Supplementary Information: Energy efficiency of membrane distillation up

to high salinity: evaluating critical system size and optimal membrane

thickness

Jaichander Swaminathan, Hyung Won Chung, David M. Warsinger, John H. Lienhard V*

Rohsenow Kendall Heat Transfer Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge MA 02139-4307 USA

1. Equations for generalized HX model of MD

Effects of high salinity

Feed inlet salinity in g/kg-solution or ppt

sin = 60 [g/kg] (1)

This is the average salinity at which BPE is evaluated. The average salinity is taken to be 4% higher than
the inlet salinity to account for concentration along the system length and concentration polarization

savg = 1.04 · sin (2)

molality corresponding to avg. salinity

savg
molalityavg = 1000 · (3)
(1000 · MWsolute − savg · MWsolute )

NaCl is the solute assumed

MWsolute = 58.44 [g/mol] (4)

The temperature at which BPE is evaluated - average of top and bottom temperatures

Ttop + Tbottom
Tavg = (5)
2

This BPE (boiling point elevation) is determined for NaCl solution at the average salinity and tempera-
ture. This function can be replaced by a fit for ∆TVPD (T, s).


∆TVPD = BPE molalityavg , Tavg (6)

A fit for the specific heat of NaCl solution as a function of solution salinity at 60 ◦ C

cp,NaCl = 15.566 · molality2avg − 241.78 · molalityavg + 4161.9 (7)

∗ Corresponding author: lienhard@mit.edu

Preprint submitted to Applied Energy October 4, 2017

Other system inputs Heat transfer coefficients in the feed channel. Can be determined using a correlation
as a function of system properties (such as channel depth and flow velocity) for more general applicability

ht,f = 2522 W/m2 ·K

 
(8)

Cold channel geometry and flow are assumed to tbe the same as feed channel

ht,c = ht,f (9)

Temperature at the heater outlet or feed channel inlet is fixed

Ttop = 85 [ ◦ C] (10)

Tbottom corresponds to the incoming cold water temperature. If recirculation is used, the brine is assumed
to be cooled to ambient. The simplified model is validated against the more detailed model only for Tbottom
= 25 C. For other Tbottom , Tp,avg below would vary.

Tbottom = 25 [ ◦ C] (11)

∆T total = Ttop − Tbottom (12)

Geometry Flow channel length (dimension along flow direction) - larger length leads to higher GOR, but
lower flux
L = 4 [m] (13)

Flow channel width - can be scaled along with ṁf,in Overall results only depend on ṁf,in /w - not on
either of them independently
w = 12 [m] (14)

Membrane total area

A=w·L (15)

Membrane Characteristics
B0 is the membrane vapor permeability coefficient

B0 = 1.5 × 10−10 [s] (16)

δm is membrane thickness in microns. For AGMD, δm can be set to include the air-gap’s effective thickness

δm = 200 [µm] (17)

Membrane material thermal conductivity - PVDF

kmemb,mat = 0.2 [W/m ·K] (18)

kvapor = 0.02 [W/m ·K] (19)

2
 Porosity of the membrane
φ = 0.8 (20)

Overall thermal conductivity of the membrane (for AGMD, this should also be decreased to account for
the effective membrane):
keff = φ · kvapor + (1 − φ) · kmemb,mat (21)

Vapor permeability [kg/m2 ·s·Pa]

B0
B= (22)
(δm · 10−6 )
Thermal conductance of the membrane [W/m2 ·K]
keff
Kcond = (23)
(δm · 10−6 )
Flow rates Feed inlet mass flow rate
ṁf,in = 1 [kg/s] (24)

Specific heat capacity of the feed solution

cp,f = cp,NaCl (25)

For the MD-heat-exchanger, the two heat capacity rates are modeled as equal since the pure water is
considered one stream and the feed + pure water is considered the other stream

Ċ1 = ṁf,in · cp,f (26)

Ċ2 = Ċ1 (27)

Gap For CGMD kgap =10 W/m·K. For PGMD, kgap would be 0.6 W/m·K. For DCMD, kgap can be set
= UHX AHX dgap /A. For AGMD air gap, the major resistance will be in the thick effective membrane as
defined in the δm variable above. Hence a high kgap = 10 W/m·K can be used.

kgap = 10 [W/m ·K] (28)

The gap effective thickness.

dgap = 0.001 [m] (29)

Averaging length-wise variations This is a fit obtained for Tp,avg as a function of system top temperature.
Bottom temperature was kept constant at 25 ◦ C, but is likely to have a smaller overall effect.

