Application of Machine Learning to Characterize the Permeate Quality in Pilot-Scale Vacuum-Assisted Air Gap Membrane Distillation Operation.

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermal desalination technique proposed for the valorization of residual brines that other operations such as reverse osmosis cannot treat. Previous studies have shown that vacuum-assisted air gap (V-AGMD) operation in commercial multi-envelope modules improves the performance of MD noticeably. However, the permeate quality at pilot scale has not been thoroughly characterized so far.

Evaluation of Permeate Quality in Pilot Scale Membrane Distillation Systems.

In this work, the salinity of permeate obtained with membrane distillation (MD) in pilot scale systems was analyzed. Experiments were performed with three different spiral-wound commercial modules, one from Solar Spring with 10 m surface membrane area and two from Aquastill with 7.2 and 24 m.