A mimetic transpiration system for record high conversion efficiency in solar steam generator under one-sun

Liu, Peng Fei; Liu, Miao; Deng, Ziyang; Zhou, Jianhua; Su, Hui; Sun, Lixian; Tanemura, Sakae; Cao, Wenbin; Jiang, Fangming; Zhao, Li‐Dong

doi:10.1016/j.mtener.2018.04.004

Cited by 160 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…As shown in Figure S1a, Supporting Information, the evaporation performances of samples were measured by a homemade mimetic transpiration system (MTS). [ 73 ] Further, a combination of cylinder foam (height: 2.5 mm; diameter: 32 mm) and air‐laid paper was used as water pass to decrease the direct conduction heat loss to water. Moreover, edges of the air‐laid paper were cut into strips for diffusion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Matching for Boosting Water Evaporation in Direct Solar Steam Generation

Wang

et al. 2020

Solar RRL

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Energy matching strategy is verified as an effective method for significant improvement of evaporation rate in direct solar steam generation (DSSG). By adjusting the solid-liquid interface through bilayer structure, the water transport speed from reservoir to evaporation surface is controlled to reduce the required energy (RE) for closely matching with that of input energy (IE). The highest evaporation rate can reach up to 2.22 kg m À2 h À1 under one-sun illumination, which is improved by 40% through energy matching. A solar-to-vapor energy conversion efficiency of 93.2% is obtained. It is also highly effective in practical applications including desalination, sewage treatment, oil-water separation, and heavy metal ions treatment. This concept displays a balance between the energy needed for water waiting to be evaporated and the IE. It can inspire more ideas for researchers to accelerate the development of DSSG.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Matching for Boosting Water Evaporation in Direct Solar Steam Generation

Wang

et al. 2020

Solar RRL

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“…The expansion of moisture generated on the evaporation surface causes the substrate to absorb water continuously, and the temperature of the water increases in order to continuously promote the evaporation process. During the past ten years, due to the rapid development of new types of photo-thermal materials and structures, in addition to the rapid development of water transport materials and thermal insulation materials, interface solar evaporation efficiency has increased by 190% at a low solar power [74]. Fig.…”

Section: Solar-thermal Conversion Mechanisms and Evaluation Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 8 shows several typical combinations between water transportation and thermal insulation based on solar steam generation [43,70,74,76]. Cellulosic foam, polyurethane and polystyrene foam, AAO, graphene oxide aerogels, carbon nanotube arrays, natural wood, cotton and other substrates have been developed.…”

Section: Structure For Thermal Insulation and Water Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water pathway and transport based on solar steam generation: (a) The pore structure within low tortuosity design of the evaporator accelerates water transport[70]; (b) Solar vapour generation based on hybrid hydrogels with capillarity facilitates water transport[76]; (c) Controllable pore size absorber gel provides capillary water transport channels and steam pathways[43]; and (d) Water transport within confined evaporation, branched diffusion based on mimetic transpiration system[74] …”

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confidence: 99%

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Solar-thermal conversion and steam generation: a review

Shi

Wang

et al. 2020

Applied Thermal Engineering

129

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Highlights  Solar absorbed materials and their photo-thermal conversion mechanism are reviewed.  The evaluation principle of photo-thermal conversion process are investigated.  Different solar absorbed evaporation methods and system are summarized.  The prospects and challenges of photo-thermal conversion and steam generation are discussed Abstract: Recently, steam generation systems based on solar-thermal conversion have received much interest, and this may be due to the widespread use of solar energy and water sources such as oceans and lakes. The photo-thermal desalination system becomes attractive as it can convert absorbed solar light energy into thermal energy and realise the desalination and water purification of saline water through the evaporation process. In this paper, the research status of solar-thermal conversion materials such as metal-based materials, semiconductor materials, carbon-base materials, organic polymer materials, composite photo-thermal materials and their solar-thermal conversion mechanism in recent years are reviewed. The physical process and evaluation principle of solar-thermal conversion are both carefully introduced. The methods of optimising thermal management and increasing the evaporation rate of a hybrid system are also introduced in detail. Four main applications of solar-thermal conversion technologies (seawater desalination, wastewater purification, sterilisation and power generation) are discussed. Finally, based on the above analysis, the prospects and challenges for future research in the field of desalination are discussed from an engineering and scientific viewpoint to promote the direction of research, in order to stimulate future development and accelerate commercial application.

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“…Because of the increasing energy consumption and cost of conventional water purification technologies like reverse osmosis (5) with increasing water salinity, there has been a rapidly increasing demand for the development of sustainable distillation methods. As a result, a general approach of using localized photothermal heating to drive solar water purification processes has been a topic of intense recent research interest worldwide, and many variations of this process have recently been demonstrated (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). One approach for water purification, powered by sunlight and appropriate for portability to remote locations, is nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation (NESMD) (25).…”

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confidence: 99%

Solar thermal desalination as a nonlinear optical process

Dongare

Alabastri

Neumann

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The ever-increasing global need for potable water requires practical, sustainable approaches for purifying abundant alternative sources such as seawater, high-salinity processed water, or underground reservoirs. Evaporation-based solutions are of particular interest for treating high salinity water, since conventional methods such as reverse osmosis have increasing energy requirements for higher concentrations of dissolved minerals. Demonstration of efficient water evaporation with heat localization in nanoparticle solutions under solar illumination has led to the recent rapid development of sustainable, solar-driven distillation methods. Given the amount of solar energy available per square meter at the Earth’s surface, however, it is important to utilize these incident photons as efficiently as possible to maximize clean water output. Here we show that merely focusing incident sunlight into small “hot spots” on a photothermally active desalination membrane dramatically increases––by more than 50%––the flux of distilled water. This large boost in efficiency results from the nearly exponential dependence of water vapor saturation pressure on temperature, and therefore on incident light intensity. Exploiting this inherent but previously unrecognized optical nonlinearity should enable the design of substantially higher-throughput solar thermal desalination methods. This property provides a mechanism capable of enhancing a far wider range of photothermally driven processes with supralinear intensity dependence, such as light-driven chemical reactions and separation methods.

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A mimetic transpiration system for record high conversion efficiency in solar steam generator under one-sun

Cited by 160 publications

References 44 publications

Energy Matching for Boosting Water Evaporation in Direct Solar Steam Generation

Energy Matching for Boosting Water Evaporation in Direct Solar Steam Generation

Solar-thermal conversion and steam generation: a review

Solar thermal desalination as a nonlinear optical process

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