Hydrophobic Membranes in Oily Wastewater Treatment: 3D COMSOL Simulation Approach

This study investigates the filtration performance of hollow fiber hydrophobic ceramic membranes for treating oily wastewater in petroleum, chemical, and food industries using three-dimensional simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics. The model considers water as the continuous phase and oil as a dispersed phase with concentrations below 4%. Transport phenomena are described using Eulerian multi-phase flow theory, Darcy’s Law, and the porous media model, and are solved via the finite element method. Key factors influencing membrane separation, including feed velocity, cake thickness, and permeate concentration, are systematically analyzed under varying injection flow rates, transmembrane pressures (TMP), oil concentrations, and droplet size distributions. The results show that increasing TMP enhances permeate oil concentration while forming a thinner and denser cake layer on the membrane surface. Higher injection flow rates increase hydrodynamic shear, promoting oil droplet detachment and reducing cake buildup, which improves permeate quality. Elevated feed oil concentration also leads to higher permeate oil content and thicker fouling layers, highlighting the critical role of feed composition in membrane performance. The simulation outcomes exhibit strong agreement with experimental observations, confirming the accuracy and reliability of the modeling approach. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing operational parameters in membrane-based oily wastewater treatment processes, enabling improved separation efficiency and reduced fouling.