Membrane desalination driven by solar energy is a new technology to purify high saline wastewater from oil fields. This system is based on pervaporation and its required energy is supplied by solar radiation. To evaluate the performance of this system in saline oily effluent treatment, one pilot scale membrane desalination system with a surface area of 40 m(2) is installed in Sarkhon zone near the port of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. The system consists of a membrane evaporator located under a transparent plastic cover foil, which is UV resistant, placed on the ground. The feed for this unit is supplied from the deoiled effluent of the Sarkhon Gas Refinery. An average production rate of desalinated water for the period of spring 2005 is 1.3 L/(d.m(2)). The quality of desalinated water meets the irrigation water standard of Iranian Department of Environment most of the time. The purification performance (contaminated versus purified water) of the system loaded with the Sarkhon Gas Refinery wastewater is total dissolved solids (TDS) from 1991 reduced to 91 mg/L, conductivity from 3342 reduced to 150 mu S/cm, chloride from 1565 reduced to 6.6 mg/L and Oil and Grease from 31 reduced to 1.12 mg/L. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.