Tp,avg = (0.3731 · Ttop + 21.834) (30)

Membrane Transfer Coefficient: Writing the mass transfer across the membrane in terms of the ∆Tm
rather than as a function of the vapor pressure difference, using the exponential approximation of pvap (T ) =
1054.8 exp 0.0479 ∗ T , where T is in ◦ C:
 
∆TVPD
MTcoeff = 0.0479 · 1054.8 · exp (0.0479 · Tp,avg ) · 1 − (31)
∆T m,resistance

3
 The membrane resistance to heat and mass transfer are considered to be in parallel

heff,m = MTcoeff · B · hfg + Kcond (32)

Overall Transfer Coefficient

1
U= (33)
1/ht,f + 1/heff,m + 1/ht,c + dgap /kgap

∆T m as a function of overall (terminal temperature difference) TTD - as a function of the relative

resistances in various parts of the module

TTD ∆T m,resistance
= (34)
1/U 1/heff,m

hfg (T = 25 ◦ C) is used. GOR reported is for

hfg = 2.442 × 106 [J/kg] (35)

Using heat exchanger NTU (number of transfer units) -  (exchanger effectiveness) theory

NTU = U · A/Ċ1 (36)

 
 = HX ‘counterflow0 , NTU, Ċ1 , Ċ2 , ‘epsilon0 (37)

Final Results
Overall terminal temperature difference

TTD = (1 − ) · ∆T total (38)

Thermal efficiency - fraction of energy transfer across the membrane through mass transfer, rather than
as heat conduction loss
1
η=h    i (39)
1+ K cond
B·hfg · 1
MTcoeff


GOR = η · (40)
(1 − )

Heat input rate - [W]

Qin = Ċ1 · TTD (41)

Rate of pure water production - [kg/s]

ṁp = GOR · Qin /hfg (42)

Water flux - [L/m2 ·hr] or [LMH]

J = ṁp · 3600/A (43)

Equations to evaluate the critical system size beyond which both GOR and flux start declining

4
 Non-dimensional parameter Y3 compares membrane mass transfer resistance to resistance in other parts
of the system

Y3 = B · hfg · 0.0479 · 1054.8 · exp (0.0479 · Tp,avg ) · (1/ht,f + 1/ht,c + dgap /kgap ) (44)

Y1 compares membrane conduction resistance to resistance elsewhere in the module - Low value is better.
It is called φch:m in the manuscript.

Y1 = Kcond · (1/ht,f + 1/ht,c + dgap /kgap ) (45)

Y2 compares membrane vapor conductance to heat conductance - A high value is better. It is called φc:v
in the manuscript.
exp (0.0479 · Tp,avg )
Y2 = B · hfg · 0.0479 · 1054.8 · (46)
Kcond
Equations for various parameters at the critical system size - They are indicated by the subscript ‘crit’
 q 
total +Y2 (∆T total −∆TVPD ))
∆T total + Y2 (∆T total + Y1 · ∆TVPD ) + ∆T total (1+Y1 )(∆T
1+Y1 (1+Y2 )
∆T m,crit = ∆TVPD · Y1  
(∆T total + Y1 · ∆TVPD ) (1 + Y1 (1 + Y2 )) − ∆T total
(47)

1
ηcrit = ! (48)
∆T m,crit −∆TVPD
1+ Y2−1 · 0.0479 · 
∆TVPD

1− ∆T ·(exp (0.0479·(∆T m,crit −∆TVPD ))−1)
m,crit

∆T total
NTUcrit =      − 1 (49)
∆TVPD exp (0.0479·(∆T m,crit −∆TVPD ))−1
∆T m,crit · 1 + Y1 + Y3 · 1 − ∆T m,crit · 0.0479·(∆T m,crit −∆TVPD )

 
∆TVPD
M T coeff,crit = 0.0479 · 1054.8 · exp (0.0479 · Tp,avg ) · 1 − (50)
∆T m,crit

heff,m,crit = MTcoeff,crit · B · hfg + Kcond (51)

1
Ucrit = (52)
1/ht,f + 1/heff,m,crit + 1/ht,c + dgap /kgap

Acrit = NTUcrit · Ċ1 /Ucrit (53)

Lcrit = Acrit /w (54)

GORcrit = ηcrit · NTUcrit (55)