Date of Award
2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Supervisor
Dr. Hassan Gomaa
Second Advisor
Dr. Jesse Zhu
Abstract
Electrodialysis (ED) is an environmentally friendly technique with applications such as desalination, wastewater treatment and separation of specialty products. Recent introduction of Bipolar (BP) membranes has broaden its applications notably for the production of organic and inorganic components from its salt. In this research, investigation of the production of lactic acid from its sodium salt emphasized that concentration polarization is a significant challenge that contributes towards the limited use of the technology. Further investigation demonstrated the promising potential of using oscillatory flow as an intensification technique to mitigate its adverse effect. The operational characteristics of a novel design electrodialysis cell using oscillatory flows were investigated to allow for higher transfer rates and throughputs, with future applications in bio-processing. The effect of the operating and design parameters including flow oscillation frequency and amplitude, feed flow rate, and membrane spacing on mass transfer rate at the surface of membrane was determined using the limiting current technique. A maximum enhancement of close to 160% was achieved when the oscillation frequency and amplitude were maximum, and the steady flow rate was minimum.
Recommended Citation
Saremirad, Pegah, "Operational Characteristics of Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis" (2010). Digitized Theses. 4515.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4515