Film Distillation with a Porous Condenser for Seawater Desalination: Evaluation of Materials’ Stability in the Tropical Climate of Vietnam

Abstract

Desalination and treatment of wastewater has become critical for Asia regions with water scarcity. In this work, the concept of thin-film distillation equipped with a porous condenser (FDPC) was considered for its implementation in a tropical climate of Vietnam. It was found that samples with a concentration of biocide of 0.5 wt.% possessed lower biofouling, in contrast to the neat membranes. The FD-PC module was developed and water desalination experiments were conducted in Russia and Vietnam. The experiments showed high reproducibility of the results; in particular, the evaporation rate was (4.9/3.0) kg/m2h in Russia and (4.1/2.0) kg/m2h in Vietnam. In addition, as part of this work, the optimal configuration of the installation was calculated using solar collectors as the main energy source. The calculation showed high energy efficiency: specific energy consumption 0.1–0.5 kWh/m3.