1
|
Jiang H, Liu X, Wang H, Wang D, Guo Y, Wang D, Gao G, Wang X, Hu C. Waterwheel-inspired rotating evaporator for efficient and stable solar desalination even in saturated brine. Sci Bull (Beijing) 2023; 68:1640-1650. [PMID: 37481437 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
Solar desalination is one of the most promising technologies to address global freshwater shortages. However, traditional evaporators encounter the bottleneck of reduced evaporation rate or even failure due to salt accumulation in high-salinity water. Inspired by ancient waterwheels, we have developed an adaptively rotating evaporator that enables long-term and efficient solar desalination in brines of any concentration. The evaporator is a sulphide-loaded drum-type biochar. Our experiments and numerical simulations show that this evaporator, thanks to its low density and unique hydrophilic property, rotates periodically under the center-of-gravity shift generated by salt accumulation, achieving self-removal of salt. This allows it to maintain a high evaporation rate of 2.80 kg m-2 h-1 within 24 h even in saturated brine (26.47%), which was not achieved previously. This proof-of-concept work therefore demonstrates a concentration- and time-independent, self-rotation-induced solar evaporator.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hanjin Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, Jilin Provincial International Cooperation Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Clean Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
| | - Xinghang Liu
- School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
| | - Haitao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, Jilin Provincial International Cooperation Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Clean Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
| | - Dewen Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, Jilin Provincial International Cooperation Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Clean Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
| | - Yanan Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
| | - Dong Wang
- College of Chemical Engineering, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin 132012, China.
| | - Gang Gao
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
| | - Xiaoyi Wang
- Key Laboratory of Optical System Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China; State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China.
| | - Chaoquan Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, Jilin Provincial International Cooperation Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Clean Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China; State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China; Key Laboratory of Optical System Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China; State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China.
| |
Collapse
|