DIRECT CONTACT MEMBRANE DISTILLATION UNIT

Abstract

The basic purpose of this project is to produce clean and pure water abundantly. A direct contact membrane distillation closed loop setup is used in this project to clean the brackish and sea water. The project uses a hydrophobic membrane that only allows vapors to pass through it. Solar collector can be integrated in the project to provide energy. A mathematical model is developed on the basis of heat and mass transfer inside the membrane module. The model used for this purpose was opted as Poiseuille and Knudsen. These models are then solved on EXCEL® and MATLAB® using iterative techniques. The results are then verified using finite element analysis on COMSOL 5.0®. The results of the software analysis shows the parameters that affect the performance of the distillation system. These parameters include feed temperature, feed velocity, porosity, permeate temperature, thickness etc. A small scale working prototype is also developed to validate the theoretical results.