Distillate Flux Enhancement of Direct Contact Membrane Distillation Modules with Inserting Cross-Diagonal Carbon-Fiber Spacers

A new design of direct-contact membrane distillation (DCMD) modules with cross-diagonal carbon-fiber spacers of various hydrodynamic angles in flow channels to promote turbulence intensity was proposed to enhance pure water productivity. Attempts to reduce the temperature polarization coefficient were achieved by inserting cross-diagonal carbon-fiber spacers in channels, which create wakes and eddies in both heat and mass transfer behaviors to enhance the permeate flux enhancement. A simplified equation was formulated to obtain the theoretical predictions of heat transfer coefficients in the current DCMD device. The permeate fluxes and temperature distributions of both hot and cold feed streams are represented graphically with the inlet volumetric flow rate and inlet temperature of the hot saline feed stream as parameters. The higher distillate flux of countercurrent-flow operations for saline water desalination was accomplished as compared to the concurrent-flow operations of various hydrodynamic angles. The results show that the agreement between the theoretical predictions and experimental results is reasonably good. The effects of countercurrent-flow operations and inserting carbon fiber spacers have confirmed technical feasibility and device performance enhancement of up to 45%. The influences of operating and design parameters on the pure water productivity with the expense of energy consumption are also discussed.