Innovative Flux-Enhanced Water Gap Membrane Distillation System for Water Desalination

Water desalination using Membrane Distillation (MD) is an emerging hybrid thermal-membrane separation technology. As a potential substitute for conventional desalination processes, MD process is very attractive due its lower operating temperatures (40C - 90C), close to atmospheric operating hydrostatic pressures, high rejection (theoretically 100%) of ions and other non-volatile solutes, and relatively larger membrane pore size and less fouling problems. In the proposed research, a new design based on water gap membrane distillation for water desalination is proposed and will be investigated for flux enhancement. The water inside the gap is to be injected and circulated to enhance the overall heat and mass transfer. In another design modification, the coolant channel will be used as a heat exchanger to extra cool the water injected inside the gap. These two design and operational modifications are original ideas of patent and are expected to increase the flux significantly while being easy to apply and with insignificant pumping energy. The MD module components will be designed and manufactured locally at KFUPM. Performance tests on the system components and operating variables will be conducted and evaluated under controlled lab environment. Membranes will be selected from the available market to maximize the permeate flux. The project includes the development of a prototype system of the flux-enhanced water gap membrane distillation unit for water desalination. The impact of this research on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is evident, it helps securing a new local technology, and may be industry, for cheap water desalination, particularly for remote areas, where solar energy can be used to power the proposed system.