IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-28457-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Highly efficient and salt rejecting solar evaporation via a wick-free confined water layer

Author

Listed:
  • Lenan Zhang

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Xiangyu Li

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Yang Zhong

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Arny Leroy

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Zhenyuan Xu

    (Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Lin Zhao

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Evelyn N. Wang

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Recent advances in thermally localized solar evaporation hold significant promise for vapor generation, seawater desalination, wastewater treatment, and medical sterilization. However, salt accumulation is one of the key bottlenecks for reliable adoption. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient (>80% solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency) and salt rejecting (20 weight % salinity) solar evaporation by engineering the fluidic flow in a wick-free confined water layer. With mechanistic modeling and experimental characterization of salt transport, we show that natural convection can be triggered in the confined water. More notably, there exists a regime enabling simultaneous thermal localization and salt rejection, i.e., natural convection significantly accelerates salt rejection while inducing negligible additional heat loss. Furthermore, we show the broad applicability by integrating this confined water layer with a recently developed contactless solar evaporator and report an improved efficiency. This work elucidates the fundamentals of salt transport and offers a low-cost strategy for high-performance solar evaporation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenan Zhang & Xiangyu Li & Yang Zhong & Arny Leroy & Zhenyuan Xu & Lin Zhao & Evelyn N. Wang, 2022. "Highly efficient and salt rejecting solar evaporation via a wick-free confined water layer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28457-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28457-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28457-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-28457-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eliodoro Chiavazzo & Matteo Morciano & Francesca Viglino & Matteo Fasano & Pietro Asinari, 2018. "Passive solar high-yield seawater desalination by modular and low-cost distillation," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(12), pages 763-772, December.
    2. Akanksha K. Menon & Iwan Haechler & Sumanjeet Kaur & Sean Lubner & Ravi S. Prasher, 2020. "Enhanced solar evaporation using a photo-thermal umbrella for wastewater management," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(2), pages 144-151, February.
    3. Sengupta, Manajit & Xie, Yu & Lopez, Anthony & Habte, Aron & Maclaurin, Galen & Shelby, James, 2018. "The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 51-60.
    4. Peng Tao & George Ni & Chengyi Song & Wen Shang & Jianbo Wu & Jia Zhu & Gang Chen & Tao Deng, 2018. "Solar-driven interfacial evaporation," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1031-1041, December.
    5. Wenbin Wang & Yusuf Shi & Chenlin Zhang & Seunghyun Hong & Le Shi & Jian Chang & Renyuan Li & Yong Jin & Chisiang Ong & Sifei Zhuo & Peng Wang, 2019. "Simultaneous production of fresh water and electricity via multistage solar photovoltaic membrane distillation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Hadi Ghasemi & George Ni & Amy Marie Marconnet & James Loomis & Selcuk Yerci & Nenad Miljkovic & Gang Chen, 2014. "Solar steam generation by heat localization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, December.
    7. George Ni & Gabriel Li & Svetlana V. Boriskina & Hongxia Li & Weilin Yang & TieJun Zhang & Gang Chen, 2016. "Steam generation under one sun enabled by a floating structure with thermal concentration," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(9), pages 1-7, September.
    8. Zhang, Lenan & Xu, Zhenyuan & Bhatia, Bikram & Li, Bangjun & Zhao, Lin & Wang, Evelyn N., 2020. "Modeling and performance analysis of high-efficiency thermally-localized multistage solar stills," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    9. Thomas A. Cooper & Seyed H. Zandavi & George W. Ni & Yoichiro Tsurimaki & Yi Huang & Svetlana V. Boriskina & Gang Chen, 2018. "Contactless steam generation and superheating under one sun illumination," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miao, Jie & Lv, Fengyong & Gulfam, Raza & Zhao, Weiping, 2023. "Synergistic effect of superhydrophilic skeleton decorated with hierarchical micro/nanostructures and graphene oxide on solar evaporation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    2. Yajie Hu & Hongyun Ma & Mingmao Wu & Tengyu Lin & Houze Yao & Feng Liu & Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu, 2022. "A reconfigurable and magnetically responsive assembly for dynamic solar steam generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Shuqi Xu & Alice J. Hutchinson & Mahdiar Taheri & Ben Corry & Juan F. Torres, 2024. "Thermodiffusive desalination," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Eliodoro Chiavazzo, 2022. "Critical aspects to enable viable solar-driven evaporative technologies for water treatment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-4, December.
