Development and comparative analysis of nanocomposite membranes in a custom-designed MD unit

Membrane distillation (MD) gained considerable attention as a promising approach to alleviate water scarcity. Polysulfone (PSF), widely used in water treatment applications due to its mechanical robustness and chemical stability, nevertheless suffered from certain limitations, including relatively low permeate flux (J_w). Using phase inversion process, nanocomposites (NC) like CuO, MWCNT, TiO2 and Zeolite were incorporated in PSF with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a pore former. Membrane characterization was performed through Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Water Contact Angle (WCA). Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) module was manufactured with channel height of 2 mm to evaluate performance parameters like water flux (J_w) and salt rejection (SR) with different operating conditions and different membrane types. SR was >99.4 % for all different operating conditions. The neat PSF, PEG/PSF, M1(CuO), M2 (MWCNT), M3 (TiO₂) and M4 (Zeolite) achieved 34.4, 32.4, 41.1, 42.3, 49.3 and 38.2 kg/m².h. M3 achieved the highest J_w through all NCs PSF membranes.