Effectiveness of Water Desalination by Membrane Distillation Process.docVIP

Membranes 2012, 2, 415-429; doi:10.3390/membranes2030415 OPEN ACCESS membranes ISSN 2077-0375 /journal/membranes Article Effectiveness of Water Desalination by Membrane Distillation Process Marek Gryta West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin ul. Pu?askiego 10, Szczecin 70-322, Poland; E-Mail: marek.gryta@.pl; Tel.: +48-91-449-47-30; Fax: +48-91-449-46-86 Received: 13 June 2012; in revised form: 2 July 2012 / Accepted: 5 July 2012 / Published: 17 July 2012 Abstract: The membrane distillation process constitutes one of the possibilities for a new method for water desalination. Four kinds of polypropylene membranes with different diameters of capillaries and pores, as well as wall thicknesses were used in studied. The morphology of the membrane used and the operating parameters significantly influenced process efficiency. It was found that the membranes with lower wall thickness and a larger pore size resulted in the higher yields. Increasing both feed flow rate and temperature increases the permeate flux and simultaneously the process efficiency. However, the use of higher flow rates also enhanced heat losses by conduction, which decreases the thermal efficiency. This efficiency also decreases when the salt concentration in the feed was enhanced. The influence of fouling on the process efficiency was considered. Keywords: membrane distillation; desalination; thermal efficiency 1. Introduction Fresh water derived from sea water is produced by evaporation processes (e.g., multi-stage flash) or by membrane processes, such as reverse osmosis or electrodialysis. Water desalination can be also accomplished by membrane distillation (MD), which is an evaporation/condensation process of volatile components through a hydrophobic porous membrane [1,2]. The MD membranes are not selective and their pores are filled only by the gas phase. This creates a vapor gap betw