Research Papers by Nidal Hilal

Fouling and scaling is one of the major challenges in membrane distillation process. This study investigates the utilizing of thermal rejected brine produced from multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) to minimize fouling and scaling on membranes in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) settings.

Membrane distillation (MD) is a process in which the driving force for mass transfer is temperature gradient rather than conventional ones based on density, static pressure, chemical nature, affinity, and freezing point gradients. Using a porous hydrophobic membrane, MD comes into four configurations;

Brackish water desalination is a common method for fresh water supply in arid areas. Concentrated brine is the major waste stream generated from the desalination process. The current study proposes a multi-stage Nanofiltration (NF)–Forward Osmosis (FO)–Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis (BWRO) system to

Although membranes are widely employed in separation processes, their performance can be severely deterred by fouling due to organic, inorganic and biological foulants. Periodic electrolysis is a fast and simple technique for membrane cleaning, but requires membranes with high electric conductivitie

Conventional processes involved in water treatment, either in water treatment plants or reverse osmosis desalination plants, have encountered several obstacles that have severely affected their performances and efficiencies. Pollution of natural water resources, increasing demand and overuse of clean

Hypersaline solution with high TDS is not suitable for direct treatment by the conventional membrane and thermal processes. The current study proposes a dual-stage FO/PRO process for hypersaline solution treatment and power generation. The treatment process reduces the concentration of saline wastew

This study investigates the effect of cationic polyelectrolytes on the final properties of synthetic and activated sludge. Synthetic sludge was prepared according to established procedures. Activated sludge was produced in a labscale, continuous-flow reactor which was fed with live activated sludge

This study has investigated in a comparative fashion the effect of cation ions and polysaccharide on the floc formation of both synthetic and activated sludge. Synthetic sludge was prepared according to established procedures; activated sludge was produced in a lab-scale, continuous-flow reactor whi

The objective of this work is to present experimental data that would show the effect of temperature, salinity, pressure and the presence of anti-scale additives on CO2 solubility in seawater. The paper examines the solubility of CO2 in real seawater and real seawater dosed with two different anti-s

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes retention depends on charge repulsion and size exclusion, combining the properties of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. The molecular weight cut-off of two NF membranes was determined using cross-flow filtration of different molecular weights of non-ionized