Nature Communications
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2024
·Vol. 15
·期 1
·1-19
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IF 14.7
Poredoš Primož,Gao Jintong,Shan He,Yu Jie,Shao Zhao,Xu Zhenyuan,Wang Ruzhu
Passive solar membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging technology to alleviate water scarcity. Recently, its performance has been enhanced by multistage design, though the gains are marginal due to constrained temperature and vapor pressure gradients across the device. This makes condenser cooling enhancement a questionable choice. We argue that condenser heating could suppress the marginal effect of multistage solar MD by unlocking the moisture transport limit in all distillation stages. Here, we propose a stage temperature boosting (STB) concept that directs low-temperature heat to the condensers in the last stages, enhancing moisture transport across all stages. Through STB in the last two stages with a heat flux of 250 W m −2 , a stage-averaged distillation flux of 1.13 L m −2 h −1 S −1 was demonstrated using an 8-stage MD device under one-sun illumination. This represents an 88% enhancement over the state-of-the-art 10-stage solar MD devices. More notably, our analysis indicates that 16-stage STB-MD devices driven by solar energy and waste heat can effectively compete with existing photovoltaic reverse osmosis (PV-RO) systems, potentially elevating freshwater production with low-temperature heat sources.
研究领域:
能源工程
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环境科学
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水资源管理
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产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
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2021
·
IF 8.128
Liang Hao,Ning Liu,Huiying Bai,Panpan He,Ran Niu,Jiang Gong
Hydrogel has been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for next-generation solar evaporation technology to produce freshwater from non-potable water. However, synthesizing hydrogel absorbers that can precisely regulate water state and significantly reduce the water vaporization enthalpy remains a grand challenge. Herein, we report the rational design of a novel hydrogel hybrid solar evaporator constructed by poly(vinyl alcohol) and sodium lignosulfonate (SLS), with addition of carbon nanotube as a light absorption material. The abundant sulfonate and hydroxyl groups of SLS enhance the interplay between hydrogel and water molecule through electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bond. As such, the presence of SLS not only remarkably promotes the hydrophilicity and water transport of hydrogel, but also precisely tunes the state of water molecule and the content of intermediate water for reducing the water vaporization enthalpy. The combined advantageous features endow the as-prepared hydrogel with an evaporation rate up to 2.09 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 Sun illumination, along with good anti-acid/basic abilities, antibacterial property, high salt-tolerance, and self-cleaning capability in purifying different types of wastewater. Finally, an outdoor solar seawater desalination device is designed to generate drinking water from seawater. The daily drinking water production amount per square meter is ca. 13 kg, which satifies the five adults' daily water consumption (12.5 kg). The present study highlights that rationally constructing the molecular architecture of hydrogel and tuning the interplay between water and hydrogel are effective strategies to fabricate advanced hydrogel solar evaporators for addressing the global freshwater shortage.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境科学
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能源工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
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2022
·
IF 9.136
Lihua Han,Jian Mao,An-Quan Xie,Yunzheng Liang,Liangliang Zhu,Su Chen
Energy and freshwater, as natural and important strategic resources, are the lifeblood and basic security of economic and social development. Freshwater production consumes vast energy, and vice versa. It is rare and still a significant challenge in the rational design of implementation for efficient clean water and chemical fuel production via solar-thermal technology, reconciling the water-energy contradiction. Herein, we demonstrated a new double-stage solar catalytic membrane distillation (DSCMD) system, integrating photocatalyst into the photothermic electrospun film that is imparted with the water feeding, photothermic conversion and photocatalysis functions, which simultaneously realized the stable freshwater and enhanced clean fuels production. The photothermal/catalytic materials synergistically harvest photons for localized heat generation, which also acts on catalytically active sites to enhance the yield of vapor and CO, so as to maximize the utilization of solar energy. As a result, the overall freshwater collection rate of 1.45 kg m -2 h −1 with the solar-to-water efficiency of up to 90.6 % and enhanced CO evolution rate of 21.29 μmol g cat −1 h −1 from CO 2 photoreduction are achieved by more effective vapor transportation and latent heat recovery, superior to the traditional photothermal membrane distillation systems, providing an alternative opportunity for sustainably alleviating the freshwater and energy shortage.
