Modeling and performance analysis of high-efficiency thermally-localized multistage solar stills

Solar passive distiller with high productivity and Marangoni effect-driven salt rejection

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The attention has been mainly focused on the study and design of new nano-structured materials and smart structures able to improve the solar-to-vapour conversion and the energy management. 13,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In 2018 some of the authors proposed a solar passive and multistage distiller 5 able to achieve performance beyond the thermodynamic limit of a single stage device, by recovering the latent heat of condensation. The importance of recovering the latent heat of condensation in passive distillation devices has been then extensively discussed and emphasized by Wang and co-workers, 30 and Pang and co-workers.…”

Passive, high-efficiency thermally-localized solar desalination

“…In this article, unlike previous reviews that typically categorized evaporator designs based on their material composition and morphology, [5][6][7]10,11,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40] we focus on analyzing recent high-efficiency…”

“…34 With design optimization, even higher efficiencies -as high as 750% -could be possible. 36 However, while these significant advances in performance have been realized through the development of novel materials and configurations for solar thermal desalination, a quantitative understanding of heat and mass transport that has enabled these performance enhancements is lacking. In addition, the vast majority of reported studies have focused on vapor generation, while the other half of the desalination process -efficient condensation and effective recovery of the latent heat of condensation have received relatively less attention.…”

“…(b) Efficiency achieved by different solar thermal desalination technologies. The red dashed line represents the thermodynamic limit of solar thermal desalination, and the white and gray bars represent the operational 10,17,18,21,23,25,34 and theoretical 16,19,20,22,24,36 efficiencies, respectively. 7…”

A Passive High-Temperature High-Pressure Solar Steam Generator for Medical Sterilization

“…Leveraging interfacial solar heat localization, improved thermal design, and enthalpy recycling, substantially higher solar-to-vapor conversion efficiencies have been reported. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] However, these high-efficiency systems typically operate at relatively low temperatures (<50 C), which are insufficient for medical sterilization. Although high-temperature solar steam generation has been demonstrated in recent studies, their solar-to-steam conversion efficiency is limited (z 20%) due to higher heat losses at elevated temperatures (>100 C).…”