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Noreddine Ghaffour

Professor, Environmental Science and Engineering

Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division 
Center membership :
Water Desalination and Reuse

noreddine.ghaffour@kaust.edu.sa
Desal Research Group


Affiliations

Education Profile

  • Ph.D., Membrane Separation Technology (MSP), University of Montpellier, 1995
  • M.S., Process Engineering (MSP), University of Montpellier, 1992
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering and Energy, INGM/INSA, 1991

Research Interests

The current desalination technologies are very energy-intensive compared to the thermodynamic limits, despite recent technical improvements. Furthermore, membrane technology development is hampered by relatively low flux performances and membrane fouling. Professor Ghaffour’s research work focuses on reducing the cost of desalination for water supply sustainability by improving the performance of the existing desalination technologies and developing innovative low-energy desalination processes, which could be driven by renewable energy in an integrated system.​

Selected Publications

  • Transport phenomena and fouling in vacuum enhanced direct contact membrane distillation: Experimental and modelling G. Naidu, W.G. Shim, S. Jeong, Y.K. Choi, N. Ghaffour, S. Vigneswaran Separation and Purification Technology, Volume 172, pp. 285-295, (2017)
  • Dynamic modeling and experimental validation for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process F. Eleiwi, N. Ghaffour, A. Al-Saadi, L. Francis, T.M. Laleg-Kirati Desalination, Volume 384, 1-11, (2016)
  • A novel integrated thermal-/membrane-based solar energy-driven hybrid desalination system: Concept description and simulation results Y.-D. Kim, K. Thu, K.C. Ng, G.L. Amy, N. Ghaffour Water Research, Volume 100, 7-19, (2016)
  • Effect of operating parameters and membrane characteristics on air gap membrane distillation performance for the treatment of highly saline water J. Xu, Y.B. Singh, G.L. Amy, N. Ghaffour Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 512, pp. 73-82, (2016)
  • Spiral-shaped reactor for water disinfection S. Soukane, F. Ait-Djoudi, W.M. Naceur, N. Ghaffour Desalination and Water Treatment, pp. 1-16, (2016)