Air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) was investigated as a promising technology for water purification in the semiconductor industry. The AGMD facility considered includes one membrane module, consisting of 10 plastic cassettes stacked together, resulting in 9 feed channels and 9 permeate channels. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes were employed with a porosity of 80% and a thickness of 0.2 micron (μm). The width of air gap of AGMD is 2 mm. During the experimental period, the pilot plant was operated in three kinds of flow conditions (e.g., 1.36 cubic meters per hour [m/h], 3.04 m3/h, and 2.72 m/h). For simplicity, identical flowrates were maintained for both hot and cold streams. When conducting the experiments, run-time data included pure water production rate, cold- and hot-side temperatures, conductivity of pure water, total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH. Results from laboratory trials were scaled up for use in system simulations featuring MD integrated with distributed heat and power generation from natural gas-fired engines.
QC 20141127