M.Tech Project

Problem Statement : By 2030 half of the world’s population will be living in areas of high-water stress. About 1 out of every 6 people living today do not have adequate access to water nearly double this amount lacks water for basic sanitation . Overcoming the crisis in water and sanitation is one of the greatest human development challenges of the early 21st century. Renewable driven desalination techniques can solve the water supply demand problem.

Desalination: Technique to extract the salt from seawater, using which more fresh water than the hydrological cycle can be obtained to deal with water scarcity, can be an effective and long term solution. Currently, RO technology alone constitute of 60% of current desalination capacity followed by MED and MSF desalination with 34% capacity. To mitigate energy footprint in water-energy nexus we need desalination that is renewable driven.

Membrane Distillation: Desalination with Low Grade Energy

A thermally driven separation process in which a microporous hydrophobic membrane allows only vapor molecules to transfer through it. The driving force in the MD process is the temperature difference followed by the vapor pressure difference across the hydrophobic membrane.

Membrane Distillation: Advantages over its Peers

Operate at relative lower temperature compared to reverse osmosis etc. The operating temperature range can be achieved by incorporation of renewable energy resources among which solar energy is very convenient to use. Scaled to big and small systems, so can be used for community scale desalination. Potential to operate at high salinity, increase applicability in zero liquid discharge zones.

M.Tech presentation at IIT Ropar