Membrane contactors in beverage industry for controlling the water gas composition

In this work membrane contactors are used for coupling the removal of species (oxygen, hydrogen sulfide) present in the water to the water carbonation process. It includes both experiments and a theoretical study devoted to the analysis of the transport phenomena which occur in the membrane contactor. The main resistance to the mass transport was located at the liquid side. Correlations between Sherwood and Reynolds at shell side suitable for the membrane contactor used for carrying out the experiments have been determined. In particular, for Re>1.6 the expression proposed by Yang and Cussler (1986): Sh=0.90.Re0.40. Sc0.33 is able to describe the behaviour of the system, whereas, for Re ranging between 0.03 and 0.3 a new expression has been proposed: Sh=0.435.Re1.2.Sc0.33. A comparison with traditional equipments is also furnished: membrane contactors present lower size, CO2 consumption and capital costs.