Membrane Distillation

Dynamic modeling and experimental validation for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process

“…Membranes are selected to be micro porous, non-wetted, and highly hydrophobic [1][2][3][4]. Such properties allow the transfer of only water vapor or other volatile molecules through the membrane dry pores, and produce clean water.…”

“…The separation is achieved under the validation of vapor-liquid equilibrium principle for molecules separation [3]. MD is an attractive technology, with promising potentials to take the lead over a wide range of other existing water desalination methods, such as multi-stage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO) [4][5][6][7]. These potentials contribute toward promoting the MD process to be a cost-effective desalination process through the capabilities to be powered with renewable energy sources, such as geothermal, solar energy or low grade waste heat [8][9][10].…”

“…The majority of the proposed models agreed on considering the steady state performance to be more important than the time varying one [3,15,16]. These studies adopted the kinetic the-ory of gases through porous media in their models [4,6,7], and studied the performance of the MD processes based on the selected MD configuration. Of interest, the proposed models lacked the compatibility to be powered with intermittent energy supply, such as the solar energy source.…”

Application of membrane distillation for ethanol recovery during fuel ethanol production

“…The driving force for pervaporation is a low vapour pressure on the permeate side of the membrane generated by cooling and condensing the permeate vapour. The selectivity of separation depends on the affinity of some specific components of a mixture to the membrane material [9].Recently, a number of interesting papers concerning the possibility of using membrane distillation for ethanol recovery have appeared [6,[8][9][10][11][12]. However, despite the membrane distillation has been studied extensively over the last few years, so far that technology has received limited acceptance in the industry.…”

“…Pervaporation, on the other hand, makes use of dense membranes made of swollen homogeneous polymers that render the membranes permeable [7]. The driving force of membrane distillation is the partial pressure difference between each side of the membrane pores, whereas the selectivity varies according to the properties of the type of polymer used, the membrane characteristics, and the operation conditions [8]. The driving force for pervaporation is a low vapour pressure on the permeate side of the membrane generated by cooling and condensing the permeate vapour.…”