Memstill membrane distillation – a future desalination technology

Hanemaaijer, J.H.; Medevoort, J. van; Jansen, A.E.; Dotremont, Chris; Sonsbeek, Eric van; Yuan, Tao; Ryck, Luc De

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.03.163

Cited by 103 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…In MD process, a porous non-selective hydrophobic membrane acts as a physical support separating a warm solution from a cooler chamber containing either a liquid or gas [2]. Compared with conventional separation processes such as evaporation, distillation and reverse osmosis, MD can be operated under relatively low temperature or low pressure with low energy consumption and high productivity [3][4][5]. There have been extensive researches on MD for the past three decades [2] and various configurations have been developed including direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD), air gap membrane distillation (AGMD), sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) and vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation and properties of PVDF composite hollow fiber membranes for desalination through direct contact membrane distillation

Hou

Wang

Sun

et al. 2012

Journal of Membrane Science

157

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a b s t r a c tThe polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes were fabricated for membrane distillation through non-solvent induced phase inversion by dispersing hydrophobic modified calcium carbonate nano-particles in the PVDF casting solution and using the mixture of LiCl and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as non-solvent additive. The influence of nano-particles on the spun hollow fiber membrane characteristics was investigated. The addition of hydrophobic nano-particles could optimize the sandwich-like morphology, narrow the pore size distribution, improve the membrane porosity and increase the membrane surface roughness and contact angle to some extent. The nano-particles also enhanced the crystallinity degree and thermal stability of the hollow fiber. In addition, the composite membranes presented stronger mechanical properties compared to the fiber without particles. During the desalination process of 3.5 wt% sodium chloride solution, the maximum transmembrane permeate flux about 46.3 kg/m 2 h with a lower thermal loss was obtained from the composite fiber when the hot feed inlet temperature and the cold distillate inlet temperature were at 80.5 • C and 20.0 • C, respectively. Furthermore, the composite membrane exhibited satisfying performance stability compared with the pure PVDF membrane in the 30 days continuous desalination experiments, indicating that the as-spun composite fiber may be of great potential to be utilized in MD process for desalination.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation and properties of PVDF composite hollow fiber membranes for desalination through direct contact membrane distillation

Hou

Wang

Sun

et al. 2012

Journal of Membrane Science

157

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“…The Memstill project presented in 2006 by Hanemaijer et al [13] claims to have the potential to reduce the cost of existing desalination technologies for seawater and brackish water, by replacing MSF and MED modules by an air gap MD module. The process proposes to reduce the desalination costs to $0.26 /m 3 using low grade thermal steam or heat as the driving force.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic analysis of desalination technologies in the context of carbon pricing, and opportunities for membrane distillation

et al. 2013

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The economics membrane distillation (MD) and common seawater desalination methods including multi effect distillation (MED), multistage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are compared. MD also has the opportunity to enhance RO recovery, demonstrated experimentally on RO concentrate from groundwater. MD concentrated RO brine to 361,000 mg/L total dissolved solids, an order of magnitude more saline than typical seawater, validating this potential. On a reference 30,000 m 3 /day plant, MD has similar economics with other thermal desalination techniques, but RO is more cost effective. With the inclusion of a carbon tax of $23 per tonne carbon in Australia, RO remained the economically favourable process. However, when heat comes at a cost equivalent of 10% of the value of the steam needed for MD and MED, under a carbon tax regime, the cost of MD reduces to $0.66/m 3 which is cheaper than RO and MED. The favour to MD was due to lower material cost. On low thermally, high electrically efficient installations MD can desalinate water from low temperature (<50°C) heat sources at a cost of $0.57/m 3 . Our assessment has found that generally, MD opportunities occur when heat is available at low cost, while extended recovery of RO brine is also viable.

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“…However, the IMS have several drawbacks that have been difficult to overcome, such as the water recovery rates are usually lower than 70%, for a price often considered as uneconomic due to capital and energy costs, and have complicated pre-treatment and post-treatment, high operation and maintenance requirements. Furthermore, unlike thermal processes, RO membranes do not provide high purity water [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of coagulation pretreatment on membrane distillation process for desalination of recirculating cooling water

Wang

Tie³

et al. 2008

Separation and Purification Technology

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a b s t r a c tThe objective of this work was to study the performance of coagulation pretreatment and the effect of coagulation pretreatment on membrane distillation (MD) process for desalination of recirculating cooling water (RCW). In this study, RCW was desalinated by MD process after pretreated by coagulation, precision filtration, acidification and degassing. Pre-coagulation of RCW with poly-aluminum chloride (PACl) coagulant improves the elimination of total organic carbon (TOC), total phosphorus (TP) substances. The optimized pH value and PACl dosage were 7 and 15 mg/L, respectively. Compared with MD process without coagulation pretreatment, much slighter MD flux decrease was observed when coagulation pretreatment was employed for desalination of RCW using MD process. Compared with the membrane flux of MD process for the RCW without coagulation pretreatment, about 23% improvement of MD flux was obtained by employing coagulation pretreatment after 30 days operation. The variation of crystal morphology on membrane surface and hydrophobic character of PVDF hollow membranes were investigated. The results show that distorted rhombic magnesium-calcite scale formed on membrane surface when coagulation pretreatment was employed. However, the deposited magnesium-calcite on the membrane surface was loosely packed with particles of much smaller size when RCW without coagulation pretreatment was fed. It is because that the coagulation pretreatment removed most of the natural organic matter (NOM) and antiscalant additives in RCW, which act as an inhibitor to calcium carbonate crystal growth in water. After coagulation pretreatment, bigger crystal deposit formed on membrane surface with the increase in CF of RCW. It was rather difficult for bigger crystal to enter membrane pores and thus the formation of bigger crystal reduced partial wetting of membrane, which enhanced trans-membrane flux. The hydrophobic character of PVDF hollow membranes used in MD process can be easily recovered by chemical rinsing using acid-base solutions. The results indicate that the pretreatment with chemical coagulant, PACl, is effective for the desalination of RCW by MD process.Crown

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Memstill membrane distillation – a future desalination technology

Cited by 103 publications

References 0 publications

Preparation and properties of PVDF composite hollow fiber membranes for desalination through direct contact membrane distillation

Preparation and properties of PVDF composite hollow fiber membranes for desalination through direct contact membrane distillation

Economic analysis of desalination technologies in the context of carbon pricing, and opportunities for membrane distillation

Effect of coagulation pretreatment on membrane distillation process for desalination of recirculating cooling water

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