A review on fouling of membrane distillation. Issue 22 (8th May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Naidu, Gayathri; Jeong, Sanghyun; Vigneswaran, Saravanamuthu; Hwang, Tae-Mun; Choi, Yong-Jun; Kim, Seung-Hyun
• Is Part Of: Desalination and water treatment. Volume 57:Issue 22(2016)
• Page Start: 10052
• Page End: 10076
• Publication Date: 2016-05-08
• Subjects: Membrane distillation -- Fouling -- Scaling -- Mitigation; Saline water conversion -- Periodicals; Saline water conversion; Water -- Purification; Periodicals; 628.167
• DOI: 10.1080/19443994.2015.1040271
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1944-3994

Abstract

Abstract: Membrane distillation (MD) has been developed for the past 40 years. Nevertheless, only in recent times, MD technology has shown substantial progress, including the development of a few commercial systems. In this study, a comprehensive review is carried out on the application of MD for the production of drinking water. Based on a broad perspective, this review describes the applications of MD for drinking water production, its advantages, and limitations. Specifically, this review focuses on the scaling and organic fouling phenomena in MD for drinking water production as one of the major challenge to MD implementation. The fouling and wetting phenomena in MD is discussed in detail as well as fouling detection methods, the influence of feed solution characteristics, and operational parameters on MD fouling and related areas requiring future investigations. The study highlights a number of approaches on fouling reduction in MD.