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An integrated system with functions of solar desalination, power generation and crop irrigation

Nature Water volume 1, pages 716–724 (2023)Cite this article

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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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Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the DPC trinity system based on Janus evaporator and RED.
Fig. 2: Desalination performance and salinity concentration capacity of Janus evaporator.
Fig. 3: Molecular dynamics of power generation.
Fig. 4: Power production performance and overall effectiveness evaluation under simulated all-weather conditions of this RED-based hybrid system.
Fig. 5: Performance of system drainage for wheat cultivation.
Fig. 6: Potential for regionalized applications.

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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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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Meng Wang, Yen Wei, Xin Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Meng Wang, Shiyu Zhang, Ke Wang, Rupeng Wang, Nanqi Ren & Shih-Hsin Ho

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yen Wei & Ruoxin Li

  3. Department of Chemistry, Center for Nanotechnology and Institute of Biomedical Technology, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, Taiwan

    Yen Wei

  4. Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science & Technology (Northeast Forestry University), Ministry of Education, Harbin, China

    Xin Wang & Chengyu Wang

  5. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China

    Haixing Chang

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Contributions

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.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shih-Hsin Ho.

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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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