Advances in Membrane Distillation

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2024 | Viewed by 2968

Special Issue Editors

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, No.2 Linggong Road, Dalian 116024, China
Interests: membrane distillation; thermodynamics; electrospinning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
CSIRO Manufacturing, Private bag 10, Clayton South, VIC 3169, Australia
Interests: polymeric membranes; mixed matrix/nanocomposite membranes; membrane distillation; pervaporation; forward osmosis; desalination; water purification; wastewater treatment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to submit your original research work to the upcoming Special Issue of Membranes on Membrane Distillation. Membrane distillation is a rapidly growing technology with great potential in various fields including desalination, wastewater treatment, food industry, and pharmaceutical production. Membrane distillation has distinct advantages over traditional separation techniques such as low fouling tendency, high separation efficiency, and the ability to operate at low temperatures and pressures.

This Special Issue aims to compile recent advances in membrane distillation technology and its applications, presenting them alongside emerging challenges and potential solutions. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives on various aspects of membrane distillation. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Novel membrane materials and structures;
  • Advanced membrane distillation configurations and systems;
  • Fouling and scaling phenomena and mitigation strategies;
  • Modeling and simulation of membrane distillation processes;
  • Applications of membrane distillation in desalination, wastewater treatment, and other areas.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive platform to enable researchers, engineers, and scientists to share their knowledge and experiences in the field of membrane distillation. We hope that this collection of articles will serve as a valuable reference for the scientific community and provide insights for future research and development.

We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue, and we hope that you find this topic both interesting and relevant to your research.

Prof. Dr. Fei Guo
Dr. Zongli Xie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • membrane distillation
  • thermodynamics
  • heat and mass transfer
  • membrane design
  • energy
  • modeling and simulation
  • application

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 4636 KiB  
Article
Study on Low Thermal-Conductivity of PVDF@SiAG/PET Membranes for Direct Contact Membrane Distillation Application
by Jun Xiang, Sitong Wang, Nailin Chen, Xintao Wen, Guiying Tian, Lei Zhang, Penggao Cheng, Jianping Zhang and Na Tang
Membranes 2023, 13(9), 773; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13090773 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1310
Abstract
In order to enhance the separation performance and reduce the heat loss of transmembrane for membrane distillation, the thermal efficiency and hydrophobicity of the membrane distillation need to be simultaneously enhanced. In this work, a polyvinylidene difluoride/polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PVDF/PET) hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane has [...] Read more.
In order to enhance the separation performance and reduce the heat loss of transmembrane for membrane distillation, the thermal efficiency and hydrophobicity of the membrane distillation need to be simultaneously enhanced. In this work, a polyvinylidene difluoride/polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PVDF/PET) hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane has been prepared by non-solvent phase induction method. Nanosized silica aerogel (SiAG) with high porosity has been added to the composite membranes. The modifying effects and operating conditions on permeate flux and thermal efficiency in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) are investigated. Furthermore, the latent heat of vaporization and the heat transfer across the membranes have been compared for SiAG addition, which indicates that the composite PVDF@SiAG/PET membranes demonstrate a great potential for distillation-separation application due to their high heat efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Membrane Distillation)
Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 1819 KiB  
Article
Finned Tubular Air Gap Membrane Distillation
by Zhiqiang Wu and Fei Guo
Membranes 2023, 13(5), 498; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13050498 - 08 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1147
Abstract
Finned tubular air gap membrane distillation is a new membrane distillation method, and its functional performance, characterization parameters, finned tube structures, and other studies have clear academic and practical application value. Therefore, the tubular air gap membrane distillation experiment modules composed of PTFE [...] Read more.
Finned tubular air gap membrane distillation is a new membrane distillation method, and its functional performance, characterization parameters, finned tube structures, and other studies have clear academic and practical application value. Therefore, the tubular air gap membrane distillation experiment modules composed of PTFE membrane and finned tubes were constructed in this work, and three representative air gap structures, including tapered finned tube, flat finned tube, and expanded finned tube, were designed. Membrane distillation experiments were carried out in the form of water cooling and air cooling, and the influences of air gap structures, temperature, concentration, and flow rate on the transmembrane flux were analyzed. The good water-treatment ability of the finned tubular air gap membrane distillation model and the applicability of air cooling for the finned tubular air gap membrane distillation structure were verified. The membrane distillation test results show that with the tapered finned tubular air gap structure, the finned tubular air gap membrane distillation has the best performance. The maximum transmembrane flux of the finned tubular air gap membrane distillation could reach 16.3 kg/m2/h. Strengthening the convection heat transfer between air and fin tube could increase the transmembrane flux and improve the efficiency coefficient. The efficiency coefficient (σ) could reach 0.19 under the condition of air cooling. Compared with the conventional air gap membrane distillation configuration, air cooling configuration for air gap membrane distillation is an effective way to simplify the system design and offers a potential way for the practical applications of membrane distillation on an industrial scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Membrane Distillation)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop