Prediction of Membranes Distillation Performance for Desalination Process using MATLAB-Simulink Numerical Modelling

Abstract

While experimental studies indicate that concentration, temperature, and membrane properties have significant impact on membrane distillation (MD) performances, a systematic numerical modelling linking all variables with operation condition is lacking. With such model, we can quantitatively analyze, optimize, and predict how variations in membrane properties affect the process performance under varied operational conditions. In this study, a simulation model was created using MATLAB-Simulink to analyze the influence of membrane properties specifically membrane thickness, porosity, pore size, and contact angle on MD performance over a wide variety of operational settings. The simulation result showed a decrease in permeate flux from 66.79 to 24.61 kg/m².h as membrane thickness increased from 60 µm to 180 µm, while greater porosity from 0.5 to 0.9 led to around five times greater permeate flux. However, both properties had no effect on liquid entry pressure (LEP) value. Next, bigger pore size was found to enhance the permeate flux and mass transfer coefficient but lessened the LEP. Contact angle was discovered to be critical for LEP as it rose from zero to 529.8 kPa for contact angle 90 to 150°, but it had no effect on permeate flux and mass transfer coefficient. Overall, the study proves the suitability of using programmable MATLAB model in predicting MD performance.