Putting Waste-Heat to Work: Sustainable Potable Water, Air Conditioning, and Thermal Energy Storage

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Fossil fuel resources provide 80% of the energy worldwide. Almost 60% of this energy is released as low-quality waste heat at temperatures < 100C; solar and geothermal are other examples of waste heat sources. According to the UN prediction, the world's population will surpass 8.5 billion by 2030. This rapid population growth places unprecedented stresses on our natural resources. Utilizing the abundant waste-heat has the potential to address these challenges and to transform a variety of our strategic industrial, residential and agricultural sectors. This program aims to develop novel waste-heat-driven adsorption-based air conditioning, atmospheric water harvesting and thermal storage systems. It covers an array of novel key technologies for controlled temperature and humidity systems, crucial in applications such as: growing food in greenhouses, A/C for buildings and vehicles. It is structured around two main themes. i) A material-level theme: development of improved adsorption composites, sorption modeling, and characterization of the salient transport properties; and ii) A system-level theme: development of adsorption-based energy and water systems using the composites developed in theme I and emerging materials such as graphite. The emphasis will be on three relatively unexplored but critical aspects: (i) interfacial transport; (ii) coupled effects of the operating conditions on the adsorption process; and (iii) development of multi-scale surface features to take advantage of superhydrophobic surfaces for water condensation and micro-capillary effects to enhance evaporation. A pilot study is planned in a closed greenhouse, in collaboration with the City of Surrey, to demonstrate that clean food and potable water can be produced under any climate sustainably. This program encompasses systematic analytical modeling and experimentation, providing a consistent mathematical foundation for modeling of the transport phenomena, rather than using limited empirical correlations. Thus, the proposed research will generate fundamental engineering knowledge, advanced materials, and design tools that are essential for a host of clean energy and water system applications, where emerging micro/nano-structured porous materials are employed. “Putting Waste-heat to work” also provides an excellent platform for training undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students whom are in high demand in academia and industry. Invention of new products and processes is at the core of this program, which enables launching university spin-out companies to create rewarding jobs and generate export revenues.