Wang Meng, He Zixiang, Chang Haixing, Wei Yen, Zhang Shiyu, Wang Ke, Xie Peng, Wang Rupeng, Ren Nanqi, Ho Shih-Hsin
State Key Laboratory of Urban-rural Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150040, People's Republic of China.
School of Resources & Environmental Science, Hubei Key Laboratory of Biomass-Resources Chemistry and Environmental Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, People's Republic of China.
Nanomicro Lett. 2025 Sep 3;18(1):57. doi: 10.1007/s40820-025-01876-0.
Sustainable water, energy and food (WEF) supplies are the bedrock upon which human society depends. Solar-driven interfacial evaporation, combined with electricity generation and cultivation, is a promising approach to mitigate the freshwater, energy and food crises. However, the performance of solar-driven systems decreases significantly during operation due to uncontrollable weather. This study proposes an integrated water/electricity cogeneration-cultivation system with superior thermal management. The energy storage evaporator, consisting of energy storage microcapsules/hydrogel composites, is optimally designed for sustainable desalination, achieving an evaporation rate of around 1.91 kg m h. In the dark, heat released from the phase-change layer supported an evaporation rate of around 0.54 kg m h. Reverse electrodialysis harnessed the salinity-gradient energy enhanced during desalination, enabling the long-running WEC system to achieve a power output of ~0.3 W m, which was almost three times higher than that of conventional seawater/surface water mixing. Additionally, an integrated crop irrigation platform utilized system drainage for real-time, on-demand wheat cultivation without secondary contaminants, facilitating seamless WEF integration. This work presents a novel approach to all-day solar water production, electricity generation and crop irrigation, offering a solution and blueprint for the sustainable development of WEF.
可持续的水、能源和食物（WEF）供应是人类社会赖以生存的基石。太阳能驱动的界面蒸发，结合发电和种植，是缓解淡水、能源和食物危机的一种有前景的方法。然而，由于天气不可控，太阳能驱动系统在运行过程中的性能会显著下降。本研究提出了一种具有卓越热管理的水/电联产-种植一体化系统。由储能微胶囊/水凝胶复合材料组成的储能蒸发器经过优化设计，以实现可持续海水淡化，蒸发速率约为1.91 kg m² h⁻¹。在黑暗中，相变层释放的热量支持了约0.54 kg m² h⁻¹的蒸发速率。反向电渗析利用了海水淡化过程中增强的盐度梯度能，使长期运行的水电联产系统实现了约0.3 W m⁻²的功率输出，几乎是传统海水/地表水混合方式的三倍。此外，一个集成作物灌溉平台利用系统排水进行实时按需小麦种植，且无二次污染物，促进了水、能源和食物的无缝整合。这项工作提出了一种全天太阳能产水、发电和作物灌溉的新方法，为水、能源和食物的可持续发展提供了一个解决方案和蓝图。
