Membrane Distillation Desalination Device With Bubble Column Dehumidifier

Water desalination using Membrane Distillation (MD) is an emerging thermal-membrane separation technology that has a potential to substitute conventional desalination processes. MD process is very attractive due its lower operating temperatures and pressure, high salt rejection, compactness, low cost, and less fouling problems. The current proposal addresses the water desalination problem by developing a low-cost and low energy consumption desalination device, which is based on an innovative design of integrated multistage MD and bubble column dehumidification. The innovation of the proposed system is mainly in the design of the multistage MD module and the process of condensation as a benefit of the integrated system, where the energy required for collecting the vapor (permeate) from the MD module, cooling the module, and condensing the vapor (product, distilled water) is cycled. The bubble column dehumidifier has very high effectiveness and is used to condense the permeate vapor and cool the air before sending it back to the MD module for collecting the vapor. On execution of this project, we will have a working model representing a local and cheap technology of a new water desalination device for small and medium application or small communities. The design will be applied on one-stage MD module as the first phase to learn and optimize the process variables. The second phase is to manufacture n-stages module (say 3 stages) with suitable size of the bubble column dehumidifier. Our objective is to develop a compact model unit of our design and prove its effectiveness in producing low-cost desalinated water. It is also the objective to study scaling up the device for commercial use in future as an in-house local industry. We are looking to manufacture the system components and test the integrated system performance under controlled operating conditions.