Abstract
In this work, a novel air-bubbling vacuum membrane distillation (AVMD) process was constructed on the basis of traditional vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process. Compressed air was pressed into the lumen side of the hollow fiber membranes together with the hot feed solution just at the inlet of membrane module. So gas/liquid two-phase flow was formed in membrane lumen. Hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber microporous membranes were employed in this work. The effects of operating conditions, such as the feed air flow rate, the feed temperature and concentration on the performance of AVMD process were studied. The surface morphology of the PVDF membranes used in the VMD and AVMD process was characterized by scanning electronic micrograph (SEM). The results showed that the permeate flux increased as the air flow rate and/or feed temperature enhanced. The permeate flux of VMD process was 22 kg/m2h when tested at 75°C with a feed flow rate of 120 l/h and a vacuum pressure of 0.085 MPa. ...
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