Nuclear engineering

Electrical engineering

Physics

Meteorology

Organic chemistry

Process engineering

Activated carbon

Solar energy

Heat exchanger

Adsorption

Engineering

Chemistry

Materials science

Thermal

Evaporator

Chemical engineering

Evaporation

Mechanical engineering

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Sun-driven steam generation is now possible and has the potential to help meet future energy needs. Current technologies often use solar condensers to increase solar irradiance. More recently, a technology for solar steam generation that uses heated surface water and low optical concentration is reported. In this work, a commercially available activated carbon fiber felt is used to generate steam efficiently under one sun illumination. The evaporation rate and solar conversion efficiency reach 1.22 kg m–2 h–1 and 79.4%, respectively. The local temperature of the evaporator with a floating activated carbon fiber felt reaches 48 °C. Apart from the high absorptivity (about 94%) of the material, the evaporation performance is enhanced thanks to the well-developed pores for improved water supply and steam escape and the low thermal conductivity, which enables reduced bulk water temperature increase. This study helps to find a promising material for solar steam generation using a water evaporator that can be produced economically (∼6 $/m2) with long-term stability.

Commercially Available Activated Carbon Fiber Felt Enables Efficient Solar Steam Generation