IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v3y2020i2d10.1038_s41893-019-0445-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhanced solar evaporation using a photo-thermal umbrella for wastewater management

Author

Listed:
  • Akanksha K. Menon

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Iwan Haechler

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Sumanjeet Kaur

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Sean Lubner

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Ravi S. Prasher

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

Zero-liquid discharge is an emerging wastewater management strategy that maximizes water recovery for reuse and produces a solid waste, thereby lowering the environmental impact of wastewater disposal. Evaporation ponds harvest solar energy as heat for zero-liquid discharge, but require large land areas due to low evaporation rates. Here, we demonstrate a passive and non-contact approach to enhance evaporation by more than 100% using a photo-thermal device that converts sunlight into mid-infrared radiation where water is strongly absorbing. As a result, heat is localized at the water’s surface through radiative coupling, resulting in better utilization of solar energy with a conversion efficiency of 43%. The non-contact nature of the device makes it uniquely suited to treat a wide range of wastewater without contamination, and the use of commercial materials enables a potentially low-cost and highly scalable technology for sustainable wastewater management, with the added benefit of salt recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Akanksha K. Menon & Iwan Haechler & Sumanjeet Kaur & Sean Lubner & Ravi S. Prasher, 2020. "Enhanced solar evaporation using a photo-thermal umbrella for wastewater management," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(2), pages 144-151, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0445-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0445-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0445-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-019-0445-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lenan Zhang & Xiangyu Li & Yang Zhong & Arny Leroy & Zhenyuan Xu & Lin Zhao & Evelyn N. Wang, 2022. "Highly efficient and salt rejecting solar evaporation via a wick-free confined water layer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Kaijie Yang & Tingting Pan & Saichao Dang & Qiaoqiang Gan & Yu Han, 2022. "Three-dimensional open architecture enabling salt-rejection solar evaporators with boosted water production efficiency," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Yu, Zhen & Cheng, Shaoan & Gu, Ruonan & Li, Yihang & Dai, Shaoling & Mao, Zhengzhong, 2021. "Interfacial solar evaporator for clean water production and beyond: From design to application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0445-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.