Decentralized Solar-Driven Photothermal Desalination: An Interdisciplinary Challenge to Transition Lab-Scale Research to Off-Grid Applications

Abstract

Sunlight can power thermal desalination as a carrier of electromagnetic energy if efficiently turned into heat. In the search for technologies to relieve global water scarcity, thermal desalination has key advantages in terms of sustainability, robustness, and limited salinity dependence. Solar-driven photothermal desalination (SDPD) can enable decentralized water purification, improved accessibility, and reduced environmental impact overcoming limitations of conventional, infrastructureheavy desalination practices. However, there remains a lack of consensus on how to best evaluate the efficiency of diverse lightdriven systems. While developing advanced absorbers, evaporators, and materials for desalination is essential, we have concluded that more efforts should focus on system-wide optimization, with particular attention paid to thermal energy recovery and loss mitigation. This Perspective offers a blueprint for achieving efficient and scalable SDPD under varying solar irradiation, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary approaches to accomplish this goal.

Recent advances in interfacial solar vapor generation: clean water production and beyond

“…Therefore, it should be a hugely rewarding process if one can recycle the latent heat contained in the evaporated water vapor in the ISVG systems. 241 As shown in Fig. 8(a), Chiavazzo et al constructed a passive multi-stage solar-driven distiller capable of recycling the latent heat of vaporization before it was lost to the environment.…”

Recent Advances and Challenges of Metal‐Based Materials for Solar Steam Generation

“…Therefore, we should focus on the improvement of local parameters, and consider the whole system from the perspective that all parts work in synergy with each other to bring out better performance. [ 158 ] Due to the lack of standardized measurement, the performance reported in the literature cannot be directly compared. Even the same materials have different SSG performances in different designed systems.…”

Designing Metasurfaces for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

“…Such a mechanism can be exploited for various solar-thermal applications. As a widely investigated solar-thermal process at a low temperature regime, solar steam generation − makes use of a broadband solar absorber to promote water evaporation under solar irradiation (Figure a and Table S4 for additional details). This technology requires the use of simple and scalable photothermal materials to ensure its application in decentralized scenarios.…”