Assessing thermoelectric membrane distillation performance: An experimental design approach

Olawale Makanjuola, Raed Hashaikeh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Thermoelectric membrane distillation has shown promise as a new membrane distillation technique capable of improving energy consumption metrics. This study features an experimental design approach to investigating the performance of a thermoelectric membrane distillation system. Screening and full factorial designs were implemented in Minitab 16 to determine the optimal process conditions for minimizing the specific energy consumption of the system. The process parameter with the most significant impact on the specific energy consumption of thermoelectric membrane distillation systems was determined and a mathematical model for predicting the specific energy consumption was derived. The study showed that adjusting the feed flowrate, the most influential continuous parameter, from a sub-optimal level to an optimal level, while keeping other process variables at their optimal levels, could lead to a 34% reduction in the system's specific energy consumption. At the optimized process parameters of the thermoelectric membrane distillation system, the minimized specific energy consumption fell about 35% below the threshold value of 1,000 kWh/m3 found among the efficient membrane distillation systems in the literature.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number102604
JournalMethodsX
Volume12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Design of experiments
  • Specific energy consumption
  • Thermal-membrane desalination
  • Thermoelectricity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Biochemistry
  • Medical Laboratory Technology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Assessing thermoelectric membrane distillation performance: An experimental design approach'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this