In a time when AI data centers are using massive amounts of water, adding to a man-made crisis the United Nations calls the “Era of Global Water Bankruptcy,” Chinese scientists have created a solar-powered device for efficiently turning seawater into fresh water. In a study published in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers share how their mix of nanomaterial and tightly linked polymer chains could make desalinated water cheaper than bottled water after two years of use.
The researchers built a desalination device using their material and found the machine, which measures at around eight square feet, evaporates water at 8.5 times the rate of existing solar desalination methods. That allows it to produce a bit over five gallons of clean water each day under natural sunlight.
https://www.bgr.com/2222172/china-solar-breakthrough-desalinate-water-cheaper/
Published study:
Interlocking Stabilized 3D Photothermal Nano-Architectures Enables Distributed Solar Desalination
ABSTRACT
Tackling global water scarcity requires sustainable technologies that operate at the water-energy-food nexus. Solar-driven evaporation is a promising approach, but its practical deployment is often hampered by the difficulty in synergistically integrating performance, robustness, and economic viability. Here, by using the intrinsic property of hollow multishelled structure (HoMS), we established a scalable strategy by interlocking the polymer molecular chain into the porous shell of HoMS, investigating an economical and faci le approach to construct three-dimensional (3D) photothermal architectures. To achieve an abundant loading amount, we selected the solvents based on Hansen solubility parameters, achieving precise polymer threading through HoMS, leading to uniform nanomaterial loading and creating the hierarchical “nanoforest” morphology. This structure exhibits 90.2% broadband solar absorption and reduces the energy consumption of evaporation by 45.7%, achieving a record-high evaporation rate of 38.14 ± 0.57 kg m−2 h−1 with year-long stability. We integrated this material into a 0.75 m2 active-condensation solar desalination device, which produces 20.16 L of freshwater per day under natural sunlight, meeting WHO drinking standards. The produced water successfully supported the full-growth cycles of various crops in a 5 m2 demonstration plot with lower cost. Our work provides a feasible and sustainable route for solar-driven water solutions.
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.73756