Productivity, selectivity, and energy consumption of pilot-scale vacuum assisted air-gap membrane distillation for the desalination of high-salinity streams

The implementation of air gap membrane distillation systems is limited by a lack of overall performance predictions which rely on few available pilot-scale studies. This study evaluates the productivity, energy consumption, and selectivity of a pilot-scale air gap membrane distillation system by combining experiments and modeling activities. The effect of operating conditions, i.e., applied vacuum, feed flow rate, and feed stream salinity, was investigated to identify regulating factors and quantify dependencies. Response surface methodology was applied to model the phenomena and provide statistical analysis. Increasing flow rates produced a near linear increase of productivity within the investigated range. Operating at higher applied vacuum also translated into enhanced productivity, though the distillate flux increased by a maximum of 10 % when vacuum increased from −100 mbar to −500 mbar. Flow rate and vacuum also governed the observed salt flux by a similar magnitude because salt flux resulted mainly from liquid pore flow phenomena. The trans-membrane pressure regulated the membrane rejection: increasing the pressure difference led to a lower rejection. Moreover, high feed stream salinity lowered both the productivity and the distillate quality. The productivity gains were typically achieved at the expense of an increase in specific thermal energy consumption; however, an interesting relation was observed with feed stream salinity, with a minimum of specific thermal energy consumption of roughly 300kWh_th⋅m⁻³ identified in the treatment of a stream with a salinity of 150g/L.