannel Tubular Ceramic Membrane for Water and Heat Recovery from Waste Gas Streams

For the first time, we report a multichannel ceramic tubular membrane for water and heat recovery from gas streams. Mass and heat transfer performances of the multichannel tubular membrane are systematically investigated and compared with those of a monochannel tubular membrane. Compared with the monochannel tubular membrane, the multichannel membrane has much larger mass and heat transfer resistances, leading to lower mass and heat transfer rates. Operational parameters (e.g., fluid velocities and transmembrane pressure difference) have insignificant effects on mass and heat transfer in the multichannel membrane, suggesting that transfer resistance from the membrane itself rather than the boundary layers dominates mass and heat transfer in membrane condensation. The multichannel membrane shows larger volumetric mass and heat transfer coefficients, comparable water recoveries, but lower heat recoveries compared with the monochannel tubular membrane. Water and heat recoveries exhibit a proportional correlation using the multichannel tubular membrane, indicating that heat transport is governed by convective heat transfer, and thermal conductive heat transfer is negligible in the multichannel membrane.