In this study, thermal performance test of VMD module was performed, prior to the construction of the demonstration plant using the vacuum membrane distillation　(VMD) module of the capacity of 400 m3/day and to the commercialization of the VMD module. For the thermal performance test, the experimental equipment of capacity of 2 m3/day was constructed. The permeate flux test and thermal performance test according to feed water conditions such as temperature and flow rate were conducted. The VMD module used in the study was manufactured by ECONITY Co., LTD with PVDF hollow fiber membrane. As a result, the Performance Ratio (PR) of the VMD module showed the maximum value of 0.904 under the condition of feed water temperature of 75℃ and flow rate of 8 m3/h. PR value of the VMD module using PVDF hollow fiber membrane showed linearly increasing relationship with feed water temperature and flow rate. Also, The permeate flux of the VMD module was analyzed to have maximum value of 18.25 LMH and the salt rejection was 99.99%.

In this study, the performance experiment was conducted to compare the permeate flux of hollow fiber Vacuum Membrane Distillation module according to leak problem between module housing and membrane bundle. For the permeate flux performance experiment of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules, the Lab-scale experimental equipment was built in the capacity of 1㎥/day. The performance test of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules were analyzed according to the feed water conditions. As a result, it was analyzed that the leak VMD module decreased about 14% of permeate flux than normal VMD module.