Membrane distillation

There has been an increasing interest in using exergy as a potential tool for analysis and performance evaluation of desalination processes where the optimal use of energy is considered an important issue. Unlike energy, exergy is consumed or destroyed due to irreversibilies in any real process and

Demineralisation of tap water, produced from surface water (lake), by a membrane distillation process has been investigated. The temperature caused the decomposition of bicarbonates presented in the feeding water and the formation of alkaline scaling on the membrane surface. In the present work the

In the last years, boron and arsenic are gaining wide attention in the water treatment community due to their adverse effects both on human/animal health and on agriculture. As a consequence, nowadays, the number of water treatment plants equipped with boron and arsenic removal facilities is growing

A mathematical model is developed to investigate the potential of the membrane distillation process to be a stand-alone process. The model includes internal heat recovery and relates the major cost parameters to the heat and mass transfer of the process. The cost parameters are the energy required f

Solar-powered desalination is an attractive and viable method for the production of fresh water in remote arid areas. One of the most important factors determining desalination decisions is economics. This paper presents an economic assessment performed to estimate the expected water cost, which is

Desalination of seawater and NaCl solutions is of great interest as potable water sources are dramatically declining on earth. Most of the techniques used to decontaminate water involve polymeric membranes and expensive desalination processes. To improve thermal, chemical and physical resistance of

A small-scale stand-alone solar-driven membrane desalination unit was designed and manufactured under project funding agreement number ICA3-CT-2002-10025 (SMADES). The desalination plant is intended for autonomous operation in arid and semi-arid remote regions with a lack of electricity and drinkabl

In search of new sources of water supply, seawater desalination is increasingly recognized as a viable option. In arid coastal areas, the lack of fresh water coincides often with an abundance of solar energy. Coupling desalination systems with renewable energy technologies is of great importance. Pr

Industrial concentration of whey protein from 20% DS to 34% DS using DCMD seems a possibility if a higher flux is obtained. This should be possible using a thinner membrane and higher flow rates than was possible in this study. Using DCMD will lead to less protein denaturisation during the whey prot

The treatment of effluents from the regeneration of cation exchanger by the membrane distillation (MD) process has been investigated. The composition of these effluents is complex due to the content of residual acid (1–50 g HCl/dm3) and different amounts of various salts (ranging in concentration fr