Enhancing Air Gap Membrane Distillation Melissa Deutsch In

Enhancing Air Gap Membrane Distillation Melissa Deutsch In conjunction with the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Dr. Chao Zhu – professor of mechanical engineering Tong Lee, Qun Yu – Ph. D candidates Summer 2004

Research Findings l l Distillation system used to extract chemically pure water from dirty water through a hydrophobic membrane Theoretically, pure water has a resistance of infinity, since it cannot conduct electricity This system produced water of 300 kΩ resistance from an initial source feed of salt water at 90 kΩ Huge jump in resistance of water shows that the system is largely effective in its end l l l Found that the magnetic stirrer did little to increase both the rate of water production and the volume of water produced Larger temperature difference did produce a greater rate of production Hot side cavity is too large to effectively increase the rate of water production Folded membrane would make the system more feasible for use on a lunar base Vacuum pump necessary to increase rate of flow

Future Work l l l Test the AGMD apparatus against various concentrations of dissolved particles (ie – Na. Cl, dyes) Test the AGMD apparatus against various temperature gradients Install an ultrasonic inducer to potentially enhance the effectiveness of the membrane distillation system Build a new AGMD apparatus with a folded membrane module to increase flow rate Introduce a vacuum into the air gap AGMD apparatus