Water is undoubtedly a key life element. Its importance is very clear from a religious perspective: “We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?” Surah Al-Anbiya verse 30 Also as highlighted in the United Nations resolution 64/292 which recognizes water as a basic necessity for human survival. As the world water demand grows, so does the need to use renewable water sources most available in the form of saline ocean water. Desalination of this water for potable use relies mainly on thermal and membrane-based technologies, mainly multi-stage flash (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), and seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). However, these mature technologies are recognized for their high energy and chemicals use. To cope with these challenges, development of novel desalination processes is required to assure more sustainable water supply for the future. Membrane distillation (MD) has emerged as a process which combines advantages of both membrane and thermal technologies. It has a potential of being cost effective by utilizing renewable or waste heat energies as a driving force. Air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) is one of the four main MD configurations. AGMD’s main feature is the presence of an air gap which is enclosed between the membrane behind which flows the hot feed and condensation surface behind which flows a coolant. While improving the heat transfer across the membrane, the air gap negatively affects mass transfer resistance thereby reducing vapor flux and increasing process footprint. This dissertation investigates the effect of condensation plate surface modifications on AGMD process efficiency. The modifications are made by utilizing three different approaches including alterations of the surface shape and surface coating (to modify its contact angle) and by varying module inclination angle. A numerical simulation is carried out to determine the key factors which facilitate AGMD vapor flux increase. The second part of this thesis focuses on developing a promising novel approach utilizing Peltier’s process as a heat source to operate the MD process with less energy requirement. The morphological modifications of a plate surface positively affected vapor flux because of the air gap reduction. The highest vapor fluxes were observed when condensation plate had hydrophilic coatings. Based on the observed results, a thin film-wise condensation was suggested as a primary condensation mechanism. The formed film reduced the air gap thickness and this effect was more prominent at 45° when condensation plate was positioned over the membrane surface. A 2-dimensional mathematical model was developed and the model results agreed with the experimental data. Finally, the thermocouple-based MD concept was introduced and experimentally validated.

India is experiencing a bitter challenge in terms of water resources, with the lack of access to safe drinking water being attributed to nearly 200 000 deaths per year. The rural population is especially exposed as groundwater make up 85 % of their drinking water, with widespread contamination being reported. One source of contamination is fluoride, which has been identified in concentrations far beyond the recommended limit from the World Health Organization (WHO), causing severe health problems such as skeletal fluorosis. While India has made significant progress in providing households connections to the grid, electricity access remains unreliable, particularly in rural areas. Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven water purification technology which achieves excellent fluoride reduction rates. Several systems with various combinations of technologies integrated with MD has been researched, where the use of photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collectors (PVT) and heat pumps (HP) has been receiving increased attention as of late. These two technologies have, to the Author’s best knowledge, never been integrated together for MD, which is the basis of this thesis. With the goal of providing an average of 1000 L of potable water a day, three novel off-grid systems are created using the energy modeling software Polysun with weather data from Balasore, India. Two PVT models and three different HPs identified on the market are considered for the systems. The PVTs differ in terms of glazing, and the HPs have various heating capacities and max water supply temperatures, with one being an air source heat pump (ASHP) and two water source heat pumps (WSHP). One configuration of each combination of PVT and HP is created and optimized in terms of MD modules, battery storage capacity, and feed flowrate, evaluated based on the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) production cost, PVT area, and average daily yield. Furthermore, two different controller strategies are evaluated based on their average daily yield, where one prioritize a high coefficient of performance (COP) for the HP, and the other energy recovery from the MD. The final configurations are thereafter compared based on their production cost. Nine out of the ten final configurations achieve a production cost between 60 - 72 $/m3 after being optimized, which is within the reported range for MD but at the higher end. The larger WSHP achieves the lowest production cost at 60.1 $/m3 paired with the glazed PVT, having a gross area of 323 m2. The glazed PVT performs better than the unglazed for all configurations in terms of both production cost and PVT area. However, the cost of the larger WSHP is based on the $/kW of the smaller WSHP while the two PVTs are assigned an identical $/m2, resulting in the price difference between the products being the determining factor for the actual configuration with the lowest production cost. The lowest PVT area for the final configurations is 294 m2. The required PVT area to reach the production goal is heavily dependent on the amount of MD modules, HP heating capacity and max water supply temperature, and battery storage capacity. Only