Challenges and Opportunities for Solar Evaporation

Chen, Chaoji; Kuang, Yudi; Hu, Liangbing

doi:10.1016/j.joule.2018.12.023

Cited by 1,029 publications

(685 citation statements)

References 165 publications

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“…Demand for clean water is soaring due to population growth, global industrialization, increased life standard, and depletion of natural resources . Solar steaming shows great potencies as a clean, renewable, and sustainable technology for water production due to the abundance of solar energy that reaches individuals, homes, and large facilities . Over the past 5 years, a number of photothermal materials with designed chemistry and structures have been investigated for high‐efficiency solar steaming .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Besides developing low‐cost photothermal materials, it is of paramount importance to design solar steaming‐collection systems that can be efficient as well as portable to address the needs of people on individual levels. 3D superstructures with large surface areas, which are often designed for energy and environment applications, have also demonstrated enhanced water evaporation rates due to the improved transpiration pathways compared to 2D structures . Some 3D solar steamers also exploit environmental energy and reach 100% efficiency in solar‐to‐vapor energy transfer .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…3D superstructures with large surface areas, which are often designed for energy and environment applications, have also demonstrated enhanced water evaporation rates due to the improved transpiration pathways compared to 2D structures . Some 3D solar steamers also exploit environmental energy and reach 100% efficiency in solar‐to‐vapor energy transfer . Despite high solar–thermal conversion efficiencies and water evaporation rates shown in some studies, the amount of actually collected clean water can be greatly compromised once the solar steamers are utilized in a steam‐collection setup.…”

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Portable Low‐Pressure Solar Steaming‐Collection Unisystem with Polypyrrole Origamis

et al. 2019

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Solar steaming has emerged as a promising green technology that can address the global issue of scarcity of clean water. However, developing high‐performance, cost‐effective, and manufacturable solar‐steaming materials, and portable solar steaming‐collection systems for individuals remains a great challenge. Here, a one‐step, low‐cost, and mass‐producible synthesis of polypyrrole (PPy) origami‐based photothermal materials, and an original portable low‐pressure controlled solar steaming‐collection unisystem, offering synergetic high rates in both water evaporation and steam collection, are reported. Due to enhanced areas for vapor dissipation, the PPy origami improves the water evaporation rate by at least 71% to 2.12 kg m−2 h−1 from that of a planar structure and exhibits a solar–thermal energy conversion efficiency of 91.5% under 1 Sun. When further controlling the pressure to ≈0.17 atm in the steaming‐collection unisystem, the water collection rate improves by up to 52% systematically and dramatically. Although partial energy is utilized toward obtaining low‐pressure, evaluations show that the overall energy efficiency is improved remarkably in the low‐pressure system compared to that in ambient pressure. Furthermore, the device demonstrates effective decontamination of heavy metals, bacteria, and desalination. This work can inspire new paradigms toward developing high‐performance solar steaming technologies for individuals and households.

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Portable Low‐Pressure Solar Steaming‐Collection Unisystem with Polypyrrole Origamis

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“…H v is determined by the vaporization temperature of the water/air interface (2453 kJ kg −1 at 20 °C and 2265 kJ kg −1 at 100 °C), and H s is dependent on the specific heat of water (c water = 4.186 kJ kg −1 °C −1 ) and its temperature change. Several previous reviews have briefly summarized the diverse solar absorber materials and device designs of steam generators, [13,23,[26][27][28][29]111] whereas we will mainly focus on the latest representative strategies for enhancing water evaporation efficiency in the following part. In aim to minimize heat losses and boost conversion efficiency, an insulating and hydrophilic porous supporter has been integrated into the floating system to avoid the direct contact between photothermal materials and bulk water, as shown in Figure 3a, which has been regarded as the next generation solar-driven water evaporation device.…”

Section: Development Trend Of Solar-driven Water Evaporatormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[23,[26][27][28][29] However, these previously published review articles are limited to the specific topic of solar steam generation, and thus there is still no comprehensive review focusing on the latest progress and future development trend of all the solardriven low-energy water purification/harvesting technologies. [23,[26][27][28][29] However, these previously published review articles are limited to the specific topic of solar steam generation, and thus there is still no comprehensive review focusing on the latest progress and future development trend of all the solardriven low-energy water purification/harvesting technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

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Producing affordable freshwater has been considered as a great societal challenge, and most conventional desalination technologies are usually accompanied with large energy consumption and thus struggle with the trade‐off between water and energy, i.e., the water–energy nexus. In recent decades, the fast development of state‐of‐the‐art photothermal materials has injected new vitality into the field of freshwater production, which can effectively harness abundant and clean solar energy via the photothermal effect to fulfill the blue dream of low‐energy water purification/harvesting, so as to reconcile the water–energy nexus. Driven by the opportunities offered by photothermal materials, tremendous effort has been made to exploit diverse photothermal‐assisted water purification/harvesting technologies. At this stage, it is imperative and important to review the recent progress and shed light on the future trend in this multidisciplinary field. Here, a brief introduction of the fundamental mechanism and design principle of photothermal materials is presented, and the emerging photothermal applications such as photothermal‐assisted water evaporation, photothermal‐assisted membrane distillation, photothermal‐assisted crude oil cleanup, photothermal‐enhanced photocatalysis, and photothermal‐assisted water harvesting from air are summarized. Finally, the unsolved challenges and future perspectives in this field are emphasized. It is envisioned that this work will help arouse future research efforts to boost the development of solar‐driven low‐energy water purification/harvesting.

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