Advanced Application and Fouling Control in Hollow Fibre Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (HF-DCMD)

In this article, the most advanced applications and the major operating problems of hollow fibre direct contact membrane distillation (HF-DCMD) are discussed. Over the past few years, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) became one of the most preferred technology not only for high-saline desalination process, but also for the water treatment process. The fundamentals of the DCMD and governing equations (from heat and mass transfer principles) that describe performance parameters are first explained. To increase the desalination performance of DCMD technology, some of the DCMD models were upgraded with the hollow fibre module. The efficiency of the HF-DCMD is explained further in this review. Major problems in the HF-DCMD technologies especially on membrane fouling and operating conditions are also discussed in this article. However, it is expected that HF-DCMD offers promising prospects in the future and potential outlook for better performance.