In the membrane distillation process, a spacer/mesh is used to prevent the membrane from sticking to the surface of the module. On which side of the membrane should this spacer be placed? on the surface of the membrane (in contact with feed) or behind the membrane (in contact with distilled water).
What type of membrane distillation do you want to do? I have been working on direct contact MD and I do not use a spacer/mesh. The DCMD module has a rubber gasket on each side and the membrane is set in place by that and never sticks to the surface of the module. If you want/need to use the spacer/mesh, I suggest doing short experiments without it, with it on the permeate side and finally with it on the retentate side. After, you can analyze the system performance and characterize the membrane, and with that reach a better conclusion on the best approach. If your membrane has some type of support (I use a PTFE membrane with a PE support), the support faces the permeate side of the module.
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