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Kim HT, Afsari M, Tan NPB, Shon HK, Tijing LD. Recent Progress on Passive, Thermally Localized Solar-Driven Multistage Water Evaporation. MEMBRANES 2023; 13:membranes13050460. [PMID: 37233520 DOI: 10.3390/membranes13050460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2023] [Revised: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Thermally localized solar-driven water evaporation (SWE) in recent years has increasingly been developed due to the potential of cost-efficient freshwater production from small-scale portable devices. In particular, the multistage SWE has attracted much attention as the systems possess mostly a simple foundational structure and high solar-to-thermal conversion output rates, enough to produce freshwater from 1.5 L m-2h-1 (LMH) to 6 LMH. In this study, the currently designed multistage SWE devices were reviewed and examined based on their unique characteristics as well as their performances in freshwater production. The main distinguishing factors in these systems were the condenser staging design and the spectrally selective absorbers either in a form of high solar absorbing material, photovoltaic (PV) cells for water and electricity co-production, and coupling of absorber and solar concentrator. Other elements of the devices involved differences such as the direction of water flow, the number of layers constructed, and the materials used for each layer of the system. The key factors to consider for these systems include the heat and mass transport in the device, solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency, gain output ratio (representing how many times the latent heat has been reused), water production rate/number of stages, and kWh/number of stages. It was evident that most of the studied devices involved slightly different mechanisms and material compositions to draw out higher efficiency rates from the current limitations. The reviewed designs showed the ability to be adopted into small-scale solar desalination allowing for accessibility of sufficient freshwater in needing regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeon Tae Kim
- Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Morteza Afsari
- Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Noel Peter B Tan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Technology, University of San Agustin, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
- Center for Advanced New Materials, Engineering, and Emerging Technologies (CANMEET), University of San Agustin, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
| | - Ho Kyong Shon
- Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
- ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Leonard D Tijing
- Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
- ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
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