研究领域:
能源技术
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环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
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2023
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IF 7.7
Yuming Wu,Xin Zhong,Youquan Li,Huan Li,Yongshuang Cai,Weiming Wang,Xue Min,Jun Xiong,Ming Li
The scarcity of freshwater resources and the increasing demand for sustainable water treatment technologies have prompted the development of interfacial solar-driven seawater desalination (ISSD). However, designing stable solar evaporators to alleviate freshwater scarcity and reduce environmental stress remains a significant challenge. This study presents a solar evaporator from waste materials to address these challenges. The device comprises a photothermal membrane (CLPM) made from cattail leaf-based fibers (CLF) and cattail leaf-based carbon (CLC) with a simple crosslinking method using sodium alginate and CaCl 2 , a waste humidifier filter (WHF), and discarded packaging foam. The CLPM exhibits approximately 96 % solar absorption, achieving an evaporation rate of 1.38 kg m –2 h –1 when treating groundwater and 1.22 kg m –2 h –1 when desalinating a 3.5 wt % NaCl solution. The desalination performance of CLPM can be stable for 6 h due to the sufficient water provided by the WHF with vertical water conductivity channels. The desalination performance of CLPM can be restored by washing off the accumulated salts in a 3.5 wt % NaCl solution or by self-cleaning overnight, as verified by indoor and outdoor cycling experiments. 1 m 2 of CLPM can produce approximately 5.3 kg of freshwater during the daytime, sufficient to meet two adults' daily water consumption needs. This waste-derived solar evaporator promotes the efficient utilization of waste materials and offers a sustainable solution to address freshwater scarcity while reducing environmental impact.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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水资源管理
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
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2022
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IF 7.968
Huiying Bai,Panpan He,Liang Hao,Ning Liu,Zifen Fan,Bingyu Chen,Ran Niu,Jiang Gong
Interfacial solar-driven water evaporation is an appealing technology to mitigate freshwater crisis mainly caused by increasingly aggravated water pollution. Unfortunately, when polluted water is used, toxic organic pollutants might remain or even get enriched, leading to more serious water pollution. Herein, a self-floating bifunctional Fe 2 O 3 /N,O-doped carbon foam (FCF) evaporator is easily prepared by carbonization of waste polyester for simultaneous interfacial solar-driven water production and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The as-prepared FCF possesses low heat conductivity (0.074 W m −1 K −1 ), 3D interconnected pores, abundant functional groups as well as super-hydrophilicity, which impart FCF with fast water transport, high light absorptivity (98%), good photothermal conversion, and low vaporization enthalpy . Therefore, FCF presents high evaporation performance, e.g., 2.50 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 Sun irradiation, outperforming many advanced solar evaporators. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of heteroatom-doped carbon foam, Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticle , and interfacial thermal energy is certified on the activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to form diverse reactive oxide species (e.g., SO 4 •− ), which promote the degradation of diverse organic dyes or mixed dyes. Compared with FCF and PMS systems, the rate constant of FCF + PMS system (3.79 ×10 −2 min −1 ) is enhanced by 173.8 and 1.6 times, respectively. In outdoor experiments, the amount of freshwater production from per meter square (13 kg) satisfies with 5 adults’ daily water demand, and the dye degradation efficiency reaches 99.8%. The integration of advanced oxidation process into interfacial solar evaporation offers a promising strategy to simultaneously solve freshwater scarcity and sewage disposal.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMOSPHERE
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2020
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IF 5.778
Yong Zhang,Kuiling Li,Lie Liu,Kunpeng Wang,Jun Xiang,Deyin Hou,Jun Wang
To meet the increasing worldwide need for freshwater, it has become critical to exploit non-potable saline water. Solar membrane distillation (MD) is a promising desalination technique, which does not require conventional energy and can reduce the cost of water production. We developed a cost-effective and high-efficiency photothermal membrane that employs TiN nanoparticles as an absorber of sunlight and energy converter . Due to a strong photothermal effect, the solar energy efficiency significantly improved. With optimal membrane and MD operating conditions, we obtained an MD flux of 0.940 kg/m 2 ∙h and a solar efficiency of 64.1% under 1.0 kW/m 2 solar irradiation. Compared with a bare poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane, 65.8% more pure water was produced. Furthermore, the temperature polarization encountered in the conventional MD process was relieved on account of the unique interfacial heating of the photothermal coating, which also contributed to the high solar efficiency. In addition, the membrane was quite stable and the permeate water was of a high, potable quality. The as-prepared photothermal membrane demonstrated a good performance and application prospects for solar MD.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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水处理技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2023
