Recent technological advancements in membrane distillation and solar stills: preheating techniques, heat storage materials, and nanomaterials — a detailed review

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 29; no. 26; pp. 38879 - 38898
• Main Authors: Abdelgaied, Mohamed, Seleem, Mohamed Fathi, Bassuoni, Mohamed Mahgoub
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-06-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Critical components; Desalination; Design; Design modifications; Distillation; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electricity; Electricity consumption; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Heat storage; Heating; Innovations; Membranes; Nanomaterials; Nanotechnology; Population growth; Productivity; Review; Review Article; Reviews; Solar stills; Technological change; Thermal storage; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Solar stills; Preheating technology; Nanomaterials; Thermal storage mediums; Membrane distillation; Performance improvement
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-19625-w

Freshwater and energy are critical components for the growth and progress of societies. The scarcity of freshwater and rapid population growth, especially in remote countries, has led to an urgent need to develop desalination technologies in order to raise its productivity and reduce its energy consumption rates. Membrane distillation is one of the effective methods characterized by its high productivity, but its disadvantage by higher electricity consumption. Also, solar stills are one of the sustainable and economical technologies, but the disadvantage by lower productivity. Accordingly, this manuscript dealt with a comprehensive review and detailed comparison of the most important modifications and innovations that were made to the design of the membrane distillation units, which aim to reduce electricity consumption rates, as well as the design of solar stills, which aims to maximize the productivity and efficiency. This was done by providing a detailed comparison of the most important three axes of modifications and innovations that were addressed by recent previous studies on the design of membrane distillation units and solar stills, and their statement as follows: preheating technology, use of the thermal storage materials, and nanomaterials technology. Finally, based on this review, the authors make some recommendations for future work in the field of solar and membrane desalination.