Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD): Experimental study on the commercial PTFE membrane and modeling

► 2D model with conduction and convection energy balance for DCMD processes. ► The obtained flux for co-current and counter current flow were equal. ► Module geometry was examined with wide and short modules vs long and narrow modules. Membrane distillation (MD) is an alternative technology for the separation of mixtures through porous hydrophobic membranes. A commercially available PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) membrane was used in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to investigate the effect of module dimensions on performance. Membrane properties, such as liquid entry pressure (LEP), contact angle (CA), pore diameter, effective porosity and pore size distribution, were characterized and used in analysis. A two dimensional (2D) model containing mass, energy, and momentum balance was developed for predicting permeate flux production. Different flow modes including co-current and counter-current flow mode were studied. The effect of linear velocity on permeation flux for both wide and short, and long and narrow module designs was investigated. The mass transfer coefficients for each condition were calculated for comparison of the module designs. The effects of operating parameters such as flow mode, temperature difference, and NaCl concentration were also considered. The simulated results were validated by comparing with experimental results. Good agreement was found between the numerical simulation and the experiments.