A review on membrane applications and transport mechanisms in vacuum membrane distillation

Abstract

Abstract The main aim of this article is to provide a state-of-the-art review of the experimental studies on vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process. An introduction to the history of VMD is carried out along with the other membrane distillation configurations. Recent developments in process, characterization of membrane, module design, transport phenomena, and effect of operating parameters on permeate flux are discussed for VMD in detail. Several heat and mass transfer correlations obtained by various researchers for different VMD modules have been discussed. The impact of membrane fouling with its control in VMD is discussed in detail. In this paper, temperature polarization coefficient and concentration polarization coefficient are elaborated in detail. Integration of VMD with other membrane separation processes/industrial processes have been explained to improve the performance of the system and make it more energy efficient. A critical evaluation of the VMD literature is incorporated throughout this review.