Abstract
Abstract Due to its tolerance of high salinities, membrane distillation (MD) is promoted for desalination of challenging high salinity seawater and for brine recovery and reduction in seawater desalination plants. In these applications, fouling of MD has recently been shown to become more pronounced, although much less than for reverse osmosis. In this study, a two-layer corrugated composite flat sheet polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) membrane was fabricated, characterized and tested in a lab-scale direct contact MD (DCMD) system for improved flux stabilization. The first membrane layer was used to control the pore size while the second was devoted for formation of surface corrugation and enhancing hydrophobicity. Tested using seawater and concentrated brine against a non-corrugated composite membrane, the corrugated composite membrane showed much higher flux stability identified by only 10.7% reduction in permeate flux after 103 h of operation, compared to 66.6% reduction for the non-corrugated membrane. DCMD experiment with concentrated brine proved the effectiveness of corrugations even at high brine concentrations, where the corrugated membrane performed as well as it did with seawater, while the non-corrugated membrane showed even worse performance reaching almost zero flux after 93 h of operation. SEM images of the post-MD membranes also confirmed the advantage of corrugations over the flat surface, where the corrugated membrane experienced small amount of salts deposition leaving most of the membrane pores open while the non-corrugated membrane experienced severe scaling and salt depositions forming a thick layer at the membrane surface, blocking most of its pores.
Full Text
Topics from this Paper
Direct Contact Membrane Distillation Experiment
Flux Stabilization
Direct Contact Membrane Distillation
Membrane Distillation
Seawater Desalination Plants
+ Show 5 more
Create a personalized feed of these topics
Get StartedSimilar Papers
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 1996
Desalination and Water Treatment
May 5, 2015
Journal of Membrane Science
Aug 1, 2017
Desalination
Nov 1, 2006
Journal of Membrane Science
Aug 1, 2014
Journal of Water Process Engineering
Aug 1, 2022
Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
Jun 1, 2019
Environmental Science & Technology
Mar 22, 2016
Journal of Membrane Science
Mar 1, 2014
Desalination
Nov 1, 2017
Journal of Membrane Science
Apr 15, 2003
Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Dec 1, 2022
Journal of Membrane Science
Aug 1, 2008
Journal of Membrane Science
Mar 1, 2002
International Journal of Food Engineering
Dec 17, 2006
Journal of Membrane Science
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023
Journal of Membrane Science
Oct 1, 2023