Abstract
Economic evaluation was carried out to understand the main contributors to water production cost in solar-powered membrane distillation (SP-MD) systems. Three SP-MD systems (Direct Contact (DCMD), Air Gap (AGMD), and Vacuum (VMD)) were modeled and economically analyzed. A parametric study was conducted on the AGMD, the most frequently used SP-MD configuration, to understand the relationships between various design and operation parameters and water production cost. The parametric study results show that, in the AGMD system, increasing the feed inlet temperature had a significant effect in lowering the cost while higher feed flow rate resulted in increased water production cost. This study also shows that higher effective membrane length and lower air gap width and feed channel depth reduce the cost of water. Finally, the choice of MD configuration (AGMD, VMD, DCMD) in SP-MD systems will impact the final water cost.
| Original language | British English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 55-62 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Desalination |
| Volume | 299 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Aug 2012 |
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation -
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
Keywords
- Air gap membrane distillation
- Economic evaluation
- Membrane distillation
- Solar desalination
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