A Review on Recent Progress in Membrane Distillation Crystallization

Abstract

Membrane distillation crystallization (MDC) is a promising hybrid separation technology that can play an important role in desalination, mineral recovery from liquid solution as well as in carbon dioxide fixation. MDC combines membrane distillation and crystallizer into one integrated unit that allows excellent recovery of clean water and high purity salt from highly concentrated salts solution (i.e., brine), which is otherwise detrimental when discharged to the environment. The process intensification addresses the limitation of standalone membrane distillation and a standalone crystallizer (i.e., temperature and concentration polarization, membrane properties) when operated as individual technology. This review discusses the fundamental of MDC focused on how the process intensification addresses those standalone units' limitations. Later, MDC's potential applications in addressing some pressing issues such as water scarcity and climate change are also evaluated. Lastly, current trends in the MDC research are discussed to project the required future developments.

Membrane Distillation for Desalination and Current Advances in MD Membranes

“…In order to use MCs, new membranes must be created particularly for that purpose. Despite the fact that phase inversion is the primary approach utilized to create membranes suited for MCs applications, other techniques have been developed in more recent years to improve the synthesis and modification of polymeric membranes [111].…”

Pioneering the preparation of porous PIM-1 membranes for enhanced water vapor flow

“…3 As a result, the development of efficient and sustainable water treatment technologies is the focus of research by many groups around the world. 4 Membrane processes are among the leading water treatment technologies due to their higher energy efficiency and smaller footprint compared to other available, mostly thermal options. 5,6 Pressure-driven processes, such as reverse osmosis (RO) and nanoltration (NF), are the conventional membrane technologies currently in use.…”

Recent advances in membrane crystallization

“…They also summarized the crystallization process control strategies based on microscale interfacial technology. 20,31–33 As an important separation technique in chemical engineering, MCr has made outstanding progress in the treatment of seawater, 14,34–39 in which both salt or mineral recovery and seawater desalination can be achieved through the MCr technique.…”