one configuration achieved a higher yield when energy recovery was prioritized, which supplied 20 % of that system’s thermal energy while not utilizing 61 % of the energy recovery potential. / Indien upplever en bitter utmaning med vattenresurser, där bristande tillgänglighet till säkert dricksvatten är attribuerat nära 200 000 dödsfall per år. Befolkningen på landsbygden är särskilt utsatt då grundvattnet representerar 85 % av deras dricksvatten, som till stor del rapporterats som förorenat. En föroreningskälla är fluorid, vilket har identifierats i koncentrationer långt över den rekommenderade gränsen av World Health Organization (WHO), som leder till allvarliga hälsoeffekter som skelettfluoros. Även fast Indien har gjort stora framsteg inom elnätsanslutningar för hushåll, är elektricitetstillgången opålitligt, speciellt på landsbygden. Membrandestillation (MD) är en värmedriven vattenreningsteknik som uppnår utmärkta reduktionsnivåer av fluorid. Det har forskats om flera system med olika kombinationer av tekniker integrerade med MD, där användningen av hybridsolpaneler (PVT) och värmepumpar (HP) har fått ett ökande intresse på sistone. Dessa två tekniker har, till författarens bästa kännedom, aldrig blivit integrerade tillsammans för MD, vilket är grunden för denna uppsats. Med målet att uppnå en genomsnittlig dricksvattenproduktion på 1000 L per dag, har tre egenartade system skapats i energimodelleringsprogrammet Polysun med väderdata baserad på Balasore, Indien. Två PVT modeller samt tre olika värmepumpar är identifierade på marknaden och implementerade i systemen. PVT modellerna skiljer sig i främst i relation till glasering. Värmepumparna har olika värmekapaciteter samt övre gräns på levererad vattentemperatur, varav en är en luftvärmepump (ASHP) och de två resterande vattenvärmepumpar (WSHP). En konfiguration av varje kombination av PVT och HP skapas och optimeras i relation till MD moduler, batterilagring, och flödeshastighet, som utvärderas med prestandaindikatorerna (KPI) produktionskostnad, PVT yta, samt genomsnittlig dricksvattenproduktion. Två olika kontrollstrategier undersöks även baserat på dricksvattenproduktionen, där en strategi prioriterar en hög prestationskoefficient för HP, och den andra energiåtervinning från MD. De slutliga konfigurationerna jämförs sedan baserat på deras produktionskostnader. Nio av de tio slutliga konfigurationerna uppnår en produktionskostnad mellan 60 - 72 $/m3 efter optimeringen, vilket ligger inom det rapporterade intervallet men på den dyrare sidan. Den större WSHP uppnår den lägsta produktionskostnaden på 60.1 $/m3 i kombination med den glaserade PVT, som omfattar en bruttoarea på 323 m2. Den glaserade PVT presterar bättre än den oglaserad för alla konfiguration sett till produktionskostnad samt PVT area. Dock så är kostnad på den större WSHP baserad på $/kW kostnaden för den mindre WSHP, samt att båda PVT är tilldelade en identisk $/m2 kostnad. Detta leder till att den avgörande faktorn för den faktiska konfigurationen med lägst produktionskostnad är prisskillnaden mellan produkterna. Den lägsta PVT arean för de slutgiltiga konfigurationerna är 294 m2. Den nödvändiga PVT arean för att uppnå produktionsmålet är starkt beroende av mängden MD moduler, batterilagringskapacitet, samt värmekapacitet och övre gräns på levererad vattentemperatur för HP. Endast en konfiguration uppnår en större vattenproduktion när energiåtervinningprioriteras, där 20 % av systemets totala värmeenergi kom från energiåtervinning samtidigt som 61 % av den potentiella energiåtervinningen ej utnyttjas.

<p>The water crisis is increasing with every passing day due to climate change and increase in demand. Different desalination methods have been developed over the years to overcome this shortage of water. Reverse Osmosis is the most widely used desalination technology, but cannot treat many fouling-prone and high salinity water sources. A new desalination technology, Membrane distillation (MD), has the potential to purify wastewater as well as highly saline water up to a very high purity. It is a thermal energy-driven desalination method, which can operate on low temperature waste heat sources from industries, powerplants and renewable sources like solar power. Among the different configurations of MD, Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) is the most versatile and flexible. However, the issue that all MD technology, including AGMD face, is the low energy efficiency. Different sections of AGMD system have been modified and improved over the years through consistent research to improve its energy efficiency, but one section that is still new and unexplored, and has a very high potential to improve the energy efficiency of AGMD, is the ‘air gap’.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The aim of this research is to tap into the potential of the air gap and increase the energy efficiency of the AGMD system. It is known that decreasing the air gap thickness improves the energy efficiency parameter called Gained output ratio (GOR) to a great extent, especially at very small air gap thickness. The minimum gap thickness that maximizes the performance is smaller than the current gap thicknesses used. But it is difficult to attain such smaller air gap thickness (< 2mm) without the constant risk of flooding. Flooding can be prevented, and smaller air gap thickness can be achieved if instead of film wise condensation on the condensing surface, a different condensation flow regime is formed. This study tests different novel condensing surfaces like Slippery liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) and Superhydrophobic surfaces (fabricated with different methods) inside the AGMD system with a goal of attaining smaller air gap thickness and improve the performance of AGMD system for the first time. The performance of these surfaces is compared with plain copper surface as well as with each other. Finally, numerical models are developed using the experimental data for these surfaces.</p><div><div><div> </div> </div> </div>