ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces theoretical backgrounds of membranes, operation configurations and mathematical modeling of membrane distillation (MD). Fundamental knowledge of membrane material selection, membrane fabrication technologies, and configurations of membranes and modules is introduced first. Different operation configurations of MD including direct contact membrane distillation, vacuum membrane distillation, air-gap membrane distillation, sweeping gap membrane distillation and their variations are described and compared. In addition, mathematical modelings of heat and mass transfer in different MD configurations are also presented in details.