• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.23-31
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• 2014

This study was accomplished to get the foundation design data of VMD(Vacuum Membrane Distillation) system for Solar Thermal VMD plant. VMD experiment was designed to evaluate thermal performance of VMD using PVDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) hollow fiber hydrophobic membranes. The total membrane surface area in a VMD module is $5.3m^2$. Experimental equipments to evaluate VMD system consists of various parts such as VMD module, heat exchanger, heater, storage tank, pump, flow meter, micro filter. The experimental conditions to evaluate VMD module were salt concentration, temperature, flow rate of feed sea water. Salt concentration of feed water were used by aqueous NaCl solutions of 25g/l, 35g/l and 45g/l concentration. As a result, increase in permeate flux of VMD module is due to the increasing feed water temperature and feed water flow rate. Also, decrease in permeate flux of VMD module is due to increasing salinity of feed water. VMD module required about 590 kWh/day of heating energy to produce $1m^3/day$ of fresh water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2017

In this study, thermal performance test of VMD module was performed, prior to the construction of the demonstration plant using the vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) module of the capacity of $400m^3/day$ and to the commercialization of the VMD module. For the thermal performance test, the experimental equipment of capacity of $2m^3/day$ was constructed. The permeate flux test and thermal performance test according to feed water conditions such as temperature and flow rate were conducted. The VMD module used in the study was manufactured by ECONITY Co., LTD with PVDF hollow fiber membrane. As a result, the Performance Ratio (PR) of the VMD module showed the maximum value of 0.904 under the condition of feed water temperature of $75^{\circ}C$ and flow rate of $8m^3/h$. PR value of the VMD module using PVDF hollow fiber membrane showed linearly increasing relationship with feed water temperature and flow rate. Also, The permeate flux of the VMD module was analyzed to have maximum value of 18.25 LMH and the salt rejection was 99.99%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.313-319
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• 2016

In this study, the performance experiment was conducted to compare the permeate flux of hollow fiber Vacuum Membrane Distillation module according to leak problem between module housing and membrane bundle. For the permeate flux performance experiment of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules, the Lab-scale experimental equipment was built in the capacity of $1m^3/day$. The performance test of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules were analyzed according to the feed water conditions. As a result, it was analyzed that the leak VMD module decreased about 14% of permeate flux than normal VMD module.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2019

Fabricating hydrophobic porous membrane is important for exploring the applications of membrane distillation (MD). In the present paper, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane was modified by coating polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on its surface. The effects of PDMS concentration, cross-linking temperature and cross-linking time on the performance of the composite membranes in a vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process were investigated. It was found that the hydrophobicity and the VMD performance of the PVDF hollow fiber membrane were obviously improved by coating PDMS. The optimal PDMS concentration, cross-linking temperature and cross-linking time were 0.5 wt%, $80^{\circ}C$, and 9 hr, respectively.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2018

In this study, vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) was used to treat high-salinity wastewater (concentration about 17%) discharged by chlor-alkali plant after resin regeneration. The feasibility of VMD for the treatment of real saline wastewater by using Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microporous plate membrane with a pore diameter of $0.2{\mu}m$ was investigated. The effects of critical operating parameters such as feed temperature, velocity, vacuum degree and concentration on the permeate water flux were analyzed. Numerical simulation was used to predict the flux and the obtained results were in good agreement with the experimental data. The results showed that an increase in the operating conditions could greatly promote the permeate water flux which in turn decreased with an increase in the concentration. When the concentration varied from 17 to 25%, the permeate water flux dropped marginally with time indicating that the concentration was not sensitive to the decrease in permeate water flux. The permeate water flux decreased sharply until zero due to the membrane fouling resistance as the concentration varied from 25 to 26%. However, the conductivity of the produced water was well maintained and the average value was measured to be $4.98{\mu}s/cm$. Furthermore, a salt rejection of more than 99.99% was achieved. Overall, the outcome of this investigation clearly indicates that VMD has the potential for treating high-salinity wastewater.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.435-445
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• 2018

In this work, desalination experiments were performed on vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Process parameters such as feed flow rate, vacuum degree on permeate side, feed bulk temperature and feed salt concentration were optimized using sensitivity analysis and Taguchi method. The optimum values of process parameters were found to be 2 lpm of feed flow rate, $60^{\circ}C$ of feed bulk temperature, 5.5 kPa of permeate-side pressure and 5000 ppm of salt concentration. The permeate flux at these conditions was obtained as $26.6kg/m^2{\cdot}hr$. The rejection of salt in permeate was found to be 99.7%. The percent contribution of various process parameters using ANOVA results indicated that the most important parameter is feed bulk temperature with its contribution of 95%. The ANOVA results indicate that the percent contribution of permeate pressure gets increased to 5.384% in the range of 2 to 7 kPa as compared to 0.045% in the range of 5.5 to 7 kPa.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.293-310
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• 2017