·Vol. 33
·期 23
·2214157
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IF 19
Wenjing Ma,Tao Lu,Wenxuan Cao,Ranhua Xiong,Chaobo Huang
Solar steam generation has become one of the most promising strategies to relieve the freshwater crisis. Whereas, the construction of a solar-thermal water evaporation structure that can operate continuously under sunlight to generate clean water with high efficiency, good stability, and high salt-rejecting capability is quite crucial but challengeable. Enlightened by the water transport and transpiration process in trees, an advanced nanofibrous aerogel evaporator is fabricated with multifunctional capabilities through decoration of functional component onto an aerogel skeleton. The rational integration of hierarchical structure and functional constituents, results in outstanding solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 96.1% and a fast evaporation rate about 2.33 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 sun. Additionally, the evaporator exhibits remarkably outdoor evaporation and highly effective salt-resistant performances. Significantly, the evaporator can monitor salt precipitation in its inner pores in real time. This study demonstrates an eco-friendly and economic solution for sustainable clean water production using nanofiber aerogel-based evaporators.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境科学
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能源科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Nanomaterials
·
2022
·Vol. 12
·期 19
·3296
·
IF 5.719
Zhou Wei,Muhammad Sultan Irshad,Naila Arshad,Laila Noureen,Iftikhar Ahmed,Naveed Mushtaq,Muhammad Sohail Asghar,Qaisar Hayat,Uzma Ghazanfar,Muhammad Idrees,Naeem Shahzad,Yuzheng Lu
Solar-driven evaporation is a promising technology for desalinating seawater and wastewater without mechanical or electrical energy. The approaches to obtaining fresh water with higher evaporation efficiency are essential to address the water-scarcity issue in remote sensing areas. Herein, we report a highly efficient solar evaporator derived from the nanocomposite of anatase TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC), which was coated on washable cotton fabric using the dip-dry technique for solar water evaporation. The ultra-black fabric offers enhanced solar absorption (93.03%), hydrophilic water transport, and an efficient evaporation rate of 1.65 kg/m2h under 1 kW m−2or one sun solar intensity. More importantly, the sideways water channels and centralized thermal insulation of the designed TiO2/AC solar evaporator accumulated photothermal heat at the liquid and air interface along with an enhanced surface temperature of 40.98 °C under one sun. The fabricated solar evaporator desalinated seawater (3.5 wt%) without affecting the evaporation rates, and the collected condensed water met the standard of drinking water set by the World Health Organization (WHO). This approach eventually enabled the engineering design groups to develop the technology pathways as well as optimum conditions for low-cost, scalable, efficient, and sustainable solar-driven steam generators to cope with global water scarcity.Keywords:solar energy;water evaporation;anatase TiO2;AC;photothermal conversion;water scarcity
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境科学
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能源工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Small
·
2024
·
IF 13
Wenjing Geng,Hongjie Zhang,Weiwei Lei,Xiaoli Zhao,Cheng Chen
The world faces a trade-off between water availability and food supply, as agricultural irrigation consumes the largest freshwater globally. Inspired by inherent water transport channels in plants, a cost-effective welding pollen-based solar evaporator (PSE) is developed to obtain clean water from seawater desalination. Based on the convex and folded surface structure of natural pollen ( Helianthus annuus ) and the porous structure of welding pollen evaporator interconnection, the PSE reveals an efficient evaporation rate of 1.86 kg m −2 h −1 under one-sun illumination and further exhibits excellent cycling performance for 10 cycles tested in 7.0 wt.% saline water without salt accumulation. In addition, PSE has superior mechanical stability (3.44 MPa) and remains stable after being immersed in pH 1 and 14 solutions for 24 h without sacrificing mechanical properties. Importantly, the work has demonstrated the success of the freshwater collected from the evaporation process, which can effectively facilitate the cultivation of lettuce, rice, and wheat. These findings highlight the practical application of pollen as a low-cost, eco-friendly natural resource in interfacial solar evaporation. Furthermore, they inspire addressing current global water scarcity and promoting sustainable agriculture.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
