Design and optimization of solar steam generation system for water purification and energy utilization: A review

Xu, You; Yin, Jun; Wang, Jun; Wang, Xianbao

doi:10.1515/rams-2019-0034

Cited by 40 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 138 publications

(217 reference statements)

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“…The STID technology has shown promise for practical applications due to its high energy utilization efficiency and low manufacturing cost. − Different from other thermal brine desalination plants, STID does not require the burning of fossil fuels or the collection of sunlight during its operation. Therefore, it can operate under natural sunlight and does not cause environmental pollution.…”

Section: Solar-powered Desalination Of High-salinity Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar-Powered Sustainable Water Production: State-of-the-Art Technologies for Sunlight–Energy–Water Nexus

Sheng

et al. 2021

ACS Nano

277

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Alternative water resources (seawater, brackish water, atmospheric water, sewage, etc.) can be converted into clean freshwater via high-efficiency, energy-saving, and cost-effective methods to cope with the global water crisis. Herein, we provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of various solar-powered technologies for alternative water utilization (i.e., "sunlight−energy−water nexus"), including solar-thermal interface desalination (STID), solarthermal membrane desalination (STMD), solar-driven electrochemical desalination (SED), and solar-thermal atmospheric water harvesting (ST-AWH). Three strategies have been proposed for improving the evaporation rate of STID systems above the theoretical limit and designing allweather or all-day operating STID systems by analyzing the energy transfer of the evaporation and condensation processes caused by solar-thermal conversion. This review also introduces the fundamental principles and current research hotspots of two other solar-driven seawater or brackish water desalination technologies (STMD and SED) in detail. In addition, we also cover ST-AWH and other solar-powered technologies in terms of technology design, materials evolution, device assembly, etc. Finally, we summarize the content of this comprehensive review and discuss the challenges and future outlook of different types of solar-powered alternative water utilization technologies.

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Section: Solar-powered Desalination Of High-salinity Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar-Powered Sustainable Water Production: State-of-the-Art Technologies for Sunlight–Energy–Water Nexus

Sheng

et al. 2021

ACS Nano

277

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“…A cotton wick was inserted in the center of the PS foam to transport the bulk water at the bottom to the absorbent cotton chip. [49] Figure S5, Supporting Information, shows the IR thermal images of the IBGA during the SSG. The heat is mainly concentrated on the surface of the IBGA, which is conducive to interfacial water evaporation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar‐Driven Airflow‐Enhanced All‐Daytime Solar Steam Generation Based on Inverse‐Bowl‐Shaped Graphene Aerogels

Zhang

et al. 2022

Energy Tech

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Solar steam generation (SSG) is a promising approach to solve the shortage of fresh water resources. Despite intensive research on photothermal materials, the SSG performance is still unsatisfactory for practical applications. Moreover, the actual solar trajectory is a semicircular arc, resulting in a continuous change of the incident angle, which is often ignored in previous reports. Herein, an inverse‐bowl‐shaped graphene aerogel (IBGA) is synthesized as the photothermal component for the SSG, which can always maintain a high water evaporation rate with the change of the incident angles. Furthermore, a solar‐driven airflow is introduced based on a modified Stirling engine to enhance the SSG performance. The SSG device based on IBGA with solar‐driven airflow exhibits a high evaporation rate of 2.46 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation. The outdoor experiments demonstrate that an SSG device with 1 m2 of IBGA can collect 15 kg freshwater on a sunny day, showing great potential for seawater desalination and wastewater treatments in practical applications.

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“…While the bandgap energy of a semiconductor is the deciding factor for its solar absorption capability, most traditional semiconductors have relatively large bandgap, causing the materials to only responsive to ultraviolet light. [88] To extend solar absorption spectrum, various efforts have been conducted to narrow down energy bandgap of semiconductors, or to hybridize semiconductors with other groups of photothermal materials. Semiconductors often exist in the natural form of mineral ores, which illustrate their good chemical stability as well as their economic feasibility as SSG photoabsorber due to the minimal processing required.…”

Section: Semiconductorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

State‐of‐the‐Art Advances, Development, and Challenges of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Nanomaterials for Photothermal Solar Steam Generation

Tan

Yap

Zheng

et al. 2022

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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Solar steam generation has drawn high levels of attention from the research community in recent years due to its wide application and abundantly available energy source—sunlight. To the best of the author's knowledge, a specialized overview of photothermal semiconductor solar steam generation has not been conducted to date. In this review, the recently reported solar evaporators using metal oxide semiconductors as the photoabsorber material are investigated, from the perspective of nanostructure, synthesis method, and installation method. A timeline sequence map is generated with the CiteSpace analysis tool to visualize the trend of metal oxide semiconductors as photoabsorbers. The nanostructure of metal oxide semiconductor is emphasized, due to its significant effect on regulating photothermal efficiency in solar steam generation. In addition, other considerations are suggested to enable a fair evaluation of future synthesized photoabsorbers, including cost, stability, reproducibility, recyclability, and regenerative ability. A brief summary of divergent application of solar steam generation is conducted to show the merits of solar steam generation, as well to provide insights for production of photoabsorbers targeted to varying usage and scenarios. Furthermore, the challenges and opportunities of metal oxide solar steam generation system are elaborated from the viewpoint of the authors, with the aim to provide useful insights for future development of photothermal solar steam generation.

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Design and optimization of solar steam generation system for water purification and energy utilization: A review

Cited by 40 publications

References 138 publications

Solar-Powered Sustainable Water Production: State-of-the-Art Technologies for Sunlight–Energy–Water Nexus

Solar-Powered Sustainable Water Production: State-of-the-Art Technologies for Sunlight–Energy–Water Nexus

Solar‐Driven Airflow‐Enhanced All‐Daytime Solar Steam Generation Based on Inverse‐Bowl‐Shaped Graphene Aerogels

State‐of‐the‐Art Advances, Development, and Challenges of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Nanomaterials for Photothermal Solar Steam Generation

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