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Novel Sandwich-Structured Hollow Fiber Membrane for High-Efficiency Membrane Distillation and Scale-Up for Pilot Validation

Authors :
Marn Soon Qua
Yan Zhao
Junyou Zhang
Sebastian Hernandez
Aung Thet Paing
Karikalan Mottaiyan
Jian Zuo
Adil Dhalla
Tai-Shung Chung
Chakravarthy Gudipati
Nanyang Technological University–NTUitive Pte Ltd
Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute
Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation Centre
Source :
Membranes; Volume 12; Issue 4; Pages: 423
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Hollow fiber membranes were produced from a commercial polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer, Kynar HSV 900, with a unique sandwich structure consisting of two sponge-like layers connected to the outer and inner skin layers while the middle layer comprises macrovoids. The sponge-like layer allows the membrane to have good mechanical strength even at low skin thickness and favors water vapor transportation during vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). The middle layer with macrovoids helps to significantly reduce the trans-membrane resistance during water vapor transportation from the feed side to the permeate side. Together, these novel structural characteristics are expected to render the PVDF hollow fiber membranes more efficient in terms of vapor flux as well as mechanical integrity. Using the chemistry and process conditions adopted from previous work, we were able to scale up the membrane fabrication from a laboratory scale of 1.5 kg to a manufacturing scale of 50 kg with consistent membrane performance. The produced PVDF membrane, with a liquid entry pressure (LEPw) of >3 bar and a pure water flux of >30 L/m2·hr (LMH) under VMD conditions at 70-80 °C, is perfectly suitable for next-generation high-efficiency membranes for desalination and industrial wastewater applications. The technology translation efforts, including membrane and module scale-up as well as the preliminary pilot-scale validation study, are discussed in detail in this paper. Economic Development Board (EDB) Published version This research was funded by the Economic Development Board (Singapore) through grant number S15-1068-NRF EWI-RCFS.

Details

ISSN :
20770375
Volume :
12
Issue :
4
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Membranes
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....638c88735d6424ce1dbd3a922863d092