Retardation of wetting for membrane distillation by adjusting major components of seawater.

Wetting by fouling is phenomenon specific to membrane distillation (MD) and are regarded as challenges to the seawater membrane distillation (SWMD) process. To understand fouling and wetting, the influence of Mg and Sr crystals, which can potentially cause scaling, as well as Ca crystals deposited on the membrane surface were investigated. Mg(OH) and CaSO had significant impact on fouling and wetting.