Chel-Ken Chiam ¹, Rosalam Sarbatly ¹

Affiliations
1 Membrane Technology Research Group, Material and Mineral Research Unit, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS – 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, MY

Abstract

Objectives: This work presents a study of the effect of membrane surface with dimples on the heat transfer in vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Methods/Statistical Analysis: Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane and distilled water as feed solutions are tested in a laboratory-scale cross-flow flat-sheet membrane module with membrane area of 72.4 cm2. A perforated aluminum support embedded in the permeate compartment is used to support the membrane during the VMD process. Findings: The results show that the dimples stamped on the membrane surface by the perforated support having the diameter and depth approximately 5 and 1 mm, respectively. The permeability of the membrane with dimples increases by 3 - 20% at the corresponding feed temperature of 75 - 95°C. The deviations between the heat transfer coefficients predicted by a Nusselt correlation with dimpled effect and the experimental values are less than 10%. Application/Improvements: These findings are significant to reveal the influence of membrane deformation effect on the heat transfer correlation which is used to predict the VMD flux.

Keywords

Dimpled Surface, Heat Transfer, Perforated Permeate Support, Vacuum Membrane Distillation.

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