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Low Cost, Robust, Environmentally Friendly Geopolymer–Mesoporous Carbon Composites for Efficient Solar Powered Steam Generation
Author(s) -
Liu Fenghua,
Zhao Binyuan,
Wu Weiping,
Yang Haiyan,
Ning Yuesheng,
Lai Yijian,
Bradley Robert
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201803266
Subject(s) - materials science , renewable energy , process engineering , environmentally friendly , solar energy , desalination , solar desalination , environmental science , waste management , engineering , ecology , genetics , membrane , electrical engineering , biology
High‐efficiency, environment friendly, renewable energy‐based methods of desalination represent attractive and potentially very powerful solutions to the long‐standing problem of global water shortage. Many new laboratory‐scale materials have been developed for photothermal desalination but the development of low‐cost, easy‐to‐manufacture, and scalable materials and systems that can convert solar irradiation into exploitable thermal energy in this context is still a significant challenge. This paper presents work on a geopolymer–biomass mesoporous carbon composite (GBMCC) device with mesoporous and macroporous structures for harvesting solar energy, which is then used in a device to generate water vapor with high efficiency using negative pressure, wind‐driven, steam generation. The GBMCC device gives water evaporation rates of 1.58 and 2.71 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 and 3 suns illumination, with the solar thermal conversion efficiency up to 84.95% and 67.6%, respectively. A remarkable, record high water vapor generation rate of 7.55 kg m −2 h −1 is achieved under 1 sun solar intensity at the wind speed of 3 m s −1 . This is a key step forward todays efficient, sustainable and economical production of clean water from seawater or common wastewater with free solar energy.