Modeling of Aroma Compound Recovery from Waste Streams by Membrane Contactors

Generated odorous contained effluents in food industries and interests in their recovery using non-destructive treatment method resulted in carrying out many research activities. The aim of this study is to develop an appropriate model to simulate the process of odorous substances recovery from different sources by membrane contactors using COMSOL and MATLAB softwares. The model was employed to evaluate effect of the important process variables such as the feed and solvent flow rates and concentrations on the rate of mass transfer and design a perfect process and also the effect of process parameters. Membrane contactor provides the required surface area for the two fluids contacts where aroma compounds are transferred from one phase to another phase through membrane pores by diffusion and convection mechanisms. The feed flow rate has a significant impact on the rate of aroma compounds mass transfer. The feed concentration increment has the same effect as increasing feed flow rate. Due to the low mass transfer rate from the feed side of the membrane contactor (e.g. transferred mass is governed by the feed side), effect of the solvent flow rate in this process was not detected. The simulated results has a good agreement with experimentally measured data (increment in the feed and solvent flow rates increases the simulated results error. The average error of the simulated results was calculated as 17 %).