Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising membrane separation technique used to treat industrial wastewater.When coupled with cheap heat sources,MD has significant economic advantages.Therefore,MD can be combined with solar energy to realize the large-scale and low-cost treatment of highly mineralized mine water in the western coal-producing region of China.In this study,highly mineralized mine water from the Ningdong area of China was subjected to vacuum MD (VMD) using polyvinylidene fluoride hollow-fiber membranes.The optimal operation parameters of VMD were determined by response surface optimization.Subsequently,the feasibility of VMD for treating highly mineralized mine water was explored.The fouling behavior observed during VMD was further investigated by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS).Under the optimal parameters (pres-sure =-0.08 MPa,temperature =70 ℃,and feed flow rate =1.5 L/min),the maximum membrane flux was 8.85 kg/(m2 h),and the desalination rate was 99.7％.Membrane fouling could be divided into three stages:membrane wetting,crystallization,and fouling layer formation.Physical cleaning restored the flux and salt rejection rate to 94％ and 97％ of the initial values,respectively;however,the cleaning interval and cleaning efficiency decreased as the VMD run time increased.SEM-EDS analysis revealed that the reduction in flux was caused by the precipitation of CaCO3.The findings also demonstrated that the membrane wetting could be attributed to the formation of NaCl on the cross section and outer surface of the membrane.Overall,the results confirm the feasibility of MD for treating mine water and provide meaningful guidance for the industrial application of MD.