Water desalination by pervaporation - Comparison of energy consumption

In this study, desalination experiments were carried out with a commercial membrane. The salt concentration and the feed solution temperature were varied between 0.8% and 7.0% and between 40 °C and 70 °C, respectively. The experiments helped determine the desalinated water flux and the salt rejection factor. In addition, differences in enthalpy and Gibbs free energy, representing the theoretical energy consumption, were estimated in the raw water/feed and the feed/permeate systems. For the purpose of comparing the energy consumption, three desalination techniques were considered: RO, PV and MD.