Performance Study of Membrane Distillation Membrane for Salt Removal
摘要
The heavy population density and massive mechanization lead to a threatening generation of different toxic pollutants in wastewater, and there is a requirement for potential water treatment techniques. Membrane distillation has been a widely used thermally driven technique for desalination. The main aim of this work is to determine the effectiveness of the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process for the separation of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) salt from the water. The membrane used in the study was synthesized by the phase inversion method and using the optimum value of all the components decided the Taguchi method of the design of the experiment. The membrane made up of PVDF, sodium alginate (SA), carboxylated multiwall coated carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-COOH), and solvent N,N-dimethyl formaldehyde (DMF). It was observed that after an 80 h run, the flux was highest at the beginning with the fresh membrane, and it slightly decreased after that, which may be due to the modest scaling on the membrane surface. The membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).