A desalination process through sweeping gas membrane distillation

A continuous desalinaton process is analyzed, based on a membrane distillation procedure. Both flat and tubular porous hydrophobic membranes are considered. The aqueous solution flows in direct contact with one side of the membrane, while on the other side a sweeping gas flows and strips out water vapour. The process is throughly studied experimentally by inspecting the influence on the evaporation efficiency of the relevant process parameters such as inlet temperatures and flow rates. A comprehensive mathematical model is then presented and compared with the experimental results.