Harnessing overlapped temperature-salinity gradient in solar-driven interfacial seawater evaporation for efficient steam and electricity generation

Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation(SIWE)offers a superb way to leverage concentrated solar heat to minimize energy dissipation during seawater desalination.It also engenders overlapped temperaturesalinity gradient(TSG)between water-air interface and adjacent seawater,affording opportunities of harnessing electricity.However,the efficiency of conventional SIWE technologies is limited by significant challenges,including salt passivation to hinder evaporation and difficulties in exploiting overlapped TSG simultaneously.Herein,we report self-sustaining hybrid SIWE for not only sustainable seawater desalination but also efficient electricity generation from TSG.It enables spontaneous circulation of salt flux upon seawater evaporation,inducing a self-cleaning evaporative interface without salt passivation for stable steam generation.Meanwhile,this design enables spatial separation and simultaneous utilization of overlapped TSG to enhance electricity generation.These benefits render a remarkable efficiency of90.8%in solar energy utilization,manifesting in co-generation of solar steam at a fast rate of 2.01 kg m^(-2)-h^(-1)and electricity power of 1.91 W m^(-2)with high voltage.Directly interfacing the hybrid SIWE with seawater electrolyzer constructs a system for water-electricity-hydrogen co-generation without external electricity supply.It produces hydrogen at a rapid rate of 1.29 L h^(-1)m^(-2)and freshwater with 22 times lower Na+concentration than the World Health Organization(WHO)threshold.

Emulsion‐templated synthesis of 3D evaporators for efficient solar steam generation

Interfacial solar steam generation holds great promise in water desalination thanks to its high energy efficiency by heating only the top layer of water for evaporation.While three‐dimensional(3D)evaporators have been proven to increase the evaporation rate by harnessing the energy from the surroundings,further development is still required in terms of convenient fabrication with potential scalability.Herein,we propose to overcome this challenge by using a high internal phase emulsion(HIPE)to template the synthesis of 3D hierarchically porous evaporators.The HIPE‐templated synthesis combined with a molding process can efficiently fabricate the desired 3D shape without wasting any materials and generate a hierarchically porous internal structure for continuous water supply.Engineering the overall shape and internal pores produces a 3D evaporator that can suppress conduction heat loss and efficiently collect thermal energy from its surroundings,boosting the evaporation rate to 2.82 kg/(m2 h)under 1‐sun illumination,which is significantly higher than conventional 2D evaporators.HIPE‐templating synthesis is an easy but effective way to produce various porous polymers,promising for a wide range of applications where easy production,excellent shape control,and potential scalability are critical.

复合抛物面聚光器–光伏/光热与燃煤发电机组联合供能系统性能分析

设计出独立双层流道式和回路双层流道式结构的水冷式复合抛物面聚光器?光伏/光热(CPC-PV/T)电热联用装置,分析比较2种装置的特征,CPC-PV/T集热单元之间采用蛇形对冲式连接方式;提出将多个CPC-PV/T电热联用装置并联连接组成的CPC-PV/T预热系统辅助加热燃煤机组凝结水,以及作为扩容蒸发式太阳能蒸汽发生系统(VEESG)辅助燃煤机组联合热发电的预热段2种集成方式,针对2种集成方式研究其集成机制。结果表明,联合发电系统机组热经济性随CPC-PV/T进水流量的增加成线性递增趋势;其出水温度可达90℃以上,在一定进水流量范围内,CPC-PV/T热效率随进水流量的增加而降低,随辐射强度的增强而提高;CPC-PV/T电效率随进水流量的增加呈波形递增趋势,其平均电效率、热效率分别在13.4%、42%左右。与独立的光伏或光热系统相比,CPC-PV/T占地面积小、太阳能利用率高。

光-煤互补复合发电系统综合性能分析

将扩容蒸发式槽式太阳能蒸汽发生系统与600 MW燃煤机组联合,构建了光-煤互补复合发电系统,建立了其变工况计算模型及技术经济评价模型,从太阳能侧、汽轮机侧及复合发电系统3方面进行了热力性能分析及技术经济性评估。结果表明,光-煤互补复合发电系统具有显著的节能减排效果,系统产生的太阳能蒸汽取代汽轮机第1段抽汽时效果最为明显,太阳能侧各指标随取代抽汽段数增大呈阶段性下降趋势,太阳能到电能的转换效率最高为23.5%;各集成模式下的单值发电成本相差不大,平均为0.19元/(kW·h);从净现值判断取代第1段抽汽是较好的选择,从净现值率、盈利能力判断取代第2段抽汽是较好的选择。

Enhancing solar steam generation using a highly thermally conductive evaporator support

