<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>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/13100255 |
| Date | 16 December 2020 |
| Creators | Yashwant S Yogi (9525965) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/ENERGY_EFFICIENCY_AND_FLUX_ENHANCEMENT_IN_MEMBRANE_DISTILLATION_SYSTEM_USING_NOVEL_CONDENSING_SURFACES/13100255 |
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