Massachusetts Institute of Technology

George Ni

Gang Paul Chen

Svetlana Boriskina

Hadi Ghasemi

Thomas Alan Cooper

Amy Marie Marconnet

Seyed Hadi Zandavi

Thomas Cooper

A solar vapor generator includes an absorber to absorb sunlight and an emitter, in thermal communication with the absorber, to radiatively evaporate a liquid under less than 1 sun illumination and without pressurization. The emitter is physically separated from the liquid, substantially reducing fouling of the emitter. The absorber and the emitter may also be heated to temperatures higher than the boiling point of the liquid and may thus may be used to further superheat the vapor. Solar vapor generation can provide the basis for many sustainable desalination, sanitization, and process heating technologies.

Methods, apparatus and systems for generating and superheating vapor under sunlight

A localized heating structure includes a spectrally-selective solar absorber, that absorbs incident solar radiation and reflects at wavelengths longer than 2 &#x3bc;m, with an underlying heat-spreading layer having a thermal conductivity equal to or greater than 50 W/(mK), a thermally insulating layer, adjacent to the spectrally-selective solar absorber, having a thermal conductivity of less than 0.1 W/(mK), one or more evaporation openings through the spectrally-selective solar absorber and the thermally insulating layer, and an evaporation wick, disposed in one or more of the evaporation openings in the thermally insulating layer, that contacts liquid and allows the liquid to be transported from a location beneath the thermally insulating layer through to the spectrally-selective solar absorber in order to generate vapor from the liquid. The thermally insulating layer is configured to have a density less than the liquid so that the localized heating structure is able to float on the liquid.

Localized solar collectors

A localized heating structure, and method of forming same, for use in solar systems includes a thermally insulating layer having interconnected pores, a density of less than about 3000 kg/m, and a hydrophilic surface, and an expanded carbon structure adjacent to the thermally insulating layer. The expanded carbon structure has a porosity of greater than about 80% and a hydrophilic surface.

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

George Ni