Simultaneous production of fresh water and electricity via multistage solar photovoltaic membrane distillation

Wenbin Wang; Yusuf Shi; Chenlin Zhang; Seunghyun Hong; Le Shi; Jian Chang; Renyuan Li; Yong Jin; Chisiang Ong; Sifei Zhuo; Peng Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10817-6

Simultaneous production of fresh water and electricity via multistage solar photovoltaic membrane distillation

Wenbin Wang, Yusuf Shi, Chenlin Zhang, Seunghyun Hong, Le Shi, Jian Chang, Renyuan Li, Yong Jin, Chisiang Ong, Sifei Zhuo, Peng Wang

Research output: Journal article publication › Journal article › Academic research › peer-review

361 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The energy shortage and clean water scarcity are two key challenges for global sustainable development. Near half of the total global water withdrawals is consumed by power generation plants while water desalination consumes lots of electricity. Here, we demonstrate a photovoltaics-membrane distillation (PV-MD) device that can stably produce clean water (>1.64 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹) from seawater while simultaneously having uncompromised electricity generation performance (>11%) under one Sun irradiation. Its high clean water production rate is realized by constructing multi stage membrane distillation (MSMD) device at the backside of the solar cell to recycle the latent heat of water vapor condensation in each distillation stage. This composite device can significantly reduce capital investment costs by sharing the same land and the same mounting system and thus represents a potential possibility to transform an electricity power plant from otherwise a water consumer to a fresh water producer.

Original language	English
Article number	3012
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10817-6
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2019
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41467-019-10817-6

Cite this

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abstract = "The energy shortage and clean water scarcity are two key challenges for global sustainable development. Near half of the total global water withdrawals is consumed by power generation plants while water desalination consumes lots of electricity. Here, we demonstrate a photovoltaics-membrane distillation (PV-MD) device that can stably produce clean water (>1.64 kg·m−2·h−1) from seawater while simultaneously having uncompromised electricity generation performance (>11%) under one Sun irradiation. Its high clean water production rate is realized by constructing multi stage membrane distillation (MSMD) device at the backside of the solar cell to recycle the latent heat of water vapor condensation in each distillation stage. This composite device can significantly reduce capital investment costs by sharing the same land and the same mounting system and thus represents a potential possibility to transform an electricity power plant from otherwise a water consumer to a fresh water producer.",

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AU - Wang, Wenbin

AU - Shi, Yusuf

AU - Zhang, Chenlin

AU - Hong, Seunghyun

AU - Shi, Le

AU - Chang, Jian

AU - Li, Renyuan

AU - Jin, Yong

AU - Ong, Chisiang

AU - Zhuo, Sifei

AU - Wang, Peng

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AB - The energy shortage and clean water scarcity are two key challenges for global sustainable development. Near half of the total global water withdrawals is consumed by power generation plants while water desalination consumes lots of electricity. Here, we demonstrate a photovoltaics-membrane distillation (PV-MD) device that can stably produce clean water (>1.64 kg·m−2·h−1) from seawater while simultaneously having uncompromised electricity generation performance (>11%) under one Sun irradiation. Its high clean water production rate is realized by constructing multi stage membrane distillation (MSMD) device at the backside of the solar cell to recycle the latent heat of water vapor condensation in each distillation stage. This composite device can significantly reduce capital investment costs by sharing the same land and the same mounting system and thus represents a potential possibility to transform an electricity power plant from otherwise a water consumer to a fresh water producer.

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Simultaneous production of fresh water and electricity via multistage solar photovoltaic membrane distillation

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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