Volume 3: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part II

Enhancement of Mass and Heat Transfer for Improving Thermal Efficiency and Water Productivity of Membrane Distillation Dongjian Cheng, Na Li, Jianhua Zhang, Zongli Xie

Abstract

Membrane distillation (MD) utilizes low-grade thermal energy and alternative energy to drive vapor transport through hydrophobic membrane pores for the application of water desalination, aroma compounds recovery, waste water treatment and concentration of thermo-sensitive solutions. In this work, to overcome commonly observed trade-off problems between thermal efficiency, water flux and water productivity, the simulation and optimization of a series of key objective parameters of MD were conducted by proposing a novel modeling approach. The heat and mass transfer across membrane is synchronously enhanced on account of the interaction effects of operational and module configuration variables to achieve a global optimization of MD.

Keywords membrane distillation, heat transfer coefficient, temperature polarization coefficient, permeate flux, thermal efficiency, water productivity