Sanmartino, J.A. and Khayet, M. and García-Payo, M.C. (2017) Reuse of discarded membrane distillation membranes in microfiltration technology. Journal of Membrane Science, 539. pp. 273-283. ISSN 03767388
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Membrane distillation (MD) technology is being implemented in industry thanks to the incessant progress made so far in membrane modules, membrane design and their fabrication. The main drawback of MD is the irreversible membrane pore wetting. Special care must be made in order to maintain the membrane pores dry. Once the pores are getting wet and/or blocked the efficiency of the MD process is reduced and the membrane is finally discarded. It is to be noted that MD membranes are more expensive than the membranes used in other membrane processes (e.g. pressure driven membrane processes microfiltration, MF; ultrafiltration, UF or reverse osmosis, RO). Reuse of disposed MD membranes is a possible solution to prevent membrane disposal and save costs. In this study, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes were used for the treatment of synthetic (i.e. 65 g/L NaCl aqueous solutions) and RO brines (similar to 50 g/L TDS) at different feed temperatures (between 318 and 348 K) by air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) until the membrane pores were blocked or wetted. These membranes were proposed for MF considering as a feed solution example humic acid (HA) aqueous solutions (15 mg/L HA). Fouling of the discarded PTFE membranes for use in AGMD was studied and compared with that of new PTFE membranes. Depending on the membrane characteristics and its initial state, MF results are different in terms of the permeate flux, which is higher for the TF450 membranes and for those previously used in synthetic brine concentration, the rejection factor, which is lower for the TF450_ROB_318K membrane (70.76%) or the performance index. It was observed that the reused AGMD membranes could exhibit even better MF performance than the new ones being the best case, 189.2 kg/m(2) h, for the membrane TF450_ROB_318K compared to 123.9 kg/m(2) h exhibited by the new TF450 membrane at the same temperature.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering |
| Depositing User: | José Ángel Gómez Martín |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Sep 2017 10:01 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2017 10:01 |
| URI: | http://eprints.imdea-agua.org:13000/id/eprint/793 |
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