Space mission wastewater recovery system using rotating Reverse Osmosis: Process simulation

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a compact process for the removal of ionic and organic pollutants from space mission wastewater. However, flux decline and rejection deterioration due to concentration polarization and membrane fouling hinders the application of RO technology. In this study, a rotating cylindrical RO membrane system is investigated as a novel method to reduce concentration polarization for space mission wastewater recovery. The model developed for rotating RO [1] allows the prediction of flux and pollutant rejection over a wide range of design and operation parameters. The model matches the experimental results from a lab-scale rotating RO very well. Operating parameters such as rotational speed and transmembrane pressure play an important role in determining the flux and rejection in rotating RO. A rotational speed sufficient to generate Taylor vortices in the annulus is essential to maintain high flux as well as high rejection. The theoretical energy consumption by rotating RO is almost the same as that by conventional RO under most conditions.