Desalination is imperative to mitigate the global water scarcity as it produces drinking water from unpotable water. Currently, reverse osmosis membrane processes are widely used and account for 60% of desalination plants globally as they have lower energy requirements than other techniques, such as thermal desalination. Another promising alternative to desalination is membrane distillation (MD), which has been highlighted as one of the most promising and cost-effective desalination technologies over the last five decades. MD is a thermally driven desalination process that uses microporous and hydrophobic membranes through which only vapor can pass. Because non-volatile ions cannot pass through the membrane, MD theoretically achieves 100% salt rejection. In addition, MD is superior to other techniques as it is conducted at relatively low temperature and pressure, and is less sensitive to the feed concentration. MD is a desalination process that uses the vapor pressure difference between the feed and permeate as the driving force through the membranes. Over 2,800 scientific publications appeared in Web of Science as of September 2019 (over 400 just in 2019) describing the current state of development and potential future applications of MD. Although these publications provide excellent knowledge regarding MD, they are rather fragmented, and it is difficult to gain a complete overview of the basic principles and functions of membranes for MD configurations and their application to real plants. In this book, we introduce MD from the invention of this technique to the recent developments in membranes and processes. The membrane materials and configurations of MD processes are systematically discussed, along with an introduction to real pilot plants that have been installed and tested in the field, and an economic analysis of MD. The objective of this book is to provide a short, but reasonably comprehensive, introduction to MD to graduate students and persons with an engineering or natural science background, to gain a basic understanding of MD, and the associated materials, configurations, and applications, without studying a large number of different reference books.

The book deals with the latest research on membrane distillation. New membrane and module designs, low-temperature applications, integration with other membrane units and pilot scale investigations are presented and discussed.

Modern membrane engineering is critical to the development of process-intensification strategies and to the stimulation of industrial growth. Membrane Distillation (MD) is a broad reference that covers specific information on membranes available and methods for MD membrane preparation and characterization. The book offers an introduction to the terminology and fundamental concepts as well as a historical review of MD development. Commercial membranes used in MD as well as laboratory-made membranes, including emerging membranes, are described in detail and illustrated by a number of clear and instructive schematic drawings and images. - A comprehensive review on the development of MD membranes, MD modules, MD membrane characterization, MD configurations, applications in different areas and theoretical models - Introduction to the terminology and fundamental concepts associated with MD as well as an historical review of MD development - Description of commercial membranes used in MD as well as laboratory-made membranes, including emerging membranes

This book aims to elaborate the basics and recent advances of membrane distillation (MD) as the same shows promise for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Starting with fundamentals of MD processes, including the heat and mass transfer analysis, energy evaluation and mathematical modelling, text includes engineering and molecular design of MD membranes. Various types of hybrid systems, including freeze desalination (FD)-MD, MD-crystallization (MDC), pressure retarded osmosis (PRO)-MD and forward osmosis (FO)-MD, will be discussed in this book. Further, it summarizes the future of MD from both industrial and academic perspectives along with energy sources and economic analysis.

Membrane technologies are currently the most effective and sustainable methods utilized in diversified water filtration, wastewater treatment, as well as industrial and sustainable energy applications. This book covers essential subsections of membrane separation and bioseparation processes from the perspectives of technical innovation, novelty, and sustainability. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the latest improvements and concerns with respect to membrane fouling remediation techniques, issues of bioincompatibility for biomedical applications, and various subareas of membrane separation processes, which will be an efficient resource for engineers.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Membrane Distillation" that was published in Applied Sciences

This concise and systematically organized text, now in its second edition, gives a clear insight into various membrane separation processes. It covers the fundamentals as well as the recent developments of different processes along with their industrial applications and the products. It includes the basic principles, operating parameters, membrane hardware, flux equation, transport mechanism, and applications of membrane-based technologies. Membrane separation processes are largely rate-controlled separations which require rate analysis for complete understanding. Moreover, a higher level of mathematical analysis, along with the understanding of mass transfer, is also required. These are amply treated in different chapters of the book to make the students comprehend the membrane separation principles with ease. This textbook is primarily designed for undergraduate students of chemical engineering, biochemical engineering and biotechnology for the course in membrane separation processes. Besides, the book will also be useful to process engineers and researchers. KEY FEATURES • Provides sufficient number of examples of industrial applications related to chemical, metallurgical, biochemical and food processing industries. • Focuses on important biomedical applications of membrane-based technologies such as blood oxygenator, controlled drug delivery, plasmapheresis, and bioartificial organs. • Includes chapter-end short questions and problems to test students’ comprehension of the subject. NEW TO THIS EDITION • A new section on membrane cleaning is included. Membrane fabrication methods are supplemented with additional information (Chapter 2). • Additional information on silt density index, forward osmosis and sea water desalination (Chapter 3). • Physicochemical parameters affecting nanofiltration, determination of various resistances using resistance in series model and few more industrial applications with additional short questions (Chapter 4). • Membrane cross-linking methods used in pervaporation, factors affecting pervaporation and few more applications (Chapter 9). • Membrane distillation, membrane reactor with different modules, types of membranes and reactions for membrane reactor (Chapter 13).