Access to pure water is a very topical issue today. Desalination represents a promising way of obtaining drinking water in areas of shortage. Currently, efforts are being made to replace the metal components of existing desalination units due to the high corrosivity of sea water. Another requirement is easy transportation and assembly. The presented solution combines two types of polymeric hollow fibers that are used to create the distillation unit. Porous polypropylene hollow fiber membranes have been used as an active surface for mass transfer in the distillation unit, while non-porous thermal polypropylene hollow fibers have been employed in the condenser. The large active area to volume ratio of the hollow fiber module improves the efficiency of both units. Hot water is pumped inside the membranes in the distillation unit. Evaporation is first observed at a temperature gradient of 10 °C. The water vapor flows through the tunnel to the condenser where cold water runs inside the fibers. The temperature gradient causes condensation of the vapor, and the condensate is collected. The article presents data for hot water at temperatures of 55, 60, and 65 °C. Optimization of the membrane module is evaluated and presented.

A reliable battery thermal management system (BTMS) is essential to ensure proper performance, a long life span and high electric vehicle safety. The primary objective of BTMS is to maintain the cells’ temperature in the range of 15–35 °C while limiting the temperature spread between cells to below 5 °C. Active thermal management with polymeric hollow fibers (PHFs) has been reported in a few articles, but its tremendous flexibility is mainly advantageous for cylindrical cells. Extruded polymeric cold plate heat exchangers with rounded rectangle channels (RRCs) are proposed as a more elegant solution for planar batteries. Heat exchangers using PHFs and RRCs were experimentally compared, with a strong focus on minimizing the maximum temperature and temperature spread of the experimental setup while simultaneously achieving minimal pressure drops. The system behavior with different parameters, including materials, geometry and thermophysical properties, was further studied using properly validated CFD models.

The Volume 12, published for JFFHMT Journal.

The Volume 12, published for JFFHMT Journal.