Investigating the potential of meltblown polypropylene nanofiber membrane for desalination by membrane distillation

Abstract

A tubular nanofiber membrane module is developed and tested in the seawater desalination by using air-gap membrane desalination (AGMD). Meltblowing device is used to produce the nanofibers which are collected at a distance of 37 cm away from the tip of the spinneret. Results show that the flux varies almost constantly with the feed flow rates. The independence of the flux on the feed flow rates suggested that the meltblown nanofiber membrane is a dense membrane in which the volume of pores has been reduced and compacted significantly. The flux increases exponentially with the feed temperatures which obeys the Arrhenius relation. The quality of permeate is essentially improved by using the compacted nanofiber membrane. The rejection of the dissolved salts is more than 99.3%, in which the conductivity values of permeate ranged between 8 and 50 μS/cm.