Hydrophobic ceramic membranes in MD processes - Impact of material selection and layer characteristics

Robust ceramic membranes could enable membrane distillation processes for the treatment of aggressive solutions and help to facilitate ZLD. In order to adapt ceramic membranes for MD processes insights into the impact of membrane properties (such as thermal conductivity and layer design) on process performance have to be gained. Therefore, conventional and unconventional asymmetrically structured ceramic membranes with different properties were manufactures, modified, characterized and tested in DCMD and VMD. For instance, a maximum permeate flux of 25 kg/(m2 h) at excellent rejections (>99.9%) was determined. In VMD, it was found that the mass transfer depends almost entirely on the support properties such as thickness and pore size whereas in DCMD the membrane layer properties significantly affect the performance.