DESALINATION BY SOLAR HEATED MEMBRANE DISTILLATION

This paper examines the feasibility of a solar powered membrane distillation plant for the supply of domestic drinking water in the arid/rural regions of Australia. The plant differs from conventional solar powered devices in its capacity to recover large proportions of the latent heat of vapourisation using conventional heat-exchange devices. The plant has been designed and constructed using data obtained from a computer simulation of the process. Preliminary tests have shown the plant capable of achieving the required production capacity. An economic sensitivity analysis has been used to select the optimum heat recovery.