Enhancing the efficiency of membrane distillation (MD) is crucial for implementing this desalination technology on a large scale for freshwater production. Herein, an interesting opportunity of enhancing membrane distillation performance by applying an external electromagnetic field to the feed stream is demonstrated. It has been proven that electromagnetic fields can affect water evaporation rate, which is primarily related to the effect of the electromagnetic field on the hydrogen bonds of water clusters. However, as of yet, the enhancement in MD performance through the assistance of electromagnetic fields has not been previously recognized. Herein, it is demonstrated that the permeate flux of membrane distillation can be increased by up to 10% through exposing the saline feed water to an external electromagnetic field (EMF). It was found that the presence of divalent ions in the feed solution during the application of EMF resulted in a higher increase in permeate flux than when only NaCl was present. The electromagnetic treatment is non-destructive to current MD and thus can be easily adapted to large-scale water desalination processes.

提高膜蒸馏 (MD) 的效率对于大规模实施这种淡水生产淡化技术至关重要。在此，展示了通过向进料流施加外部电磁场来增强膜蒸馏性能的有趣机会。已经证明，电磁场会影响水的蒸发速率，这主要与电磁场对水团簇氢键的影响有关。然而，迄今为止，通过电磁场的帮助提高 MD 性能的先前尚未被认识到。在此，证明通过将盐水给水暴露于外部电磁场 (EMF) 可以将膜蒸馏的渗透通量提高多达 10%。发现在应用 EMF 期间进料溶液中二价离子的存在导致渗透通量的增加比仅存在 NaCl 时更高。电磁处理对当前的 MD 是非破坏性的，因此可以很容易地适应大规模的海水淡化过程。