Hydrophilic polymeric membrane condenser for heat and water recovery from flue gas: Performance analysis and feasibility evaluation

A novel approach is proposed for the recovery of water and heat from flue gas using a hydrophilic polymeric membrane condenser (HPMC) due to its cost-effectiveness and high packing density. An experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate the performance of HPMC under various gas and cooling water parameters. The results indicate that the increase in recovered water and heat fluxes is primarily influenced by the elevation of gas temperature and gas flow rate. In the experiment, maximum values of 2.81 kg/(m2 & sdot;h) for recovered water flux and 7.98 MJ/(m2 & sdot;h) for heat flux were achieved, respectively. Furthermore, there exists a strong correlation between the recovered water flux and heat flux, with latent heat contributing to over 80 % of the total recovered heat. Thermal analysis suggests that enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymeric membranes can improve the recovery performance of HPMC. Based on this foundation, we further investigate the practical applicability of HPMC in engineering by establishing a numerical model. In comparison to hydrophilic ceramic membrane condenser (HCMC), HPMC achieves respective increases of 77.4 % and 82.6 % in recovered water and heat per unit volume. Additionally, the cost per unit of recovered water and heat decreases by 93.3 % and 93.5 %, respectively. This study provides theoretical support for the engineering implementation of HPMC in water and heat recovery from flue gas.