An ultrasonic assisting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system was designed to promote the heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation (MD) process. Both the effects of operating conditions and ultrasonic parameters to permeation flux in this process were investigated; the heat and mass transfer mechanism was also being discussed in this paper. The results showed that the performance of VMD process was improved significantly by ultrasonic assisting. The permeation flux was boosted at a certain feed solution temperature, pressure at permeate side and feed solution velocity whether or not to PP and PTFE. The results also indicated that ultrasonic power and frequency also was the key factor affecting the mass and transfer efficiencies. The feed side transfer coefficient ($K_f$), corresponding to ultrasonic power ($K_f=4.406-0.026{\times}P+7.824{\times}10^{-5}{\times}P^2$) and ultrasonic frequency ($K_f=0.941+0.598{\times}f-0.012{\times}f^2+6.283{\times}10^{-5}f^3$), was obtained and employed in the modeling of ultrasonic assisting VMD process. The modeling results showed that the calculated value of $K_f$ aligned with experimental results well. Both variations of temperature polarization coefficient (TPC) and concentration polarization coefficient (CPC) were studied based on the obtained data. The results showed that both TPC and CPC were improved obviously by the ultrasonic parameters.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2017

Scale formation is inevitable problem when seawater is treated by vacuum membrane distillation. The reason is the high concentration of calcium ion($Ca^{2+}$), sulfate ion(${SO_4}^{2-}$) and bicarbonate ion(${HCO_3}^-$). These ions form calcium sulfate($CaSO_4$) and calcium carbonate($CaCO_3$) on the membrane. The scale formed on membrane has to be removed, because the flux can be severely reduced and membrane wetting can be incurred. This study was carried out to investigate scale formation and effectiveness of acid cleaning in vacuum membrane distillation for SWRO brine treatment. It was found that permeate flux gradually declined until volume concentration factor(VCF) reached around 1.55 and membrane wetting started over VCF over 1.6 in the formation of precipitates containing $CaSO_4$ during VMD operation. In contrast, when calcium carbonate formed on membrane, permeate flux was gradually reduced until VCF 3.0. The precipitates containing both $CaSO_4$ and $CaCO_3$ were formed on the membrane surface and in the membrane pore.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.287-298
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• 2019

Lotus leaf has a special dual micro and nano surface structure which gives its highly hydrophobic surface characteristics and so-called self cleaning effect. In order to endow PVDF hollow fiber membrane with this special structure and improve the hydrophobicity of membrane surface, PVDF hollow fiber composite membranes was obtained through the immersion coating of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) dilute solution on the outside surface of PVDF support membrane. The prepared PVDF composite membranes were used in the vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) for the desalination. The effects of PVDF-HFP dilute solution concentration in the dope solution and coating time on VMD separation performance was studied. Membranes were characterized by SEM, WCA measurement, porosity, and liquid entry pressure of water. VMD test was carried out using $35g{\cdot}L^{-1}$ NaCl aqueous solution as the feed solution at feed temperature of $30^{\circ}C$ and the permeate pressure of 31.3 kPa. The vapour flux reached a maximum when PVDF-HFP concentration in the dilute solution was 5 wt% and the coating time was kept in the range of 10-60 s. This was attributed to the well configuration of micro-nano rods which was similar with the dual micro-nano structure on the lotus leaf. Compared with the original PVDF membrane, the salt rejection can be well maintained which was greater than 99.99 % meanwhile permeation water conductivity was kept at a low value of $7-9{\mu}S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ during the continuous testing for 360 h.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.451-476
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• 2015

Membrane distillation (MD), which can utilize low-grade thermal energy, has been extensively studied for desalination. By incorporating solar thermal energy, the solar membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) is a potential technology for resolving the energy and water resource problems. Small-scale SMDDS (s-SMDDS) is an attractive and viable option for the production of fresh water for small communities in remote arid areas. The minimum-cost design and operation of s-SMDDS are determined by a systematic method, which involves a pseudo steady state approach for equipment sizing and the dynamic optimization using overall system mathematical models. The s-SMDDS employing three MD configurations, including the air gap (AGMD), direct contact (DCMD) and vacuum (VMD) types, are optimized. The membrane area of each system is $11.5m^2$. The AGMD system operated for 500 kg/day water production rate gives the lowest unit cost of $5.92/m^3$. The performance ratio and recovery ratio are 0.85 and 4.07%, respectively. For the commercial membrane employed in this study, the increase of membrane mass transfer coefficient up to two times is beneficial for cost reduction and the reduction of membrane heat transfer coefficient only affects the cost of the DCMD system.