Water shortage has become a global concern. It is predicted that the world water deficit will reach 2700 billion m3/year, with 1.6 billion people suffering severe water stress. Seawater desalination is deemed the most promising source of freshwater supply, and more than 20,000 desalination plants have been installed worldwide.
Commercial desalination technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), multi-effect distillation (MED) and multi-stage flash (MSF). After several decades of development, their energy consumption and costs have been significantly reduced. However, they are still unsuitable for small-scale applications in remote areas. One reason is the requirement of stable primary energy supply due to their high energy intensity. Moreover, the water cost will increase with the reduction of plant capacity. Therefore, small-scale desalination technologies for decentralized operation are yet to develop.
Most arid areas are abundant in solar radiation, and solar desalination has great potential for decentralized operation in remote areas. Solar still is the earliest solar desalination technology, and the efforts to improve its productivity has lasted for decades. Other novel technologies have also emerged, including but not limited to: solar membrane distillation, humidification-dehumidification desalination, interfacial evaporation, and adsorption desalination.
This Research Topic aims to embrace various research aspects of solar desalination technologies. We invite researchers to share their unique experience and views and discuss research solutions, limitations, and conclusions relevant to solar desalination. We hope that the proposed collection of articles will address advances in solar desalination technologies and lead to the development of more energy-efficient and cost-effective solar desalination systems.
In this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research articles, Brief Research Reports, and Reviews covering (but not limited to) the following topics:
• Solar still
• Solar-driven membrane distillation
• Solar-driven humidification-dehumidification process
• Solar desalination by interfacial evaporation
• Solar-driven adsorption desalination
• Water-electricity cogeneration using PV/T module
• Other solar desalination technologies
Water shortage has become a global concern. It is predicted that the world water deficit will reach 2700 billion m3/year, with 1.6 billion people suffering severe water stress. Seawater desalination is deemed the most promising source of freshwater supply, and more than 20,000 desalination plants have been installed worldwide.
Commercial desalination technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), multi-effect distillation (MED) and multi-stage flash (MSF). After several decades of development, their energy consumption and costs have been significantly reduced. However, they are still unsuitable for small-scale applications in remote areas. One reason is the requirement of stable primary energy supply due to their high energy intensity. Moreover, the water cost will increase with the reduction of plant capacity. Therefore, small-scale desalination technologies for decentralized operation are yet to develop.
Most arid areas are abundant in solar radiation, and solar desalination has great potential for decentralized operation in remote areas. Solar still is the earliest solar desalination technology, and the efforts to improve its productivity has lasted for decades. Other novel technologies have also emerged, including but not limited to: solar membrane distillation, humidification-dehumidification desalination, interfacial evaporation, and adsorption desalination.
This Research Topic aims to embrace various research aspects of solar desalination technologies. We invite researchers to share their unique experience and views and discuss research solutions, limitations, and conclusions relevant to solar desalination. We hope that the proposed collection of articles will address advances in solar desalination technologies and lead to the development of more energy-efficient and cost-effective solar desalination systems.
In this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research articles, Brief Research Reports, and Reviews covering (but not limited to) the following topics:
• Solar still
• Solar-driven membrane distillation
• Solar-driven humidification-dehumidification process
• Solar desalination by interfacial evaporation
• Solar-driven adsorption desalination
• Water-electricity cogeneration using PV/T module
• Other solar desalination technologies
