A new method for permeability measurement of hydrophobic membranes in Vacuum Membrane Distillation process

In this paper, a new method for permeability measurement of hydrophobic membranes used in Vacuum Membrane Distillation, instead of common measurement methods, was proposed. As VMD is a pressure and temperature driven process, the idea of this work is to propose a new water vapour permeability measurement method based on variation of feed temperature at a fixed vacuum pressure. This new method showed a greater stability and simplicity than the existing pressure variation method by not only allowing a wide range of feed temperature (25 degrees C divided by 60 degrees C) to be scanned continuously, but also avoiding fluctuations of the system as observed in the pressure variation test. Permeabilities of two different kinds of hydrophobic membranes were measured by this new method and also by the existing pressure variation test. A comparison between these two methods was also presented to assess the feasibility and applicability of this new method. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved