Open AccessHighly Efficient Water Harvesting with Optimized Solar Thermal Membrane Distillation Device
Author(s) -
Xue Guobin,
Chen Qian,
Lin Shizhe,
Duan Jiangjiang,
Yang Peihua,
Liu Kang,
Li Jia,
Zhou Jun
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
global challenges
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2056-6646
DOI - 10.1002/gch2.201800001
Subject(s) - distillation , membrane distillation , solar still , thermal , desalination , environmental science , thermal efficiency , solar desalination , materials science , multiple effect distillation , latent heat , process engineering , passive solar building design , photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector , environmental engineering , membrane , meteorology , chemistry , fractional distillation , engineering , chromatography , biochemistry , physics , organic chemistry , combustion
Water distillation with solar thermal technology could be one of the most promising way to address the global freshwater scarcity, with its low cost and minimum environmental impacts. However, the low liquid water productivity, which is caused by the heat loss and inadequate heat utilization in solar‐thermal conversion process, hinders its practical application. Here, a compact solar‐thermal membrane distillation system with three structure features: highly localized solar‐thermal heating, effective cooling strategy, and recycling the latent heat, is proposed. The steam generation rate is 0.98 kg m −2 h −1 under solar illumination of 1 kW m −2 in the open system, while the liquid water productivity could be 1.02 kg m −2 h −1 with the solar efficiency up to 72% with a two‐level device. The outdoor experiments show a water productivity of 3.67 kg m −2 with salt rejection over 99.75% in one cloudy day. These results demonstrate an easy and high‐efficiency way for water distillation, especially suitable for household solar water purification.