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US 12,503,375 B2Granted
Farm waste-derived recyclable photothermal evaporator
AssigneesNortheastern University, Providence College
InventorsYi Zheng, Yanpei Tian, Xiaojie Liu, Yinsheng Wan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A carbonized manure photothermal evaporator derived from naturally abundant farm waste has high solar absorptance, effective water transportation, and rapid salt dissipation. It achieves high evaporation under 1-sun irradiance and is recyclable, durable, and cost-effective for use in energy-efficient solar-driven interfacial desalination.
Claims18
A photothermal evaporator for a water desalination system, comprising:
- a planar carbonized manure (CM) body having a first side, a second side opposing the first side, a thickness therebetween, and an interconnected channel structure formed by black carbon fibers of the CM body;
- wherein the first side is positionable in contact with a body of water and the second side is exposed to air and incident sunlight above the body of water;
- wherein the interconnected channel structure transports water from the first side to the second side via capillary action, thereby generating an ion concentration gradient between the first side and second side, allowing salt to diffuse back toward the body of water;
- and
- wherein the CM body converts the incident sunlight to heat at the second side for evaporating the transported water.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing a photothermal evaporator for a water desalination system, comprising the steps of:
- (a) crushing manure into pieces;
- (b) molding the pieces of manure into a bulk form;
- (c) drying the manure in the bulk form to form dried manure;
- and
- (d) carbonizing the dried manure to form a carbonized manure (CM) evaporator having a first side, a second side opposing the first side, a thickness therebetween, and an interconnected channel structure formed by black carbon fibers of the CM evaporator.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.