Recent progress of membrane distillation using electrospun nanofibrous membrane

Rapid population growth has resulted in imbalance in the supply and demand of fresh water for human consumption. As the sources of fresh water from surface water and fresh groundwater have been consistently depleting at an alarming rate, alternative sources such as seawater and brackish water are sought out. Desalination of water is considered as one of the most sustainable and best water resource alternatives. Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging and promising technology for water desalination and purification. It presents many advantages over the common desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis. The two major factors hindering the application of MD are suitable membrane design and structure, and energy efficiency of the MD process. In recent years, membrane design has seen increasing research and interest. Advances in science and technology have led to new materials and techniques that could find potential application for membranes in MD. In the past few years, electrospinning of nanofibers has gained much interest and attention in their application for MD membrane, and so far has promising results. This review focuses on the recent progress in the application of nanofibrous membrane fabricated by electrospinning for MD application. [Display omitted] •Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging and promising technology for desalination.•The current MD membrane design still suffers from low permeate flux.•Emerging trend has been the exploration of nanofibers for MD membrane.•Nanofibrous MD membranes showed promising results for MD application.•This review focuses on the recent progress of nanofibrous membrane for MD.