TY - JOUR
T1 - Theoretical modeling and experimental validation of transport and separation properties of carbon nanotube electrospun membrane distillation
AU - Lee, Jung Gil
AU - Lee, Eui-Jong
AU - Jeong, Sanghyun
AU - Guo, Jiaxin
AU - An, Alicia Kyoungjin
AU - Guo, Hong
AU - Kim, Joonha
AU - Leiknes, TorOve
AU - Ghaffour, NorEddine
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The research reported in this paper was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, and University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong for Early Career Scheme (UGC ECS/GRF Project number: 9048074).
PY - 2016/12/27
Y1 - 2016/12/27
N2 - Developing a high flux and selective membrane is required to make membrane distillation (MD) a more attractive desalination process. Amongst other characteristics membrane hydrophobicity is significantly important to get high vapor transport and low wettability. In this study, a laboratory fabricated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite electrospun (E-CNT) membrane was tested and has showed a higher permeate flux compared to poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PH) electrospun membrane (E-PH membrane) in a direct contact MD (DCMD) configuration. Only 1% and 2% of CNTs incorporation resulted in an enhanced permeate flux with lower sensitivity to feed salinity while treating a 35 and 70 g/L NaCl solutions. Experimental results and the mechanisms of E-CNT membrane were validated by a proposed new step-modeling approach. The increased vapor transport in E-CNT membranes could not be elucidated by an enhancement of mass transfer only at a given physico-chemical properties. However, the theoretical modeling approach considering the heat and mass transfers simultaneously enabled to explain successfully the enhanced flux in the DCMD process using E-CNT membranes. This indicates that both mass and heat transfers improved by CNTs are attributed to the enhanced vapor transport in the E-CNT membrane.
AB - Developing a high flux and selective membrane is required to make membrane distillation (MD) a more attractive desalination process. Amongst other characteristics membrane hydrophobicity is significantly important to get high vapor transport and low wettability. In this study, a laboratory fabricated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite electrospun (E-CNT) membrane was tested and has showed a higher permeate flux compared to poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PH) electrospun membrane (E-PH membrane) in a direct contact MD (DCMD) configuration. Only 1% and 2% of CNTs incorporation resulted in an enhanced permeate flux with lower sensitivity to feed salinity while treating a 35 and 70 g/L NaCl solutions. Experimental results and the mechanisms of E-CNT membrane were validated by a proposed new step-modeling approach. The increased vapor transport in E-CNT membranes could not be elucidated by an enhancement of mass transfer only at a given physico-chemical properties. However, the theoretical modeling approach considering the heat and mass transfers simultaneously enabled to explain successfully the enhanced flux in the DCMD process using E-CNT membranes. This indicates that both mass and heat transfers improved by CNTs are attributed to the enhanced vapor transport in the E-CNT membrane.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/622098
UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376738816315514
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008192317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.12.045
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.12.045
M3 - Article
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 526
SP - 395
EP - 408
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -