Alessandro Francesca, Macedonio Francesca, Drioli Enrico
Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ITM), Via P. Bucci 17/C, 87036 Rende, Italy.
Membranes (Basel). 2023 Feb 21;13(3):254. doi: 10.3390/membranes13030254.
Water scarcity raises important concerns with respect to human sustainability and the preservation of important ecosystem functions. To satisfy water requirements, seawater desalination represents one of the most sustainable solutions. In recent decades, membrane distillation has emerged as a promising thermal desalination process that may help to overcome the drawbacks of traditional desalination processes. Nevertheless, in membrane distillation, the temperature at the feed membrane interface is significantly lower than that of the bulk feed water, due to the latent heat flux associated with water evaporation. This phenomenon, known as temperature polarization, in membrane distillation is a crucial issue that could be responsible for a decay of about 50% in the initial transmembrane water flux. The use of plasmonic nanostructures, acting as thermal hotspots in the conventional membranes, may improve the performance of membrane distillation units by reducing or eliminating the temperature polarization problem. Furthermore, an efficient conversion of light into heat offers new opportunities for the use of solar energy in membrane distillation. This work summarizes recent developments in the field of plasmonic-enhanced solar evaporation with a particular focus on solar-driven membrane distillation applications and its potential prospects.
水资源短缺引发了有关人类可持续发展以及重要生态系统功能保护的重大问题。为满足用水需求，海水淡化是最具可持续性的解决方案之一。近几十年来，膜蒸馏已成为一种有前景的热法脱盐工艺，有望克服传统脱盐工艺的缺点。然而，在膜蒸馏中，由于与水蒸发相关的潜热通量，进料膜界面处的温度明显低于进料主体水的温度。这种现象在膜蒸馏中被称为温度极化，是一个关键问题，可能导致初始跨膜水通量衰减约50%。在传统膜中充当热热点的等离子体纳米结构的使用，可能通过减少或消除温度极化问题来提高膜蒸馏装置的性能。此外，光到热的高效转换为太阳能在膜蒸馏中的应用提供了新机会。这项工作总结了等离子体增强太阳能蒸发领域的最新进展，特别关注太阳能驱动的膜蒸馏应用及其潜在前景。
