Desalination of seawater has proven to be a well-established mean for the supply of portable water, but current technologies have significant drawbacks associated with supplying water to small communities. In this study, membrane distillation (MD) is evaluated as a desalination technology. MD uses the vapor pressure difference across the hydrophobic membrane to separate volatile components from an aqueous solution. The membrane serves as a vapor gap between the phases, across which the water vapor migrates by convection or diffusion. The main goal of this research is to make MD a cost effective process for small poor communities. We are proposing two ways to make it happen. The first aim is to study the effect of the carrier gas on the vapor water flux. As part of this research, gases like helium, hydrogen, and argon will be considered as the carrier gases due to the higher diffusivities of water vapor. The second aim is to decrease the flux resistance through the membrane by adding convecting flux. This is intended to achieve by feeding a two phases solution using an inert gas.