In this work, laboratory experiments were carried out to verify direct contact membrane distillation system’s performance in highly saline water desalination. The study included the investigation of various operating conditions, like feed flow rate, temperature and concentration of NaCl solution and their impact on the permeation flux were discussed. 16 cm² of a flat sheet membrane module with commercial poly-tetra-fluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, which has 0.22 μm pore size, 96 µm thickness and 78% average porosity, was used. A high salt rejection factor was obtained greater than 99.9%, and the permeation flux up to 17.27 kg/m².h was achieved at 65°C for hot feed side and 20°C for cold side stream.

The deficiency of potable water resources and energy supply is emerging as a significant and concerning obstacle to sustainable development. Solar and waste heat-powered humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems become essential due to the severe impacts of global warming and water shortages. This problem highlights the need to apply boosted water desalination solutions. Desalination is a capital-intensive process that demands considerable energy, predominantly sourced from fossil fuels worldwide, posing a significant carbon footprint risk. HDH is a very efficient desalination method suitable for remote areas with moderate freshwater requirements for domestic and agricultural usage. Several operational and maintenance conce

There are still areas around the world suffer from severe shortage of freshwater supplies. Desalination technologies are not widely used due to their high energy usage, cost, and environmental damaging effects. In this study, a mathematical model of single-bed adsorption desalination system using silica gel-water as working pair is developed and validated via earlier experiments. A very good match between the model predictions and the experimental results is recorded. The objective is to reveal the factors affecting the productivity of fresh water and cooling effect in the solar adsorption system. The proposed model is setup for solving within the commercially-available software (Engineering Equation Solver). It is implemented to so

Membrane distillation (MD) is a hopeful desalination technique for brine (salty) water. In this research, Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) and  Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) will be used. The sample used is from Shat Al –Arab water (TDS=2430 mg/l). A polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) flat sheet membrane was used as a flat sheet form with a plate and frame cell. Several parameters were studied, such as; operation time, feed temperature, permeate temperature, feed flow rate. The results showed that with time, the flux decreases because of the accumulated fouling and scaling on the membrane surface. Feed temperature and feed flow rate had a positive effect on the permeate flux, while permeate temperatu

In this study, a novel application of lab-scale dual chambered air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been developed for simultaneous bio-treatment of real pharmaceutical wastewater and renewable electricity generation. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) was provided with zeolite-packed anodic compartment and a cation exchange membrane (CEM) to separate the anode and cathode. The performance of the proposed MFC was evaluated in terms of COD removal and power generation based on the activity of the bacterial consortium in the biofilm mobilized on zeolite bearer. The MFC was fueled with real pharmaceutical wastewater having an initial COD concentration equal to 800 mg/L and inoculated with anaerobic aged sludge. Results demo

In this study, a one-dimensional model represented by Butler-Volmer-Monod (BVM) model was proposed to compute the anode overpotential and current density in a mediator-less MFC system. The system was fueled with various organic loadings of real field petroleum refinery oily sludge to optimize the favorable organic loading for biomass to operate the suggested system. The increase in each organic loading showed higher resistance to electrons transport to the anode represented by ohmic loss. On the contrary, both activation and mass transfer losses exhibited a noticeable decrement upon the increased organic loadings. However, current density was improved throughout all increased loads achieving a maximum current density of 5.2 A/m³

The increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial

Water has been acknowledged as one of the key issues of humanity in modern society and worldwide economic advancements, especially with the continuing reductions in fresh-water supply. Solar energy, which is abundant as well as widely available in various fields, has the potential to solve the global challenges of long-term freshwater and energy reduction. Researchers are attempting to address the problem in a variety of methods. Due to the fact that solar energy is the foundation for freshwater, several researches have applied it for improving the effectiveness of solar desalination, evaporation, and wastewater treatment. One of the novel methods used for achieving this is known as “hydrogel,” which comes in a variety of forms. As a un