Localized Heating in Membrane Distillation for Performance Enhancement

Abstract

Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging technology capable of treating high-saline feeds and operating with low-grade heat energy. However, commercial implementation of MD is limited by so-called temperature polarization, which is the deviation in the temperature at the feed-membrane interface with respect to the bulk fluid. This work presents solutions to alleviate temperature polarization in MD by employing a localized heating concept to deliver heat at the vicinity of the feed-membrane interface. This can be realized in multiple ways, including Joule heating, photothermal heating, electromagnetic induction heating, and nanofluid heating. In the first experiment, a Joule heating concept was implemented and tested, and the results showed a 45% increase in permeate flux and a 57% decrease in specific energy consumption. This concept was further improved by implementing a new dead-end MD configuration, which led to a 132% increase in the gained output ratio. In addition, the accumulation of foulants on the membrane surface could be successfully controlled by intermittent flushing of feedwater. Three-dimensional CFD calculations of conjugate heat transfer revealed a more uniform heat transfer and temperature gradient across the membrane due to the increased feedwater temperature over a larger membrane area.

In another approach, a photothermal MD concept was used to heat the feed water locally. A 2-D photothermal material, MXene, recently known for its photothermal property, was used to coat commercial MD membranes. The coated membranes were evaluated under one-sun illumination to yield a permeate flux of 0.77 kg.m$^{−2}$h$^{−1}$ with a photothermal efficiency of 65.3% for a feed concentration of 0.36 g.L$^{−1}$. The system can produce around 6 liters of water per day per square meter of membrane.

An energy analysis was also performed to compare the efficiency of various energy sources. Considering the sun as a primary energy source, the performance of different heating modes was compared in terms of performance and scale-up opportunities.

Overall this work demonstrates that the application of localized heating will enable the scale-up and the use of renewable energy sources to make the MD process more efficient and sustainable.