Mashallah Rezakazemi - Research Centre for Membrane Separation Processes, Faculty of Chemical Engineering University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran
Saeed Shirazian - Research Centre for Membrane Separation Processes, Faculty of Chemical Engineering University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran
Toraj Mohammadi - Research Centre for Membrane Separation Processes, Faculty of Chemical Engineering University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran
Afshin Pak - Engineering Department, Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC), Tehran, Iran

Ammonia removal from water was studied experimentally and theoretically by means of a hollow-fiber membrane contactor (HFMC). Aqueous solution of NH3 flowed as feed in the lumen side of membrane contactor while sulfuric acid was used as stripper in the shell side. An unsteady state and 2D mathematical model was developed to study ammonia stripping in the HFMC. The model was implemented in linked MATLAB-COMSOL Multiphysics. COMSOL software was applied to solve the model equations for the contactor while MATLAB software was employed to consider changes in the feed tank’s concentrations. Modeling predictions were then validated with the experimental data and were found to be in good agreement.

Ammonia; Numerical simulation; Hollow-fiber membrane contactor