Study on a new air-gap membrane distillation module for desalination

• A new AGMD module for desalination was successfully developed.
• Polypropylene nets were first introduced into AGMD module.
• The vapor pressure polarization coefficient η was calculated.
• The maximum gained output ratio GOR obtained was up to 5.70.

A new air-gap membrane distillation (AGMD) module for desalination with internal latent-heat-recovery which consisted of parallel hollow fiber membranes and heat exchange hollow fibers was successfully developed. The influences of feed flow rate, feed temperature and feed initial concentration on AGMD process were investigated. The vapor pressure polarization coefficient (η) was introduced to measure the reduction in the effective driving force for mass transfer with regard to the driving force imposed. Among all AGMD experiments, the maximum water vapor permeate flux (JD) of 5.30 kg/m2 h and the gained output ratio (GOR) of 5.70 were obtained. A theoretical model based on the mass and energy balances of the hot feed side was established to calculate the temperature and the local water vapor permeate flux distributions along the hollow fiber membrane, which showed that the temperature drop and local water vapor permeate flux drop were much larger at the upper part than those at the lower part of the membrane module in the hot feed side.