Extensive studies on dispersion-free solvent extraction have been carried out using modules made with either hydrophobic or hydrophilic microporous hollow-fiber membranes. Membrane and boundary layer resistances have been characterized for both kinds of hollow fiber using solvent extraction systems with a wide variation of distribution coefficients and interfacial tensions. It has been found that the

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We report here direct contact membrane distillation results from modules having 0.28 m2 of membrane surface area employing porous hydrophobic polypropylene hollow fibers of internal diameter (330 μm) and wall thickness (150 μm) with a porous fluorosilicone coating on the outside surface. The brine salt concentration and temperature and the distillate temperature and velocity were varied. Water vapor fluxes approach values obtained earlier in much smaller modules. As the brine temperature was increased from 40 to 92 °C, water vapor flux increased almost exponentially. Increasing the distillate temperature to 60 from 32 °C yielded reasonable fluxes. Salt concentration increases to 10% led to a small flux reduction. An extended 5-day run did not show any pore wetting. A model using the mass transfer coefficient k m as an adjustable parameter predicted the brine temperature drop, distillate temperature rise, and water vapor flux well for the large module and the smaller module of 119-cm2 surface area.

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