Investigation of Membrane Fouling in Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) Using Blocking Filtration Laws

VMD is one of the desalination technologies used for drinking water purification because of it higher permeate flux and lower energy consumption, and it uses low grade energy for operation. However, there are some critical problems related to VMD, one of which is membrane fouling. In the present study, the fouling phenomenon in VMD is investigated using constant pressure-blocking filtration laws. The results of constant pressure-blocking filtration law indicated that the permeate flux was initially unaffected by the cake layer, but with the passage of time as the pores began to constrict, a formation of a relatively thick cake layer was observed, which resulted in the decrease of permeate flux.