Treatment of high salinity solutions: Application of air gap membrane distillation

Air Gap Membrane Distillation, using a high concentration of NaCl, MgCl2, Na2CO3, and Na2SO4, is implemented in this study. Permeate fluxes are measured for different feed concentrations and membrane pore sizes (0.2 and 0.45 mu m). The flux declines as the concentration of salt increases, and increases as the pore size increases. The TF200 membrane showed excellent hydrophobicity compared to TF450. Moreover, the energy consumption was measured at different salt concentrations for the different membrane sizes, and was found to be independent of membrane pore size, salt type and salt concentration in the feed solution. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.