Traditional Chinese Medicine Extract Properties Incorporated Energy Analysis for Membrane Concentration Processes

This work focuses on the energy analysis of the membrane concentration systems that process traditional Chinese medicine extracts with dynamic properties incorporated, particularly for reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) processes. The evaluation of process energy consumption was achieved by integrating the empirical properties correlations of Brix and other characteristics properties of the feed (e.g., density and heat capacity). The dynamic SEC analysis for RO process was largely dependent on the feed pressure, reported at 50 kWh/m³ at feed pressure of 0.9 MPa with less than 50% water removal. The occurrence of foaming at above 50% water removal caused discrepancies between the simulated flux results and the experimentally acquired results in RO, whereas the estimated dynamic SEC for MD process did not show a strong correlation with the temperatures selected in this study, ranging from 900 to 1000 kWh/m³. This approach can be adapted into the design and zoptimization for the concentration process of other herbal extracts by membrane technologies, allowing comprehensive understanding into the energy analysis in future study.