A self-salt-cleaning architecture in cold vapor generation system for hypersaline brines

Desalination of seawater with zero-liquid discharge is a major challenge. Here we developed a three-dimensional umbrella architecture to evaporate hypersaline brines of up to 20 wt% using solar-driven interfacial evaporation. By controlling the water pathway and the thickness of the evaporator films to manipulate the salt capacitance of the system, a stable evaporation rate of >2.6 kg m(-2) h(-1) was achieved over 4-day operation in the laboratory environment with minimized salt accumulation on evaporation surfaces. By placing the system in an outdoor environment with natural wind, the peak evaporation rate was improved to 9.05 kg m(-2) h(-1). After a 4-day outdoor test, the total evaporated water by the umbrella system was 3.7x more than the natural evaporation from a bulk water surface under identical environmental conditions. The predesigned water flow also controlled the local salt accumulation, resulting in easier salt removing and collection, which is highly desired for accelerated salt mining applications.

Automated summary

Desalination of seawater with zero-liquid discharge is achieved using a three-dimensional umbrella architecture powered by solar-driven interfacial evaporation. By controlling the water pathway and film thickness, stable evaporation rate and minimized salt accumulation are achieved. The system shows improved performance in outdoor environments and significantly increases the total evaporated water compared to natural evaporation.