Solar steam generation by heat localization
Currently, steam generation using solar energy is based on heating bulk liquid to high temperatures. This approach requires either costly high optical concentrations leading to heat loss by the hot bulk liquid and heated surfaces or vacuum. New solar receiver concepts such as porous volumetric recei...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95979 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4337-4187 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7506-2888 |
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| author | Ghasemi, Hadi Marconnet, Amy Marie Yerci, Selcuk Miljkovic, Nenad Chen, Gang Ni, George Wei Loomis III, Robert James |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Ghasemi, Hadi Marconnet, Amy Marie Yerci, Selcuk Miljkovic, Nenad Chen, Gang Ni, George Wei Loomis III, Robert James |
| author_sort | Ghasemi, Hadi |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Currently, steam generation using solar energy is based on heating bulk liquid to high temperatures. This approach requires either costly high optical concentrations leading to heat loss by the hot bulk liquid and heated surfaces or vacuum. New solar receiver concepts such as porous volumetric receivers or nanofluids have been proposed to decrease these losses. Here we report development of an approach and corresponding material structure for solar steam generation while maintaining low optical concentration and keeping the bulk liquid at low temperature with no vacuum. We achieve solar thermal efficiency up to 85% at only 10 kW m[superscript −2]. This high performance results from four structure characteristics: absorbing in the solar spectrum, thermally insulating, hydrophilic and interconnected pores. The structure concentrates thermal energy and fluid flow where needed for phase change and minimizes dissipated energy. This new structure provides a novel approach to harvesting solar energy for a broad range of phase-change applications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:49:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/95979 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:49:14Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/959792022-10-02T04:17:08Z Solar steam generation by heat localization Ghasemi, Hadi Marconnet, Amy Marie Yerci, Selcuk Miljkovic, Nenad Chen, Gang Ni, George Wei Loomis III, Robert James Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Chen, Gang Ghasemi, Hadi Marconnet, Amy, Marie Yerci, Selcuk Miljkovic, Nenad Chen, Gang Ni, George Wei Loomis III, Robert James Currently, steam generation using solar energy is based on heating bulk liquid to high temperatures. This approach requires either costly high optical concentrations leading to heat loss by the hot bulk liquid and heated surfaces or vacuum. New solar receiver concepts such as porous volumetric receivers or nanofluids have been proposed to decrease these losses. Here we report development of an approach and corresponding material structure for solar steam generation while maintaining low optical concentration and keeping the bulk liquid at low temperature with no vacuum. We achieve solar thermal efficiency up to 85% at only 10 kW m[superscript −2]. This high performance results from four structure characteristics: absorbing in the solar spectrum, thermally insulating, hydrophilic and interconnected pores. The structure concentrates thermal energy and fluid flow where needed for phase change and minimizes dissipated energy. This new structure provides a novel approach to harvesting solar energy for a broad range of phase-change applications. United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Energy Frontiers Research Center. Award DE-SC0001299) United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Energy Frontiers Research Center. Award DE-FG02-09ER46577)) United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-11-1-0174) Masdar Institute of Science & Technology - MIT Technology & Development Program Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2015-03-12T15:25:33Z 2015-03-12T15:25:33Z 2014-07 2014-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95979 Ghasemi, Hadi, George Ni, Amy Marie Marconnet, James Loomis, Selcuk Yerci, Nenad Miljkovic, and Gang Chen. “Solar Steam Generation by Heat Localization.” Nature Communications 5 (July 21, 2014). https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4337-4187 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7506-2888 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5449 Nature Communications Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Chen, Gang |
| spellingShingle | Ghasemi, Hadi Marconnet, Amy Marie Yerci, Selcuk Miljkovic, Nenad Chen, Gang Ni, George Wei Loomis III, Robert James Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title | Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title_full | Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title_fullStr | Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title_full_unstemmed | Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title_short | Solar steam generation by heat localization |
| title_sort | solar steam generation by heat localization |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95979 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4337-4187 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7506-2888 |
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