Abstract
Solar-driven water evaporation is a sustainable method for obtaining clean water, but the use of high-salinity seawater as a by-product of the desalination process has not been exploited. Here we present an integrated desalination–power generation–cultivation trinity system. All from solar energy, we could obtain fresh water, electric power and crop cultivation media. During the water evaporation, from highly enhanced salinity gradient, reverse electrodialysis allowed for extracting electric power and the drainage could be used to water wheat. The long-running desalination–power generation–cultivation trinity system maintained an evaporation efficiency of ~1.42 kg m−2 h−1, achieving a peak power output of ~0.25 W cm−2. Through an agriculture integration platform, the drainage was found to be suitable for wheat cultivation, thus enabling the seamless combination of solar, oceanic and terrestrial energy sources. This study provides promising solutions and blueprints for alleviating global water/energy scarcity while achieving sustainable development.
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Data availability
All relevant data that support the findings of this study are presented in the article and Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Figshare repository with identifier (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23654583).
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Acknowledgements
We thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 52070057) for financial support. The datasets are provided by National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (http://data.tpdc.ac.cn).
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M.W., X.W. and Y.W. contributed equally and share the first authorship. M.W., X.W., Y.W. and S.-H.H. conceived the idea and designed the research. M.W., X.W., S.Z. and C.W. performed the experiment, characterization and performance test. R.L., K.W., R.W., H.C. and N.R. provided constructive suggestions for the results and discussion. M.W., Y.W. and R.L. contributed to writing the manuscript. All co-authors discussed the results.
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Nature Water thanks Yusuf Bicer, Richard Blanchard and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Figs. 1–29, Notes 1–11, Table 1, experimental details and molecular dynamics simulation process and References 1–14.
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Wang, M., Wei, Y., Wang, X. et al. An integrated system with functions of solar desalination, power generation and crop irrigation. Nat Water 1, 716–724 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00118-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00118-0