Journal of Membrane Science & Technology

Abstract

Modelisation of Membrane Distillation: Mass and Heat Transfer in Air Gap Membrane Distillation

Rochd S, Zerradi H, Mizani S, Dezairi A and Ouaskit S

Membrane distillation (MD) is receiving recent attention as a technique to efficiently concentrate aqueous solution such as seawater. It has potential benefits of low temperature and pressure operation with high degrees of separation. In this work, the effect of the membrane thickness was studied to produce of the steam flow in the three different mass transfer mechanisms, and in the different possible combinations of its mechanisms in three different temperatures. The results have been carried using a polynomial approximation through MATLAB. A quite important increase in the flow in the model (DGM, Schofield, and KMPT) was observed with a decrease in the stream rating in the model (KMT). However, the Molecular model, DGM model, KMPT model, and Schofield model are not affected by the membrane?s thickness. After, we have studied the effect of this parameter (Thickness of the membrane) on the transfer of conduction heat and latent heat.