Resonant energy transfer enhances solar thermal desalination (original) (raw)
* Corresponding authors
a Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
E-mail: halas@rice.edu
b Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
c Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
d Applied Physics Graduate Program, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
e Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
f Department of Engineering, Houston Community College, Houston, TX 77082, USA
g Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
h Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
E-mail: nordland@rice.edu
Abstract
Evaporation-based solar thermal distillation is a promising approach for purifying high-salinity water, but the liquid-vapor phase transition inherent to this process makes it intrinsically energy intensive. Here we show that the exchange of heat between the distilled and input water can fulfill a resonance condition, resulting in dramatic increases in fresh water production. Large gains (500%) in distilled water are accomplished by coupling nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation with dynamic thermal recovery, achieved by controlling input flow rates as a function of incident light intensity. The resonance condition, achieved for the circulating heat flux between the distillate and feed, allows the system to behave in an entirely new way, as a desalination oscillator. The resonant oscillator concept introduced here is universal and can be applied to other systems such as thermal energy storage or solar-powered chemical reactors.
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Article information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EE03256H
Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Oct 2019
Accepted
10 Feb 2020
First published
12 Feb 2020
Download Citation
Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 968-976
Author version available
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Resonant energy transfer enhances solar thermal desalination
A. Alabastri, P. D. Dongare, O. Neumann, J. Metz, I. Adebiyi, P. Nordlander and N. J. Halas,Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 968DOI: 10.1039/C9EE03256H
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