Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Safety and Distribution Technology, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P. R. China.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2021 May 4;55(9):6248-6256. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c07191. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Interfacial solar distillation (ISD) is an approach with low cost and low energy demand useful for seawater desalination and freshwater production. However, the commercial potential of ISD for applications such as polluted seawater desalination or industrial wastewater reuse may be hindered by low rejection of volatile and semivolatile contaminants. For the first time, the results of this study showed that the transport (from bulk water (B) to distilled water (D)) of volatile and semivolatile contaminants during the solar desalination process was highly correlated with compound volatility ( = 0.858). The obtained relationship was verified to be capable of predicting the distillation concentration ratio (/) of different contaminants ( = 6.29 × 10-2.94 × 10 atm·m·mol) during the ISD process. Compounds such as phenols, which have relatively high volatilization and condensation rates, deserve the most attention as potential contaminants in the distilled water. Meanwhile, other compounds that are more volatile than phenol condensed less in distilled water. Adding an activated carbon adsorbent or a photothermal oxidant is a promising strategy to effectively mitigate the distillation of contaminants and ensure water safety. These results fill the knowledge gap in understanding the transport of volatile and semivolatile compounds in ISD for the treatment of complex source waters.
界面太阳能蒸馏（ISD）是一种低成本、低能耗的方法，可用于海水淡化和淡水生产。然而，ISD 在受污染海水淡化或工业废水再利用等应用中的商业潜力可能受到挥发性和半挥发性污染物低去除率的阻碍。本研究首次表明，在太阳能淡化过程中，挥发性和半挥发性污染物的传输（从主体水（B）到蒸馏水（D））与化合物挥发性高度相关（=0.858）。验证了所获得的关系能够预测不同污染物在 ISD 过程中的蒸馏浓缩比（/）（=6.29×10-2.94×10 atm·m·mol）。酚类等具有较高挥发和冷凝速率的化合物作为潜在污染物，应引起对蒸馏水的最关注。同时，比苯酚挥发性更高的其他化合物在蒸馏水中的冷凝量较少。添加活性炭吸附剂或光热氧化剂是一种很有前途的策略，可以有效地减轻污染物的蒸馏，确保用水安全。这些结果填补了理解 ISD 中处理复杂水源时挥发性和半挥发性化合物传输的知识空白。
