Experimental Study Of Dissolved Oxygen Removal From Water By Membrane Contactor And Mass Transfer Analysis

The concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) in boiler water should be lower than a specific target, every traditional oxygen removal method has some deficiency. The technology of membrane oxygen removal is a new membrane process that integrates membrane separation and gas removal technology. With its high efficiency, energy-saving and some other advantages, the technology of membrane oxygen removal has been widely used in the process of preparation of pure-water in electronic industry, but not so popular in oxygen removal of boiler water. Therefore, study of DO removal by membrane contactor is significant to the popularization of its application. This research uses the technology of vacuum membrane oxygen removal to wipe off DO. The research contents include the selection of membrane material and contactor, study of DO removal capability by membrane contactor, membrane contamination and cleaning and mass transfer analysis of the process of DO removal.Selection of membrane material is critical to the operating conditions and oxygen removal efficiency of membrane contactor. In this research, polypropylene is used as the membrane material, the hydrophobicity of water and chemical solutions to membrane material was studied experimentally. It is revealed that water, acid and alkaline solutions show an excellent hydrophobic character and prevent the membrane surface and pore from wetting effectively, which meet the necessity of technology of membrane oxygen removal. Meanwhile, isopropyl alcohol solution show a hydrophilic character, however, isopropyl alcohol has a great volatility and is easy to volatilize from membrane.