Interfacial solar steam generation is an efficient water evaporation technology which has promising applications in desalination,sterilization,water purification and treatment.A common component of evaporator design is a thermal-insulation support placed between the photothermal evaporation surface and bulk water.This configuration,common in 2-dimensional(2 D)evaporation systems,minimizes heat loss from evaporation surface to bulk water,thus localizing the heat on the evaporation surface for efficient evaporation.This design is subsequently directly adopted for 3-dimensional(3 D)evaporators without any consideration if it is appropriate.However,unlike 2 D solar evaporators,the 3 D evaporators can also harvest additional energy(other than solar light)from the air and bulk water to enhance evaporation rate.In this scenario,the use of thermal insulator support is not proper since it will hinder energy extraction from water.Here,the traditional 3 D evaporator configuration was completely redesigned by using a highly thermally conductive material,instead of a thermal insulator,to connect evaporation surfaces and the bulk water.Much higher evaporation rates were achieved by this strategy,owing to the rapid heat transfer from the bulk water to the evaporation surfaces.Indoor and outdoor tests both confirmed that evaporation performance could be significantly improved by substituting a thermal insulator with thermally conductive support.These findings will redirect the future design of 3 D photothermal evaporators.

利用轧钢加热炉所产低压蒸汽发电的探讨

简要介绍了轧钢加热炉汽化冷却系统及所生产蒸汽的利用情况,并针对目前低压蒸汽发电技术发展现状,探讨如何利用该系统或工业生产中类似余热回收系统生产的蒸汽用于发电。分别从转换机械选择、发电机选取、并网方式设计等不同方面进行了分析。设计了压差发电、全压发电两种蒸汽使用方案,分别计算了它们的发电功率及经济效益,并对这两种方案的适用场合进行了介绍。该技术的推广应用,为低温余热资源高效利用扩展了新途径。

Constructing central hollow cylindrical reduced graphene oxide foams with vertically and radially orientated porous channels for highly efficient solar-driven water evaporation and purification

Although solar steam generation is an eco-friendly approach for desalinating seawater and purifying wastewater,there are still issues on how to improve the efficiency of solar energy utilization and accelerate the water and heat transport inside the solardriven water evaporators.Herein,we design a central hollow cylindrical reduced graphene oxide(RGO)foam with vertically and radially orientated channels as a solar steam generation device for efficient water evaporation and purification.The vertically aligned porous channels accelerate upward transport of water to the top evaporation surface,while the radially aligned porous channels facilitate water transport and heat transfer along the radial directions for fully utilizing the heat accumulated inside the central cylindrical hole of the foam.The central hole of the foam plays a highly positive role in accumulating more heat for accelerating the water evaporation,the newly generated inner sidewall resulted from the central hole can gain extra thermal energy from surrounding environment in the same way as the outer sidewall of the foam due to the surface cooling effect of the water evaporation.As a result,the vertically and radially aligned RGO foam evaporator with central hollow cylinder achieves a high solar steam generation rate of 2.32 kg·m^(−2)·h^(−1)with an exceptional energy conversion efficiency of 120.9%under 1-sun irradiation,superior to the vertically aligned RGO foam without the central hole(1.83 kg·m^(−2)·h^(−1),96.9%)because of the enhanced water and heat transfer inside the porous channels,the efficient utilization of environmental energy.

High-performance salt-resistant solar interfacial evaporation by flexible robust porous carbon/pulp fiber membrane

Solar evaporation has emerged as an attractive technology to produce freshwater by utilizing renewable solar energy.However,it remains a huge challenge to develop efficient solar steam generators with good flexibility,low cost and remarkable salt resistance.Herein,we prepare flexible,robust solar membranes by filtration of porous carbon and commercial paper pulp fiber.The porous carbon with well-defined structures is prepared through controlled carbonization of biomass/waste plastics by eutectic salts.We prove the synergistic effect of porous carbon and paper pulp fiber in boosting solar evaporation performance.Firstly,the porous carbon displays a high light absorption,while the paper pulp fiber with good hydrophilicity effectively promotes the transport of water.Secondly,the combination between porous carbon and paper pulp fiber reduces the water vaporization enthalpy by 20%,which is important to significantly improve the evaporation performance.As a proof of concept,the porous carbon/paper pulp fiber membrane possesses a high evaporation rate of 1.8 kg m^(-2)h^(-1)under 1 kW m^(-2)irradiation.Thirdly,the good flexibility and mechanical property of paper pulp fiber enable the solar membrane to work well under extreme conditions(e.g.,after 20 cycles of folding/stretching/recovery).Lastly,due to the super-hydrophilicity and superwetting,the hybrid membrane exhibits the exceptional salt resistance and long-term stability in continuous seawater desalination,e.g.,for 50 h.Importantly,a large-scale solar desalination device for outdoor experiments is developed to produce freshwater.Consequently,this work provides a new insight into developing advanced flexible solar evaporators with superb performance in seawater desalination.