Exploitation of solar energy collected by solar stills for desalination bymembrane distillation

The aim of this work was to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing potable water from simulated seawater by integrating a membrane distillati on module with a solar still. The relatively hot brine in the solar still w as used as a feed to the membrane module. The synergistic action of the sol ar still and the membrane module in the production of potable water was qua ntified. For this purpose, two types of experiment were conducted, indoor e xperiments and outdoor experiments. The sensitivity of the permeate flux to the brine temperature, flow rate, salt concentration and solar irradiation were all investigated. Overall, the flux of water from the solar still was no more than 20% of the total flux. The brine temperature significantly af fected the flux of both the solar still and the membrane module, while the effect of salt concentration was marginal. The effect of these process para meters was more noticeable in the membrane module than in the solar still. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.