ENHANCED WATER DESALINATION POLYMIRIC MEMBRANE, FABRICATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION

Abstract

Water shortage has become one of the major challenges in the 21st century. Worldwide populations suffer from water scarcity in many arid regions and the problem of supplying fresh water is crucial quantitatively and qualitatively. Water desalination is a well-established technology. Desalination of water resources is not only for drinking purposes but it is also important in a variety of industrial applications. Desalination can be carried out by membrane processes such as membrane distillation. Recently, hybrid materials were used to achieve high permeability and selectivity in membrane applications. Novel materials have emerged as promising candidates for synthesizing high performance desalination membranes. Nanoparticles incorporation into the membrane led to increases in flux and salt reduction. In this work, locally manufactured polymeric membranes suitable for enhancing water desalination are developed by incorporating carbon nanotubes into the membrane to achieve the optimum conditions during their preparation. The developed membranes will be tested and used in water desalination by membrane distillation.