Experiments and modeling of a vacuum membrane distillation for high saline water

A modified design vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system with high saline water was evaluated using different operating conditions (sustainable low feed temperature and flow velocity). At high salinity, a permeate flux of 13.9 to 15.8 L m−2 h−1 was achieved. Increasing the salinity from 1 to 3 M NaCl reduced the permeate flux by 18–20%. An increase in bulk feed temperature (310.2–319.2 K) significantly increased the permeate flux by 64%. The increase in flow velocity (1.1 to 2.2 m s−1) in turn increased the permeate flux by 14–20%. Model fluxes predicted was a good fit to experimental fluxes (R2 ≥ 0.94).