MEMBRANE

DISTILLATION

INTRODUCTION
Membrane distillation = membrane + distillation
Membrane separation process which overcomes
the difficulties of other membrane processes
high solution concentration, concentration
polarization, ultra pure production, etc.
Process takes place at atmospheric pressure,
relatively low temperature than distillation heat
sensitive materials
Solar, geothermal energy, etc can be used

PRINCIPLE
Driving force = vapour pressure difference temperature
difference : as driving force is not purely thermal driving
force can be operated at relatively lower temperature
Mass transfer :

MEMBRANE
Porous
Should not be wetted by process fluid
No capillary condensation inside the pores of
membrane
Only vapour should be transported through the
pores
Should not alter the vapour equilibrium of
components
e.g. PTFE, PP, PVDF ,etc

TYPES OF Membrane
Distillation
1.
2.
3.
4.

Direct Contact MD (DCMD)

Air Gap MD (AGMD)
Sweeping Gas MD (SGMD)
Vacuum MD (VMD)

TEMPERATURE
POLARIZATION

ADVANTAGES
The continuous vapour permeation increases the
evaporation in the warm liquid solution
High concentration at low temperature and
pressure
Integration with other membranes
Use of solar, wave, or geothermal energy
Less concentration polarization
Use of existing temperature gradients available in
the plant

LIMITATIONS
Treatment of solutions discharged at high
temperatures
Lower fluxes than in other membrane processes
Higher energy consumption than RO and NF
Membrane resistance not 100% decrease in
efficiency
Expensive membranes

APPLICATIONS
Concentration of non-volatile acid
Fermentation/MD integrated system
Desalination of water
Food industry
Industrial waste water treatment

WORK ON PROGRESS..
Vaccum multi-effect MD
Integration with RO and NF
Integration with FO
MD crystallization
Membrane distillation heat exchanger (MDHX)

CASE STUDIES

STUDY 1 : HCL Recovery from

Industrial Effluents
Before electroplating, the metal surface has to be clean.
Different acids such as HCl, HNO3or H2SO4are used for
these purposes as a pickling liquor to remove surface
oxides.
The spent pickling liquors contain resid- ual acid and
suitable salts. Their composition depends on metal objects.
Frequently they contain very harmful heavy metals.
The components must be removed, re- covered or recycled
for environmental reasons. A neu- tralization procedure is
used traditionally.
Experiments with membrane distillation show that it is
possible to recover hydochloric acid used for pickling.
Moreover, salt can be separated from the spent solution
after its concentration to the supersaturated state.

METAL
PICKCLING
EFFLUENTS
CONCENTRAT
E

MD

CRYSTALLIZAT
ION
PURE WATER OR
PURE HCL
SALTS

WATER TO
RINSING

RESULTS
Vapour composition is mainly affected by a hydrochloric acid
concentration in the feed and its temperature
At low acid concentration in the feed the permeate was pure
water.
The rise of acid concentration in the feed above 19% caused a
substantial increase in HC1 molar flux through the membrane.
Accumulated salt in the feed decrease HC1 solubility
(desalting out effect), thus the molar HC1 flux was then
higher than in the case of hydrochloric acid solution without
salt
The retention coefficient of the salt was 99.8%, thus permeate
was pure hydrochloric acid with a concentration which can be
significantly higher than in the feed .

CONCLUSIONS
The results of the experiments show that MD may
be a promising method of HC1 recovery from
industrial effluents
A part of a concentrated solution may be
recycled to favour the HCL desorption.
The useful products will be pure water, pure
hydrochloric acid, and metal salts after
crystallization from the supersaturated feed.

STUDY 2 : Fermentation/MD Integrated System

Ethanol is an example of such substances that
preferentially vaporize from aqueous solutions.
Traditionally, ethanol is produced by fermentation
of biomass in the batch fermenter. The solution
after fermentation con- tains7-19%of alcohol.
Unfortunately, the fermentation products are also
inhibitants of the process.
Together with the increase of ethanol
concentration the rate of bioconversion falls to
zero, the cell density in the fermen- ter remains
low and a concentrated sugar solution cannot be
completely fermented.

 This problem may be solved by integration of

fermenter with a suitable separation technique.
MD may by applied to continue the separation of
ethanol from the fermenting broth

RESULTS
TIME

EFFICIENCY ( g EtOH/ g sugar)

50g
with
MD

50 g
without
MD

150 g
with
MD

150 g
without
MD

0.47

O.47

0.4

0.4

20

0.49

0.50

0.4

0.43

40

0.45

0.49

0.38

0.45

60

0.34

0.46

CONCLUSION
The performance of fermentation in the membrane
bioreactor allows for a considerable acceleration
of its course and increases its efficiency through
the selective removal of fermentation products.

THANX FOR YOUR TIME AND

PATIENCE!!!