(379d) A Study of Hydrophobic Micro-Porous Membrane for Membrane Distillation

A
study of hydrophobic micro-porous membrane for membrane distillation

E. Drioli^{1, 2, 3}, A. Figoli¹,  F. Macedonio^{1, 2}, S. Simone¹,
 A. Ali²

¹
National Research Council - Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM?CNR), Via Pietro BUCCI, c/o The University of Calabria, cubo 17C,
87036 Rende CS, Italy

²
The University of Calabria - Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials, cubo 44A, Via Pietro BUCCI, 87036
Rende CS, Italy

³Hanyang University,
WCU Energy Engineering Department, Room 917 9th Floor FTC Bldg., 17 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu,
Seoul 133-791 S. Korea

Membrane distillation (MD) is one of
the non-isothermal membrane separation processes used in various applications
such as desalination, nuclear industry, textile industry, chemical industry,
pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, food industry, etc. MD
industrialization requires improved membranes, with specific morphology and specifically
designed for MD applications.

Membranes with different pore sizes,
porosities, thicknesses, materials and novel structures are required in order
to carry out systematic MD studies for better understanding mass and heat
transport phenomena thus improving the MD performance [1].

The ideal characteristics of a MD membrane are as follows: high hydrophobicity, high bulk and surface porosities, optimum
pore size and narrow pore size distribution, high pores interconnectivity, high
liquid entry pressure, low thermal conductivity, optimum thickness, high
thermal stability, less susceptibility to fouling and long term permeance stability [2, 3].

In this work, microporous
hydrophobic poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow
fiber membranes were prepared, characterized and tested in a membrane
distillation set-up.

PVDF is widely utilized as polymeric
material for preparing flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes to be used in
membrane contactors and, in particular, in membrane distillation due to its
intrinsic characteristics: high hydrophobicity
coupled to better solubility in common organic solvents with respect to other
hydrophobic polymers, such as poly(tetrafluoro
ethylene) (PTFE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE).

In this
work, the effect of different
membrane preparation conditions and other parameters on MD performance has been investigated. It has been confirmed that the trans-membrane flux is a strong
function of the membrane morphology which is influenced by the preparation
conditions and dope solution composition.

Relevant bibliography

[1] S. Simone, A. Figoli, A. Criscuoli, M.C. Carnevale, A. Rosselli, E. Drioli, "Preparation of hollow fibre
membranes from PVDF/PVP blends and their application in VMD", Journal of
Membrane Science 364 (2010) 219-232, doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2010.08.013

[2] E. Drioli,
A. Criscuoli, E. Curcio, Membrane Contactors: Fundamentals,
Applications and Potentialities, Membrane science and technology series,
11, Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier, 2006.

[3] S. Al Obaidani,
E. Curcio, F. Macedonio, G.
Di Profio, H. Al Hinai, E. Drioli, Potential of membrane distillation in
seawater desalination: Thermal efficiency, sensitivity study and cost
estimation, Journal of Membrane Science, 323
(2008) 85-98. doi: 10.1016/j.memsci.2008.06.006.