Transpiration-powered desalination water bottle

Inspired by mangrove trees, we present a theoretical design and analysis of a portable desalinating water bottle powered by transpiration. The bottle includes an annular fin for absorbing solar heat, which is used to boost the evaporation rate of water from the interior synthetic leaf. This syntheti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2022-02, Vol.18 (6), p.1287-1293
Main Authors: Cornish, Gracie A, Eyegheleme, Ndidi L, Hudson, Laurel S, Troy, Kathleen J, Vollen, Maia M, Boreyko, Jonathan B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
Desalination
Evaporation
Evaporation rate
Fresh water
INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Leaves
Localization
Mangrove trees
Materials Science
Osmosis
Physics
Polymer Science
Reverse osmosis
Seawater
Transpiration
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:Inspired by mangrove trees, we present a theoretical design and analysis of a portable desalinating water bottle powered by transpiration. The bottle includes an annular fin for absorbing solar heat, which is used to boost the evaporation rate of water from the interior synthetic leaf. This synthetic leaf comprises a nanoporous film deposited atop a supporting micromesh. Water evaporating from the leaf generates a highly negative Laplace pressure, which pulls the overlying source water across an upstream reverse osmosis membrane. Evaporated water is re-condensed in the bottom of the bottle for collection. The benefit of our hybrid approach to desalination is that reverse osmosis is spontaneously enabled by transpiration, while the thermal evaporation process is enhanced by heat localization and made more durable by pre-filtering the salt. We estimate that a 9.4 cm diameter bottle, with a 10 cm wide annular fin, could harvest about a liter of fresh water per day from ocean water. Inspired by mangrove trees, we present a theoretical design and analysis of a portable desalinating water bottle powered by transpiration.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/d1sm01470f