Water demineralization by membrane distillation utilizing cooling water from municipal waste incinerator

The membrane distillation performance was studied for production of demineralized water from surface water (river). Hot water from cooling water system of municipal waste incinerator was considered as an energy source for membrane distillation. The integration of membrane installation with such cooling water system allows to re-use up to 18 kW per 1 m²  of the membranes. The studies were performed with the application of polypropylene capillary membranes Accurel PP S6/2. The membrane modules were supplied with the feed heated to a temperature of 310 K and 330 K. The permeate flux obtained for these temperatures was 2.8 and 9.7 L/m²  h, and the distillate conductivity was 6 and 4 S/cm, respectively. The water demineralisation process was carried out for 1200 h without module cleaning. The behaviour of the permeate flux and distillate conductivity indicate that used membranes maintained their non-wettability over tested period. The performed SEM-EDS examinations confirmed, that the deposits did not fill the pores and were mainly formed on the membrane surface. The scaling intensity was definitely smaller for lower temperature (310 K) of the feed. The amorphous deposits containing beside Ca also substantial amounts of the Si were mainly formed under these conditions, whereas at higher feed temperature dominated CaCO₃  scaling.