Journal of Membrane Science & Technology

Abstract

Experimental Evaluation of Corrugated Feed Channel of Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

Mabrouk A, Elhenawy Y and Moustafa G

Membrane distillation is a hybrid process in which the separation process is based on both thermal potential and membrane characteristics. However, some technical challenges such as thermal boundary layer builds up (temperature polarization) resulted in low mass flux. In this study, the direct contact membrane distillation is equipped with corrugated feed channel to create fluid mix for mass flux improvement. A lab scale flat sheet membrane distillation is assembled with corrugated feed channel to suppress the thermal boundary layer in the vicinity of the membrane wall. The flat sheet PTFE- membrane of a pore size of 0.45 ?m and porosity 65% is considered in the present study. The effect of feed channel gap height has been investigated at different values of flow rate, feed temperature, and feed salinity. The experiments showed that the corrugated feed channel has a dominant effect of improving of the mass flux and the thermal efficiency rather than gap height and operating conditions. The experimental results showed the water flux and thermal efficiency of the corrugated feed channel module is 44% and 33% higher than the original module respectively.