Design and Experimental Study of the Stacked Components of Solar-Powered Membrane Distillation

A new type of stacked air gap membrane distillation components for solar-powered membrane distillation technology was designed in this paper. It is compact and can operate in n-layer chambers paralleled by cold, heat and cold etc. The hot solution inflows to the membrane surface rotationally and tangentially by the watershed plate, destroying the temperature and concentration polarization, increasing the membrane flux. Using tap-water as testing solution and the solar energy as heat source, the effects of the temperature of collector and thermal storage tank and solar radiation on the flux of MD processes was analyzed in the natural cycle state of the 3 m² collector system, laying the foundation for Engineering application that produce potable water by integrating membrane distillation system with solar energy in the western region.