INTERNATIONAL ENERGY JOURNAL

Volume 22, No. 04, Month DECEMBER, Year 2022, Pages 367 - 374

Performance of vacuum membrane distillation for water flux enhancement by recirculated air

Lalinee Tubtimthong, Monthon Thanuttamavong, Nattadon Pannucharoenwong

Abstract Download PDF

At present, converting seawater or saltwater is employed to change to more freshwater to help meet the problem of shortage of freshwater. Membrane distillation is a process for desalination in which only water vapor is passed through a porous hydrophobic membrane. The modules used in this experiment are tubular. Vacuum membrane distillation supplemented by humid air recirculation (RVMD) is introduced to enhance the efficiency of the vacuum system for water productivity enhancement. This study examined the operating conditions of the system, that affect the performance of the system which consists of cooling water temperature hot feedwater temperature, transmembrane pressure, and transmembrane temperature. The results showed that when increasing feed water temperature with the increase in the water flux. The maximum flux value was 2.97 L/m2hr at the feed water temperature of 50°C, transmembrane pressure -60 kPa, and cooling water temperature of 30ºC.

Keywords

Cooling water temperature, Humid-air recirculation, Transmembrane, Vacuum membrane, distillation ,Water flux

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