CATEGORY: MEMBRANE DISTILLATION
Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 438, 1 July
2013, Pages 126–139
Effect of dry-out on the fouling of PVDF and
PTFE membranes under conditions simulating intermittent seawater membrane
distillation (SWMD)
Elena Guillen-Burrieza (a), Rinku Thomas (a),
Bilal Mansoor (a), Daniel Johnson (b), Nidal Hilal (a), (b), Hassan Arafat (a)
a Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, PO Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, UAE
b Centre for Water Advanced Technologies and Environmental Research (CWATER),
Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Abstract
Hydrophobic membranes are thought to be
chemically stable and resistant to dry-out during intermittent membrane
distillation (MD) operations. However, distillate quality deterioration has
been reported in field tests of solar-powered MD systems. Authors explore the
effects of salt deposition resulting from membrane dry-out on the properties of
two types of commercial hydrophobic membranes commonly used for MD purposes.
The membranes are made of
polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF). The
intermittent operation was simulated by a series of wet/dry cycles using
seawater at MD operational temperatures. Researchers performed DCMD experiments
to investigate the post-fouling performance of the membranes in the MD process.
Significant scaling was detected from the first week of seawater exposure, as
evidenced by the characterization techniques used. PVDF and PTFE membranes were
observed to behave somewhat differently under these fouling conditions. DCMD
experiments demonstrated that membrane wetting was exacerbated by intermittent
operation.
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