ABSTRACT
Due to the alarming effects of global warming and a growing world population, there is an ever-increasing demand on water resources almost everywhere on earth. Consequently, considerable research effort has been devoted to the development of an efficient and sustainable desalination technology in recent years. Among all viable alternatives, the air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) is widely considered a promising candidate because the energy consumed per unit of water generated is the lowest. This chapter presents case studies that are used mainly to show the usefulness of flexibility indices in solar-driven membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) design. Given a fixed SMDDS design, additional enhancement measures can be identified according to the active constraints embedded in the optimum solution of the flexibility index model. These measures for further refinements include modifications in unit sizes and/or system structure.
