Direct contact membrane distillation for seawater desalination

Abstract

Membrane distillation (MD) is a non-isothermal membrane separation process. It is based on the phenomenon that pure water in its vapor state can be extracted from aqueous solutions, with vapor passing through a hydrophobic microporous membrane when a temperature difference is established across it. In this work, three commercially available hydrophobic microporous membranes were used for seawater desalination via direct contact MD. The effects of pertinent operating parameters on the permeation flux have been studied. A plate and frame module was used for seawater desalination. Long-term performance evaluation was carried out to evaluate the process as a stand-alone desalination alternative. The results indicated that polytetrafluoroethylene membrane had the best performance when a hot feed temperature of 80˚C with 800 ml/min flow rate was used. At optimum condition a 99.99% salt rejection was achieved.

Solar driven DCMD: Performance evaluation and thermal energy efficiency

“…According to the state of Page 5 of 41 A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 5 the fluid, four configurations of the MD are distinguished; namely direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) (Boubakri et al, 2014a), sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) (Khayet et al, 2003), vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) (Sarbatly and Chiam, 2013), and air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) (Guillén-Burrieza et al, 2011). The DCMD, the oldest and most widely used configuration, has liquids in direct contact with the membrane on both sides (Hsu et al, 2002;Shirazi et al, 2012). It is be stsuited for applications where the permeate fluxing component is water, e.g., desalination or concentration of aqueous solutions (Nghiem et al, 2011;Singh and Sitkar, 2012).…”

Edible oil mill effluent; a low-cost source for economizing biodiesel production: Electrospun nanofibrous coalescing filtration approach

“…vegetable oil for biodiesel manufacturing via transestrification, which is the most common method for methylesterification) (Hasheminejad et al, 2011;Chisti, 2013). In other words, using agricultural crops or algae is not economical yet, due to the rising global demand for water (Shirazi et al, 2012a). Therefore, using alternative and cheaper sources (i.e.…”

Increasing the Performance of Vacuum Membrane Distillation Using Micro-Structured Hydrophobic Aluminum Hollow Fiber Membranes

“…Even though almost 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water, more than 97% of water is in the oceans, leaving only 3% for consumption by human and animal life [1,2]. The rapid development of technology has shown that a supply of fresh water is critical.…”