Pervaporative desalination of Sea-water using polyvinylidene fluoride based membrane

Abstract

Fresh water supply by converting the non-potable water is an attractive solution for water scarcity. According to the energy strategies of the countries, different seawater purification techniques such as distillation and Reverse osmosis (RO) are used for fresh water supply. Due to the selective separation capability and cost-effective properties, membrane based methods such as RO, electrodialysis, and ultra/micro/nano/filtration are prevalent, especially in Europe. Recently, innovative desalination technologies have been investigated by researchers. Among them, pervaporative separation, in which non-porous membranes are used, is defined as an emerging and promising method. The key part of the system is the membrane. Hence, scientific investigations are focused on to produce high-performance membranes. In this study, non-porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) blend membranes were prepared in different PVDF/PVP ratio and Marmara seawater was desalinated using pervaporation method at different temperatures. Desalination performance was evaluated as a function of flux and salt retention factor. Better salt retention of 99.90% and flux of 1.60 kg/m².h were obtained at 60 °C when the PVDF/PVP ratio was 1.5.