DESALINATION
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2025
·
IF 9.8
Hailan Zhao,Xiaojiang Mu,Lu Yin,Zhixiang Zhang,Yang Long,Yitong Wang,Xiaoyang Wang,Jianhua Zhou,Lei Miao
Solar photothermal interfacial evaporation represents an approach for water purification and desalination, offering a solution to mitigate global water scarcity. However, the uncontrolled crystallization of NaCl on the evaporator surface during saline water evaporation can reduce evaporation efficiency, block water channels, and degrade the evaporator. In this study, we designed an evaporator that effectively suppresses the crystallization of NaCl (200), thereby regulating the crystal structure and shape of the precipitated NaCl. Besides, a Janus hemispherical evaporation interface was proposed, facilitating the self-shedding of NaCl under gravity. The collecting resistance ( F Cr ) of dendritic NaCl is reduced by about two orders of magnitude than that of cubic NaCl. Under 1 kW m −2 illumination, the evaporator simultaneously achieved a high NaCl salt collection efficiency of 54.30 % and the evaporation rate of 1.10 kg m −2 h −1 when treating 20 wt% saltwater. This work introduces a strategy for salt resource extraction and pure water production.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
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2024
·
IF 7.4
Hongfei Hu,Yingxuan Feng,Xinjie Chen,Linping Tian,Zhiyuan Yin,Huinan Wang,Yingying Li,Yushan Yang,Qingfeng Sun
Solar steam evaporation has been shown to represent an advanced approach to freshwater generation. The primary obstacles in developing solar steam generation devices utilizing biomass materials include intricate manufacturing procedures and a comparatively lower energy conversion efficiency . Here, we detailed a straightforward approach involving the deposition of polydopamine (PDA) onto carbonized wood, creating an innovative solar interface evaporation device. Treated wood obtained by removing a part of lignin and hemicellulose was transformed into carbonized wood through a straightforward wood carbonization process. Subsequently, the carbonized wood's water and light absorption were further enhanced by applying a hydrophilic coating using dopamine (DA) and diethylenetriamine (DETA). The result was the development of a wood-based solar interface evaporator capable of performing three essential functions: light absorption, photothermal conversion , and water transfer. The Super-hydrophilic carbonized wood (SCW) solar steam evaporator possessed an evaporation efficiency of approximately 91.81 %, net evaporation of 1.7853 kg m −2 h −1 in seawater , an evaporation efficiency of approximately 78.44 %, and net evaporation of 1.52538 kg m −2 h −1 in groundwater at one sun, respectively. Therefore, SCW holds substantial promise for applications in seawater desalination and groundwater extraction , offering a valuable solution to address the issue of inadequate freshwater availability.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2024
·
IF 8.1
Qi Zhao,Yawei Yang,Zhiling Qiu,Mengyuan Qiang,Xinye Xu,Yong Ma,Yihong Liu,Bowen Liu,Chengzhen Sun,Wenxiu Que
Solar vapor collection has emerged as a reliable method for freshwater production. However, despite recent advancements, solar water purification remains in the early stages of interfacial water evaporation development. The challenges associated with achieving efficient vapor collection have hindered its progress toward practical applications. Here, we developed a hydrophilic hydrogel condenser with exceptional condensation performance and high transparency using a straightforward sol–gel deposition method, involving the evaporation and crystallization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The resulting 2D PVA-glass and 3D PVA-polycarbonate (PC) condensers exhibited significantly higher transmittance compared to condensers without hydrogel coatings during solar vapor collection. Under 1 solar irradiation, the solar vapor collection rates of the PVA-glass and PVA-PC condensers reached 1.07 kg m −2 h −1 and (93 % of the evaporation rate) and 0.71 kg m −2 h −1 (67 % of the evaporation rate), respectively. We combined the 2D PVA-glass and the 3D PVA-PC condensers with the evaporator for outdoor tests. The solar vapor collection rate remains good and the water production can meet people’s daily water demand (PVA-glass: 6.75 L m −2 d −1 , PVA-PC: 4.2 L m −2 d −1 ). The preceding applications proved great condensation effects and established a robust verification basis for future solar water purification.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
环境科学
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能源技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）