I-Corps: Solar Thermal Membrane Distillation System

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为生活在缺水地区的人们提供负担得起的安全饮用水解决方案。有超过10亿人生活在物质缺水的条件下，另有16亿人面临经济缺水。此外，因自然灾害而遭受供水系统崩溃的人、生活在水污染地区的人或需要在偏远欠发达地区生存的人也将从这项技术的商业化中受益。这项技术也可以用作军事行动、石油和天然气钻探工人的生存设备的一部分，以及用于船舶和飞机的救生筏。从技术角度来看，本发明的系统在利用太阳能热能方面具有创新性设计，在提取清洁饮用水方面具有较高的能源效率，且资金和维护成本较低，可以开辟点用水系统领域的新研究领域。这个I-Corps项目是一个新型的太阳能热膜蒸馏系统，它能够利用太阳能热能从未经处理的地表水、废水和海水中生产饮用水，而不使用任何电气设备。新型太阳热膜蒸馏系统的主要新颖之处在于其创新的机制，将太阳热能定位在空气-水界面，使界面水分子高效蒸发，而不会向散装给水散失太多热量。因此，太阳能集热器单位面积蒸馏水的产出率高于大多数传统的太阳热膜蒸馏系统和市场上的太阳能蒸馏器。另一个新颖之处是发明系统的设计简单。这是第一个不需要任何电子设备的膜蒸馏系统，如泵和光伏电池。因此，对于相同的蒸馏水生产速率，本发明系统的资本和维护成本可以低于传统和其他现有的太阳热膜蒸馏系统。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide an affordable solution to safe drinking water for the people living in water-stressed areas. There are over 1 billion people living under physical scarcity of water and another 1.6 billion people facing economic water scarcity. In addition, people who suffer from water system breakdown by natural disasters, who live in water-contaminated areas or who need to survive in remote undeveloped areas would also benefit from the commercialization of the technology. This technology could also be used as part of the survival equipment for military operation, oil and gas drilling workers, and life rafts used in ships and aircraft. From the technical point of view, the invented system could open a new research area in the field of point-of-use water system given its innovative design in utilizing solar thermal energy, high energy efficiency in extracting clean potable water with low capital and maintenance costs.This I-Corps project is a novel solar thermal membrane distillation system which is capable of utilizing solar thermal energy to produce potable water from untreated surface water, wastewater, and seawater, without using any electrical devices. The main novelty of the novel solar thermal membrane distillation system lies in its innovative mechanism of localizing the solar thermal energy at the air-water interface for highly efficient evaporation of interfacial water molecules without losing much heat to the bulk feed water. Thus, the production rate of distilled water per unit area of solar heat collector is higher than most conventional solar thermal membrane distillation systems and the solar stills on the market. Another novelty is the simplicity in the design of the invented system. It is the first membrane distillation system that does not require any electrical devices, such as pumps and photovoltaic cells. Thus, the capital and maintenance costs of the invented system can be lower than conventional and other existing solar thermal membrane distillation systems for the same production rate of distilled water.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.