Experiments and modeling of a vacuum membrane distillation for high saline water

A modified design vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system with high saline water was evaluated using different operating conditions (sustainable low feed temperature and flow velocity). At high salinity, a permeate flux of 13.9 to 15.8Lm-2h-1 was achieved. Increasing the salinity from 1 to 3M NaCl reduced the permeate flux by 18-20%. An increase in bulk feed temperature (310.2-319.2K) significantly increased the permeate flux by 64%. The increase in flow velocity (1.1 to 2.2ms-1) in turn increased the permeate flux by 14-20%. Model fluxes predicted was a good fit to experimental fluxes (R2≥0.94). © 2013 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry