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The energy efficiency of interfacial solar desalination

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  • Luo, Xiao
  • Shi, Jincheng
  • Zhao, Changying
  • Luo, Zhouyang
  • Gu, Xiaokun
  • Bao, Hua

Abstract

Solar-thermal evaporation, a traditional steam generation method for solar desalination, has received numerous attentions in recent years due to the significant increase in efficiency by adopting interfacial evaporation. While most of the previous studies focus on improving the evaporation efficiency by materials innovation and system design, the underlying mechanisms of its energy efficiency improvement are less explored, leading to many confusions and misunderstandings. Herein, we investigate the mechanisms of interfacial solar desalination with a detailed heat and mass transfer model. Using this model, we elucidate the advantages of interfacial evaporation over the traditional evaporation method. Furthermore, we clarify the role of tuning the solar flux and surface area on the evaporation efficiency. Moreover, we quantitatively prove that the influence of environmental conditions on evaporation efficiency could not be eliminated by subtracting the dark evaporation rate from evaporation rate under solar. We also find that interfacial evaporation in a solar still does not have the high overall solar desalination efficiency as expected, but further improvement is possible from the system design. Our analysis gains insights to the thermal processes involved in interfacial solar evaporation and offers important perspectives to the further development of interfacial solar desalination technology.

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  • Luo, Xiao & Shi, Jincheng & Zhao, Changying & Luo, Zhouyang & Gu, Xiaokun & Bao, Hua, 2021. "The energy efficiency of interfacial solar desalination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:302:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921009570
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117581
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    2. Wu, Dongxu & Cui, Qi & Gao, Yuanzhi & Dai, Zhaofeng & Chen, Bo & Wang, Changling & Zhang, Xiaosong, 2022. "Study on the performance of solar interfacial evaporation for high-efficiency liquid desiccant regeneration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    3. Zeng, Long & Deng, Daxiang & Zhu, Linye & Wang, Huimin & Zhang, Zhenkun & Yao, Yingxue, 2023. "Biomass photothermal structures with carbonized durian for efficient solar-driven water evaporation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    4. Li, Zhijing & Lei, Hui & Mu, Zijun & Zhang, Yuan & Zhang, Jingquan & Zhou, Yigang & Xie, Huaqing & Yu, Wei, 2022. "Reduced graphene oxide composite fiber for solar-driven evaporation and seawater desalination," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 932-942.
    5. Cai, Wei & Pan, Ying & Feng, Xiaming & Mu, Xiaowei & Hu, Weizhao & Song, Lei & Wang, Xin & Hu, Yuan, 2022. "Cicada wing-inspired solar transmittance enhancement and hydrophobicity design for graphene-based solar steam generation: A novel gas phase deposition approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    6. Yang, Rui & Niu, Dong & Pu, Jin Huan & Tang, G.H. & Wang, Xinyu & Du, Mu, 2022. "Passive all-day freshwater harvesting through a transparent radiative cooling film," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).

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