Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination

Science Daily  February 14, 2022 Salt accumulation is one of the key bottlenecks for reliable solar evaporation techniques. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, China) developed a wick-free layered system, with dark material at the top to absorb the sun’s heat, then a thin layer of water above a perforated layer of polyurethane, sitting atop a deep reservoir of the salty water such as a tank or a pond. Through calculations and experiments they determined the holes size in the polyurethane sheet to be 2.5 mm across for optimal convective circulation between the warmer upper layer of water […]