Synoptic analysis of direct contact membrane distillation performance in Qatar: A case study

article i nfo Theaimofthisstudyistoevaluateabenchscaledirectcontactmembranedistillation(DCMD)performanceusing flatsheet polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)membrane atdifferent inlet flow rates, temperatures,and salinity com- position. The effect of the various operating conditions on the quality of the distillate water produced was inves- tigated by Inductively Coupled Plasma/Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP/OES) and ion chromatography (IC). Five different feed solutions were studied such as the Arabian Gulf seawater, rejected brine from Qatari thermal desalination plants andartificialbrine.Apermeate fluxof 35.6LMH canbe producedattemperaturedifferenceof 50 °C between hot and cold sides. The thermal energy efficiency of the system was analyzed and reached up to 22%. The flow mode and turbulence promoter in feed channels were found to have a very important effect on the flux and energy efficiency. It was also noted that using spacers in the flow channels increase the distillate flux by more than 51% as compared with a spacer-free system. The investigation has shown that the highest Gain Output Ratio (GOR) value can be obtained when using less saline feed solution at the highest feed temper- ature, lowest permeate temperature and lowest flow rate. Finally, the salt rejection rate throughout the conduct- ed tests was very high (N99.9%) and almost independent of any studied operational parameters. Eventually, DCMD has proven to be a feasible and effective technology capable of consistently producing high quality distil- late from a very high salinity feed even with substantial quality difference compared to other desalination methods such as RO and MSF.

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