A photothermal system for wastewater disposal and co-generation of clean water and electricity. Issue 1 (February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Yuanyuan; Dang, Chenyang; Wu, Jun; Li, Mengli; Chu, Mingming; Gu, Li; Cao, Xuebo
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental chemical engineering. Volume 10:Issue 1(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Subjects: Wastewater disposal -- Solar-driven distill -- Photothermal electrode -- Clean water production -- Electricity co-generation; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects; Environmental engineering; Periodicals; 660.0286
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2021.107124
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2213-2929

Abstract

Abstract: Since energy crisis and water shortage become critical issues in increasingly industrialized society, solar-assisted water disposal technologies remain a great challenge. This work investigated solar-driven photothermal disposal of wastewater for simultaneous production of clean water and electricity. This strategy relies on an integrated photothermal and photoelectric film composed of Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles grafted on the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coated with nickel foam (NF) substrate (Ag/TiO2 @CNTs@NF). The long-wavelength portion in the solar spectrum was employed for high-quality freshwater generation via solar-driven interfacial evaporation (water evaporation rate at 1.48 kg m −2 h −1 ), with a solar-to-water evaporation efficiency of ~96%. The short-wavelength bands were adsorbed for the simultaneous solar-driven oxidation of organic pollutants (oxidation efficiency to methylene blue of ~94.2%) and the generation of electricity (photocurrent of ~228 μA cm −2 ). Therefore, this integrated system can dispose wastewater while achieve pure water and electricity with high utilization efficiency for solar energy. Graphical Abstract: ga1 Highlights: A photothermal wastewater disposal system is designed. The wastewater disposal system co-generates freshwater and electricity. The wastewater disposal system efficiently utilizes full solar spectrum.