A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation

This paper describes a new method to reverse wetting of the hydrophobic membrane in membrane distillation. Pressurized air is pushed through the wetted membrane from the distillate side, thus forcing out wetted feed water, instead of merely allowing it to evaporate. To test its effectiveness, the li...

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Main Author: Arafat, Hassan A.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Published: American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112181
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3446-1473
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author Arafat, Hassan A.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Arafat, Hassan A.
author_sort Arafat, Hassan A.
collection MIT
description This paper describes a new method to reverse wetting of the hydrophobic membrane in membrane distillation. Pressurized air is pushed through the wetted membrane from the distillate side, thus forcing out wetted feed water, instead of merely allowing it to evaporate. To test its effectiveness, the liquid entry pressure (LEP) of the membranes was tested before and after the pressurized-air process. The results reveal that the air backwashing method was very effective, restoring LEP to nearly 85% of the original value, without requiring the long delay times associated with dryout.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1121812022-09-27T22:13:07Z A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation Arafat, Hassan A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Warsinger, David Elan Martin Servi, Amelia Connors, Grace Gonzalez, Jocelyn Lienhard, John H. This paper describes a new method to reverse wetting of the hydrophobic membrane in membrane distillation. Pressurized air is pushed through the wetted membrane from the distillate side, thus forcing out wetted feed water, instead of merely allowing it to evaporate. To test its effectiveness, the liquid entry pressure (LEP) of the membranes was tested before and after the pressurized-air process. The results reveal that the air backwashing method was very effective, restoring LEP to nearly 85% of the original value, without requiring the long delay times associated with dryout. 2017-11-14T16:57:24Z 2017-11-14T16:57:24Z 2016-02 2017-11-09T19:47:43Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 9675-DP1787 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112181 Warsinger, David M. et al. "A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation." AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference, February 13-17, 2017, Long Beach, California, USA, American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA), February 2016 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3446-1473 https://www.amtaorg.com/a-novel-air-backwashing-method-for-reversing-wetting-in-membrane-distillation AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) Prof. Lienhard
spellingShingle Arafat, Hassan A.
A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title_full A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title_fullStr A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title_full_unstemmed A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title_short A novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
title_sort novel air backwashing method for reversing wetting in membrane distillation
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112181
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3446-1473
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