Ms. Farzaneh Mahmoudi

Ph.D. Graduate

RMIT University

Ms. Farzaneh Mahmoudi is a Ph.D. candidate in the school of engineering (SoE), RMIT University. She recently submitted her Ph.D. thesis on "sustainable seawater desalination by permeate gap membrane distillation technology." She received her BSc and MSc (honours) degrees in Chemical Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. She developed a sound understanding of membrane separation processes, membrane synthesis, and application in conjunction with renewable energy systems within her MSc and Ph.D. programs. Ms. Farzaneh has a good track of publications in Q1 journals and has collaborated as the trusted reviewer of three Elsevier Journals since 2016. She has performed successfully as undergraduate Final year projects (FYP) co-supervisor, lab demonstrator and course coordinator assistance within her Ph.D. program. She voluntarily and proactively cooperated in organizing different academic & social events in SoE during her Ph.D. candidacy as Mechanical & Automotive (M&A) higher degree by research (HDR) Student representative and “Energy Care” group member.

Sustainable Seawater Desalination by Permeate Gap Membrane Distillation Technology

Fresh and accessible water for all is an essential part of the world we live. Water production is linked to energy consumption fundamentally and over recent years, water-energy nexus draws more attention in many research and policy areas. At the current time, more than 2 billion people are living with the risk of reduced access to freshwater supplies and it is predicted to be more critical in the future. Consequently, the demand for alternative water sources including desalinated water and recycled water has increased. However, one of the main concerns on the current developed desalination technologies is on developing sustainably running processes using less energy-intensive technologies and in conjunction with the low-grade waste heat or renewable sources.

This research investigates the potential of using permeate gap membrane distillation (PGMD) technology as a mainly thermal driven process for sustainable seawater desalination by experimental and numerical analysis of lab and pilot scales PGMD setups. As an emerging and innovative part of this project and to approach further to sustainable desalination concept, the potential of combined water and power (CWP) production with PGMD configuration has been also explored. The experimental study has been established by investigation of the performance of different hydrophobic commercial membranes in the CWP process under the constant operating conditions. Trust that the achieved results and publications within the duration of this Ph.D. project, have contributed effectively to further develop the sustainability concept on the future desalination systems.