Tania Camelia Touati is a control engineering student from Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, Algeria. She is currently a visiting student at Professor Taous-Meriem Laleg-Kirati, Estimation Modeling and Analysis Group (EMANG) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia and works on observer-based fouling detection in DCMD systems.

Education profile

Engineer’s degree/MSc. in Control Engineering from Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, Algeria (2015 - 2020).

Research topic :

Fouling estimation and localization in DCMD

Like many membrane distillation processes, the DCMD is prone to membrane fouling, which is the accumulation of different types of substances on the membrane surface or within the membrane pores. Membrane fouling affects the produced water quality and deteriorates the membrane performances, but also induces huge operation and maintenance costs if not detected in early stages.

Because incorporating sensors into the process can be very challenging and expensive, monitoring the evolution of fouling using mathematical tools is more suitable for this application. The idea is then to develop a new observer-based fouling estimation and generalize the results to include fouling localization.

Keywords:  DCMD, membrane, fouling, observer, estimation, detection, localization.

Ayman M. Karam, Taous Meriem Laleg-Kirati, Membrane fouling modeling and detection in direct contact membrane distillation, Journal of Process Control, Volume 81, 2019, Pages 190-196, ISSN 0959-1524.