A stable all-day interfacial evaporation multistage distillation driven by solar photothermal and solar electrothermal

[Display omitted] •A multistage distillation device for all-day operation.•Absorber material for better photothermal conversion and Joule heat.•Up to 240 h of continuous stable operation.•Evaporation rates of 2.2 and 2.5 kg m-2h−1 driven by 1 kW m−2 solar and electricity. Solar-powered interface vap...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solar energy 2023-11, Vol.264, p.112065, Article 112065
Main Authors: Cheng, Shaoan, Li, Yihang, Jin, Beichen, Yu, Zhen, Gu, Ruonan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Desalination
Interfacial solar evaporation
Latent heat
Photothermal materials
Solar vapor generation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:[Display omitted] •A multistage distillation device for all-day operation.•Absorber material for better photothermal conversion and Joule heat.•Up to 240 h of continuous stable operation.•Evaporation rates of 2.2 and 2.5 kg m-2h−1 driven by 1 kW m−2 solar and electricity. Solar-powered interface vapor generation offers a promising approach to sustainable desalination. However, the diurnal nature of solar energy leaves evaporators idles for nearly half their lifetime. Existing evaporators that set electricity as an auxiliary energy source for nighttime evaporators have a series of electrochemical problems, such as short circuits, corrosion, and water electrolysis, making it difficult to achieve continuous and stable freshwater production. Here, we designed solar absorbers by modifying carbon black (CB) on the far-infrared radiation paper (FIRP) surface for simultaneous photothermal conversion and joule heating. The absorber is further set in a multistage distillation (MSD) device for interfacial evaporation and latent heat recovery. The MSD device is designed with mutually insulated circuitry and water transfer paths to avoid electrochemical reactions within the device fundamentally. As a result, the MSD device achieved evaporation rates of 2.2 and 2.5 kg m-2h−1 at 1 kW m−2 solar-driven and electric-driven inputs, respectively. In particular, the MSD device achieved a continuous and stable operation of 240 h under alternating solar and electric drive. This method provides a new idea for the long-term continuous operation of interfacial evaporators.
ISSN:0038-092X
1471-1257
DOI:10.1016/j.solener.2023.112065