Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination <i>via</i> a thermally-localized multistage solar still

Xu, Z.Y.; Zhang, Lenan; Zhao, Lin; Li, Bangjun; Bhatia, Bikramjit S; Wang, Chenxi; Wilke, Kyle L.; Song, Youngsup; Labban, Omar; Lienhard, John H.; Wang, Ruzhu; Wang, Evelyn

doi:10.1039/c9ee04122b

Cited by 337 publications

(212 citation statements)

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“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The attention has been mainly focused on the study and design of new nano-structured materials and smart structures able to improve the solar-to-vapour conversion and the energy management. 13,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In 2018 some of the authors proposed a solar passive and multistage distiller 5 able to achieve performance beyond the thermodynamic limit of a single stage device, by recovering the latent heat of condensation. The importance of recovering the latent heat of condensation in passive distillation devices has been then extensively discussed and emphasized by Wang and co-workers, 30 and Pang and co-workers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…31 In both the article reviews, the authors state that high-performance cannot be achieved without efficient condensation, accompanied by the recovery of the latent heat of condensation. Afterwards, Xu and co-workers 13 proposed a solution to optimize the overall heat and mass transfer in a thermally localized multistage solar still. According to their investigation, a 10-stage prototype achieved a solar-to-vapour conversion efficiency of 385% relying on solar heat localization and latent heat recycling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solar passive distiller with high productivity and Marangoni effect-driven salt rejection

Morciano

Fasano

Boriskina

et al. 2020

Energy Environ. Sci.

108

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar passive distiller with high productivity and Marangoni effect-driven salt rejection

Morciano

Fasano

Boriskina

et al. 2020

Energy Environ. Sci.

108

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“…The fabrication cost of a solar evaporation device is an important issue for further commercialization [ 38 , 39 ]. In recent years, scientists devoted great efforts to studying and developing solar absorbers with enhanced light-harvesting ability and high solar-to-thermal conversion efficiency [ 40 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seawater Desalination by Interfacial Solar Vapor Generation Method Using Plasmonic Heating Nanocomposites

Rao

Tang

et al. 2020

Micromachines

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With the ever-growing demand in fresh water supply, great efforts have been devoted to developing sustainable systems which could generate fresh water continuously. Solar vapor generation is one of the promising strategies which comprise an unlimited energy source and efficient solar-to-heat generators for overcoming fresh water scarcity. However, current solar vapor generation systems suffer either from inefficient utilization of solar energy or an expensive fabrication process. In this paper, we introduced a nano-plasmonic approach, i.e., a floatable nanocompoiste where copper sulfide nanorods (Cu2-xS NRs) are embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix, for solar-to-vapor generation. A high solar vapor generation efficiency of ~87% and water evaporation rate of 1.270 kg m−2 h−1 were achieved under simulated solar irradiation of 1 sun. With the illumination of natural daylight, seawater was purified using Cu2-xS NRs-PVA gel, with high purity, as distilled drinking water. The plasmonic nanocomposites demonstrated here are easy to fabricate and highly efficient for solar vapor generation, illustrating a potential solution for future seawater desalination.

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“…With it, Wang and co‐workers in a latest demonstration have achieved an extremely high evaporation rate (2.6 kg m −2 h −1 ) by using a multistage solar still in a rooftop test (Figure 16b), which is almost comparable with one day's production of the conventional solar still as highlighted above. [ 160 ] Although solar evaporator has the merits of broadband light absorption and capability of high‐salinity water desalination, the relatively low water productivity would make it much less competitive in the future desalination market. In this respect, latent heat recovery should be seriously taken into considerations when designing photothermal structures.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

et al. 2020

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requirement has given rise to research thrusts being focused on the development of solar-driven evaporation based desalination technologies. [4][5][6][7] The research on using solar energy in the desalination process has a long history. [3,8,9] In a traditional singleslope basin-like solar still (Figure 1a), saline water is heated and subsequently evaporated by directly exposing to solar radiation. Solar energy is absorbed and converted into thermal energy by a black light-absorbing liner that is situated at the bottom of the solar basin. [10] Due to this design, the solar absorber is immersed in bulk seawater and it hardly receives a fraction of the incoming solar radiation owing to poor light penetration through the thick water layer. Furthermore, the produced heat is easily dissipated into the bulk water, and further lost to the surroundings through water surface radiation, convection and conduction. Due to the above reasons, the resulting solar-tosteam conversion efficiency is inevitably low. Nanoparticle dispersed fluid was then demonstrated to harness solar energy and found to be a great boon to direct water vapor generation. [11,12] A solar conversion efficiency of up to ≈70% can be possibly achieved because heat loss to bulk water is mitigated ( Figure 1b). [13,14] However, research on this advancement didn't last because of the development of solar interfacial heating strategy, which is shown in Figure 1c. The concept of interfacial evaporation was first put forth in 2014 by two reports simultaneously, [15,16] and received a surge of attention and interest immediately in the following years. The most prominent feature of solar interfacial evaporation lies in the position of the solar absorber, which is at the interface between saline liquid and the above air. This special configuration not only minimizes heat loss from the solar absorber to bulk water, but also provides significantly more surface area for prompt vapor release. Also, solar radiation is photothermally localized at the surface of solar absorber, giving rise to high surface temperature, which enables fast heat transfer to water. With it, water transported from reservoir can be heated and evaporated immediately to achieve a higher rate of steam generation. In addition to the differences in heating strategies, it should be noted that all the solar stills follow the same evaporation-condensation route for desalination and clean water collection, and to this end, a similar device structure (e.g., solar still with sloping cover) is usually employed.The past few years have witnessed a rapid development of solar-driven interfacial evaporation, a promising technology for low-cost water desalination. As of today, solar-to-steam conversion efficiencies close to 100% or even beyond the limit are becoming increasingly achievable in virtue of unique photothermal materials and structures. Herein, the cutting-edge approaches are summarized, and their mechanisms for photothermal structure architecting are uncovered in order to achieve ultrahigh conversion e...

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Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination via a thermally-localized multistage solar still

Abstract: Passive vapor generation systems combining interfacial solar heating and vaporization enthalpy recycling enable high-efficient low-cost desalination.

Cited by 337 publications

References 45 publications

Solar passive distiller with high productivity and Marangoni effect-driven salt rejection

Solar passive distiller with high productivity and Marangoni effect-driven salt rejection

Seawater Desalination by Interfacial Solar Vapor Generation Method Using Plasmonic Heating Nanocomposites

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

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