PFI-TT: Solar Evaporator-Based High-Efficiency Water Desalination System

这项创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是提供一种低成本、低能耗、离网的淡水获取系统。水安全一直被认为是全球最大的风险，因为预计到2030年，预测需求与现有供水之间的缺口将达到40%。能源密集型加工和现有技术的清洁水生产率不足已成为具有成本效益的海水淡化供水的瓶颈。可再生能源驱动的水务市场正在增长，发达国家的主要利益相关者包括农业和市政水务公司。该项目的太阳能驱动海水淡化系统特别适合个人装置、服务不足的人群和灾难场景，所有这些都是目前海水淡化技术无法满足的。该项目通过一种多功能、环保、经济可行的海水淡化系统，将海水和其他微咸水源转化为淡水，以缓解水资源短缺。拟议的项目为太阳能驱动的海水淡化和处理系统确定了一个可靠、稳健、经济的解决方案。该项目将优化基于Cu/CuO泡沫的一体化太阳能蒸发器的先进热性能和机械性能，研究高效海水淡化的成本效益策略，并通过现有的太阳能相关基础设施提供预热海水或微咸水，将太阳能系统与海水淡化系统集成在一起。本文将展示一种新型的平面互联开孔泡沫蒸发器的设计。平面结构的空间延伸具有增加第三垂直维度以改善蒸发性能的特征。与类似的界面结构相比，该设计不需要额外的光热材料，结构简单，有利于大规模应用。该项目的目标是开发一种高效（4.5公斤/平方米小时），成本效益（40美元/平方米）的海水淡化系统，用于由直接太阳照射驱动的淡水供应，采用新型功能材料和结构。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 Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to provide a low-cost, low-energy, off-grid system to obtain freshwater. Water security has been considered the top global risk, as a 40% shortfall is expected between forecasted demand and the available supply of water by 2030. Energy-intensive processing and insufficient clean water productivity of current technologies have become bottlenecks for cost-effective desalination water supply. The renewable energy-driven water utility market is growing, with key stakeholders in developed nations including agriculture and municipal water utility providers. The solar-driven water desalination system in this project is particularly suited for individual installations, underserved populations, and disaster scenarios, all of which are underserved by current desalination techniques. This project advances a process to convert seawater and other brackish water sources into freshwater via a versatile, environmentally friendly, and economically viable desalination system to alleviate water scarcity.The proposed project identifies a reliable, robust, and cost-effective solution for a solar-driven water desalination and treatment system. The project will optimize the advanced thermal and mechanical properties of a scaled Cu/CuO foam-based all-in-one solar evaporator, investigate a cost-effective strategy for efficient water desalination, and integrate a solar energy system with water desalination system by supplying the preheated sea or brackish water through existing solar-related infrastructures. A novel design of a planar interconnected open-pore foam-based evaporator will be demonstrated. The spatial extension of a planar structure is featured with an addition of a third vertical dimension to improve the evaporation performance. When compared to a similar interfacial structure, no extra photothermal materials are required for this design, and the simple structure is favorable for large-scale applications. The goal of this project is to develop a highly-efficient (4.5 kg/m2 h), cost-effective ( $40/m2) desalination system for freshwater supply driven by direct solar irradiation, enabled by novel functional materials and structures.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.