Abstract
Thermal energy is lost in many industries including thermal power stations through the return cooling water requiring additional costs and efforts to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. Membrane distillation (MD) utilises the waste heat, available in the discharge streams, to produce purified water and reduce of temperature of the feed stream. Several studies on membrane distillation have focussed their investigations on improving desalination performance utilising different types of membranes and process conditions. However, considering its potential to reduce the temperature of the hot streams, an opportunity can be sensed to attain the twin objectives of reducing the discharge temperature and producing purified water. Experimental investigations have been undertaken in this context, to assess the potential of membrane distillation to achieve the objectives of environmental compliance through temperature reduction and production of desalinated water. Polyvinylidene fluoride–polytetrafluoroethylene (PVDF–PTFE) blend membranes have provided permeate flux in the range of 0.0043–0.0194 kg/m2s on par with the results reported in literature with substantial reduction in temperature in a range of experimental conditions with respect to feed concentration and entry temperature. Integrity of the membrane was assessed based on structural and morphological studies using SEM, XRD and FTIR, before and after the use of membranes. The studies bring out the latent benefits of the membrane distillation as an eco-friendly value addition process.
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Abbreviations
- DCMD:
-
Direct contact membrane distillation
- F h :
-
Hot feed volumetric flow rate (m3/s)
- F c :
-
Cold feed volumetric flow rate (m3/s)
- J p :
-
Permeate flux (kg/m2s)
- LMTD:
-
Logarithmic mean temperature difference
- LMPD:
-
Logarithmic mean pressure drop
- MDDNT :
-
Membrane distillation drive number for temperature
- MDDNP :
-
Membrane distillation drive number for vapour pressure
- m :
-
mass of permeate
- ppm:
-
Parts per million
- P o :
-
Vapour pressure of pure water (kPa)
- P sat :
-
Vapour pressure of feed solution (kPa)
- P hi :
-
Vapour pressure of hot feed inlet (kPa)
- P ho :
-
Vapour pressure of hot feed outlet (kPa)
- P ci :
-
Vapour pressure of cold feed inlet (kPa)
- P co :
-
Vapour pressure of cold feed outlet (kPa)
- T hi :
-
Temperature of hot feed inlet (°C)
- T ho :
-
Temperature of hot feed outlet (°C)
- T ci :
-
Temperature of cold feed inlet (°C)
- T co :
-
Temperature of cold feed outlet (°C)
- TDS:
-
Total dissolved solids ppm
- Q m :
-
Total heat flux through the membrane (kW)
- \(x_{i}\) :
-
Mole fraction of solute in feed solution
- α :
-
Number of species
- ΔP sat :
-
Vapour pressure difference (kPa)
- ΔTh :
-
Temperature difference of hot feed inlet and hot feed outlet (°C)
- ΔV :
-
Permeate collection volume (m3)
- Δt :
-
Permeate collection time (s)
- ΔT :
-
Transmembrane temperature difference (°C)
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Dayanandan, N., Kapoor, A. & Sivaraman, P. Studies on membrane distillation towards mitigating thermal pollution. Chem. Pap. 75, 2819–2833 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-021-01525-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-021-01525-x