My postdoc, Dr. Jiahui Hu and my Ph.D. student (Guangyu Zhu) spent over 1 years on this critical review paper, “Interfacial Heating in Membrane Distillation: Advances, Optimization Strategies, and Industrial Applications for Desalination”, which is finally published in Environmental Science & Technology.
This paper highlights the potential of interfacial heating (IH) membrane distillation (MD) as an advanced desalination technology capable of efficiently producing freshwater from seawater and brine. Unlike conventional MD, IH-MD delivers localized heat at the membrane-saline water interface, enhancing vapor flux and reducing heat loss. Despite significant progress, a unified understanding of IH-MD system performance is still lacking, and practical challenges such as membrane wetting, scaling, fouling, and corrosion—resulting from the incorporation of heating materials—hinder industrial application.
The review critically examines four major IH-MD approaches: photothermal, Joule, conduction, and induction heating. Photothermal heating offers sustainability and improved energy efficiency but is constrained by sunlight availability and material stability, while electrothermal methods ensure steady interfacial flux at the cost of higher energy consumption and potential material degradation.
Strategies to enhance system performance and durability are discussed, including hybrid heating methods, optimized module designs, tailored membrane properties, and refined operating conditions. The review also evaluates the economic feasibility of IH-MD technologies for industrial deployment. While IH-MD faces challenges in material stability, system complexity, and scalability, its potential to mitigate thermal polarization, reduce energy demand, and integrate with renewable energy sources positions it as a transformative solution for sustainable desalination and water treatment.
This review aims to bridge the gap between scientific advances and real-world applications, offering insights to guide future research and commercialization of IH-MD technologies. We are grateful for the support from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Award R22AC00433) and all co-authors for sharing their expertise and critical evaluations to this paper.
First author: Jiahui Hu
Corresponding author: Wen Zhang
Co-author: Guangyu Zhu, Avner Ronen, David Jassby, Qilin Li, Peng Wang, Wenbin Wang
Link to the paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5c01447
#sustainable water, #energy efficiency, #durability, #membrane distillation, #interfacial heating
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