    5. Kaijie Yang & Tingting Pan & Saichao Dang & Qiaoqiang Gan & Yu Han, 2022. "Three-dimensional open architecture enabling salt-rejection solar evaporators with boosted water production efficiency," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Lenan & Xu, Zhenyuan & Bhatia, Bikram & Li, Bangjun & Zhao, Lin & Wang, Evelyn N., 2020. "Modeling and performance analysis of high-efficiency thermally-localized multistage solar stills," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    2. Huang, Qichen & Liang, Xuechen & Yan, Chongyuan & Liu, Yizhen, 2021. "Review of interface solar-driven steam generation systems: High-efficiency strategies, applications and challenges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    3. Yajie Hu & Hongyun Ma & Mingmao Wu & Tengyu Lin & Houze Yao & Feng Liu & Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu, 2022. "A reconfigurable and magnetically responsive assembly for dynamic solar steam generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Yu, Zhen & Cheng, Shaoan & Gu, Ruonan & Li, Yihang & Dai, Shaoling & Mao, Zhengzhong, 2021. "Interfacial solar evaporator for clean water production and beyond: From design to application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    5. Eliodoro Chiavazzo, 2022. "Critical aspects to enable viable solar-driven evaporative technologies for water treatment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-4, December.
    6. Morciano, Matteo & Fasano, Matteo & Bergamasco, Luca & Albiero, Alessandro & Lo Curzio, Mario & Asinari, Pietro & Chiavazzo, Eliodoro, 2020. "Sustainable freshwater production using passive membrane distillation and waste heat recovery from portable generator sets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    7. Fan, Qi & Wu, Lin & Liang, Yan & Xu, Zhicheng & Li, Yungeng & Wang, Jun & Lund, Peter D. & Zeng, Mengyuan & Wang, Wei, 2021. "The role of micro-nano pores in interfacial solar evaporation systems – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    8. Gong, Biyao & Yang, Huachao & Wu, Shenghao & Tian, Yikuan & Yan, Jianhua & Cen, Kefa & Bo, Zheng & Ostrikov, Kostya (Ken), 2021. "Phase change material enhanced sustained and energy-efficient solar-thermal water desalination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    9. 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).
    10. Mu, L. & Chen, L. & Lin, L. & Park, Y.H. & Wang, H. & Xu, P. & Kota, K. & Kuravi, S., 2021. "An overview of solar still enhancement approaches for increased freshwater production rates from a thermal process perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Aikifa Raza & Jin-You Lu & Safa Alzaim & Hongxia Li & TieJun Zhang, 2018. "Novel Receiver-Enhanced Solar Vapor Generation: Review and Perspectives," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-29, January.
    12. 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).
    13. Gan Huang & Jingyuan Xu & Christos N. Markides, 2023. "High-efficiency bio-inspired hybrid multi-generation photovoltaic leaf," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Guo, Qijing & Yi, Hao & Jia, Feifei & Song, Shaoxian, 2022. "Vertical porous MoS2/hectorite double-layered aerogel as superior salt resistant and highly efficient solar steam generators," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 68-79.
    15. Su, Jinbu & Zhang, Pengkui & Yang, Rui & Wang, Boli & Zhao, Heng & Wang, Weike & Wang, Chengbing, 2022. "MXene-based flexible and washable photothermal fabrics for efficiently continuous solar-driven evaporation and desalination of seawater," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 407-415.
    16. Ma, Sainan & Chiu, Chun Pang & Zhu, Yujiao & Tang, Chun Yin & Long, Hui & Qarony, Wayesh & Zhao, Xinhua & Zhang, Xuming & Lo, Wai Hung & Tsang, Yuen Hong, 2017. "Recycled waste black polyurethane sponges for solar vapor generation and distillation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 63-69.
    17. Tingxian Li & Minqiang Wu & Jiaxing Xu & Ruxue Du & Taisen Yan & Pengfei Wang & Zhaoyuan Bai & Ruzhu Wang & Siqi Wang, 2022. "Simultaneous atmospheric water production and 24-hour power generation enabled by moisture-induced energy harvesting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Arunkumar, T. & Wang, Jiaqiang & Denkenberger, D., 2021. "Capillary flow-driven efficient nanomaterials for seawater desalination: Review of classifications, challenges, and future perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    19. Luo, Xiao & Wu, Dongxu & Huang, Congliang & Rao, Zhonghao, 2019. "Skeleton double layer structure for high solar steam generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1032-1039.
    20. Xin Jin & Guiping Lin & Haichuan Jin, 2021. "Experimental Investigations on Steam Generation in Nanofluids under Concentrated Solar Radiation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28457-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.