Membrane distillation against a pressure difference

Membrane distillation is an attractive technology for production of fresh water from seawater. The MemPower® concept, studied in this work, uses available heat (86 °C) to produce pressurized water (2.2 bar and 46 °C) by membrane distillation, which again can be used to power a turbine for co-production of electricity. We develop a non...

Simultaneous production of high-quality water and electrical power from aqueous feedstock’s and waste heat by high-pressure membrane distillation

A new membrane distillation (MD) concept (MemPower) has been developed for the simultaneous production of high-quality water from various aqueous feedstocks with cogeneration of mechanical power (electricity). Driven by low-grade heat (waste, solar, geothermal, etc.) a pressurized distillate can be produced by operating TNO’s Memstill® process...

Techno-economic assessment of boiler feed water production by membrane distillation with reuse of thermal waste energy from cooling water

The European KIC-Climate project Water and Energy for Climate Change (WE4CC) aims at the technical demonstration, business case evaluation and implementation of new value chains for the production of high-quality water using low-grade thermal waste energy from cooling water. A typical large-scale waste heat water network is the production of the...

Technical and economic aspects of purification strategies to minimise discharge water from companies with closed soilless cultivation systems

The aim of the research project was to achieve closure by two complementary means: 1) maximising reuse of the nutrient solution by solving problems in recirculation that leads to discharge, and 2) purification of the left over discharged water. In this paper the technical and economic aspects of purification strategies for single companies will...

Development and pilot testing of full-scale membrane distillation modules for deployment of waste heat

Membrane distillation is an attractive technology for extracting fresh water from seawater. Newly developed modules have been used in pilot tests and bench scale tests to demonstrate the potential of producing excellent product water quality in a single step, little need for water pretreatment and a thermal energy requirement of approximately...

Integrated membrane distillation-crystallization: Process design and cost estimations for seawater treatment and fluxes of single salt solutions

The goal of this research is to design an integrated membrane distillation-crystallization (MDC) process for desalination of seawater with pure water and dry salts as the only products. The process is based on a combination of membrane distillation (MD) and osmotic distillation (OD) steps with integrated crystallization. In the first MD step...

Brine treatment by a membrane distillation-crystallization (MDC) process

Environmental assessment of desalination processes: Reverse osmosis and Memstill®

Desalination becomes in many parts of the world and also in Europe a promising option to combat water stress in water scarce regions. However, also the question of sustainability and environmental impacts of this technology is in focus of numerous studies and discussions. Especially, the focus is set on high energy demand and disposal of...

Comparison of environmental impact and energy efficiency of desalination processes by LCA

In this study two desalination technologies have been compared by means of LCA with the focus on energy supply with a variety of scenarios based on different assumptions. The studied technologies are reverse osmosis and the newly developed technology Memstill where electrical energy demand is reduced by using external thermal energy source and...

Memstill® - Low cost membrane distillation technology for seawater desalination

Despite widespread research and development efforts during the last 25 years, membrane distillation still is not an accepted process for seawater desalination. A consortium of nine parties is presently developing a modified air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) process, aiming at presenting a low-cost alternative for both large and small scale RO...