الملخص
Although two-thirds of the world's surface comprises water, there is a need for efficiently desalinated water globally. More than 90% of the available water is seawater, hence making the desalination process is the only existing solution to this problem. Membrane distillation is the most attractive desalination process which can reach a commercial breakthrough if its two major barriers are eliminated. These barriers are namely energy consumption and cost which are interrelated. Usage of solar energy can improve the potential of membrane distillation. We present a photovoltaics vacuum membrane distillation process that can generate higher flux and a higher concentration than compared to existing vacuum membrane distillation with the same input parameters. This type of composite device can be scaled commercially by connecting a multi-stage electric power generator to make it operational for 24 hours. This type of experimental setup reduces the investment cost helps in providing potentially excess freshwater supply than the existing vacuum membrane distillation process. The device utilizes 2 solar panels which supply power of 0.185 kwh which is sufficient to generate freshwater of about 0.35 liter in 2 hours for a membrane area of 0.0225 m^2. Experiments were conducted on seawater having a salinity of about 85700 ppm, and brine water with 57000 ppm. The output flux for seawater was much higher when compared with the flux of brine water. Though the salinity of both outputs were nearly the same.
