Experimental Evaluation of Corrugated Feed Channel of Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally based separation process in which hydrophobic membrane assist phase change to let only vapor pass through membrane wall. This process may be used not only for desalination of seawater and brackish water but also concentration valuable substances. Membrane distillation differs than RO in the way of separation mechanism and the dominant driving force. On the other hand, earlier work of describing the separation process considered membrane distillation is an infinite stage flash evaporation since each pore acts as a separate stage. TheMD has a unique characteristic rather than the mature technology ReverseOsmosis (RO) since it works at a low pressure feed. The MD also has advantage rather than the conventional distillation methods such as Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) and Multi Effect distillation (MED) such that it utilizes low-grade heat and has no corrosion problems.

In addition, the MD can implement different non-volatile solutes under a wide range of concentration with a separation factor of 99.9%. The separation factors depend on the solution, membrane and operatingconditions. However, using MD modules (flat sheet, spiral wound, hollow fibers) in industrial large scale application is a particular challenge due to the lack of uniform flow conditions, high pressure drop, and low packing density within module and lack of energy recovery.