Water Fluxes in Polymeric Membranes for Desalination via Membrane Distillation

摘要

Membrane distillation is an emerging technique for seawater desalination. Hydrophobic polymeric membranes are used to separate the solute-free water vapour from the hot solution. Vapour fluxes of commercial polymeric membranes were measured in various conditions, i.e. natural and forced convection and vacuum. Vapour fluxes were also predicted with models and compared with experimentals. Higher fluxes were recorded in vacuum conditions.