Steam generation under one sun enabled by a floating structure with thermal concentration

George Ni, Gabriel Li, Svetlana V. Boriskina, Hongxia Li, Weilin Yang, TieJun Zhang and Gang Chen ()
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George Ni: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gabriel Li: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Svetlana V. Boriskina: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hongxia Li: Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
Weilin Yang: Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
TieJun Zhang: Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
Gang Chen: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nature Energy, 2016, vol. 1, issue 9, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Harvesting solar energy as heat has many applications, such as power generation, residential water heating, desalination, distillation and wastewater treatment. However, the solar flux is diffuse, and often requires optical concentration, a costly component, to generate the high temperatures needed for some of these applications. Here we demonstrate a floating solar receiver capable of generating 100 ∘C steam under ambient air conditions without optical concentration. The high temperatures are achieved by using thermal concentration and heat localization, which reduce the convective, conductive and radiative heat losses. This demonstration of a low-cost and scalable solar vapour generator holds the promise of significantly expanding the application domain and reducing the cost of solar thermal systems.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2016.126

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