Description of capability
From article abstract:
Utilizing sunlight to drive freshwater production is a promising way to realize sustainable water supply. Recent advances in multistage solar distillation attract particular interest because it enables a multifold enhancement in water production rate. However, existing solar-powered multistage distillers suffer from reliability and limited lifetime. The undesirable reliability makes the distilled water cost much higher than the tap water price, which significantly impedes the practical adoption. A key underlying limiting factor of device reliability is the evaporator fouling induced by salt accumulation. Inspired by a natural phenomenon, thermohaline convection in the deep ocean, we demonstrate multistage solar distillation with both record-high water production efficiency and extreme resistance to salt accumulation via temperature and salinity gradient manipulation across a novel confined-saline-layer evaporator. This promises a real-world impact of solar distillation technologies.
Key people
Technology Readiness Level (1-9)
3