Solar steam power generation and heating

Can solar energy be used to generate steam?

Steam generation using solar energy provides the basis for many sustainable desalination, sanitization, and process heating technologies. Recently, interest has arisen for low-cost floating structures that absorb solar radiation and transfer energy to water via thermal conduction, driving evaporation.

Is steam generation using solar energy sustainable?

Nature Communications 9, Article number: 5086 (2018) Cite this article Steam generation using solar energy provides the basis for many sustainable desalination, sanitization, and process heating technologies.

What is solar steam generation?

Fundamentally, solar steam generation is a process by which solar energy is used to drive the endothermic phase transition from liquid water to vapour. A necessary step for this process is the energy transfer from solar photons to the water molecules. Unfortunately, water is a poor absorber of photons at solar wavelengths.

How can solar steam generation be efficient?

For example, in heating (refers to the utilization of latent heat of steam/vapor condensation), efficient solar steam generation has been achieved under lower optical concentrations, even 1 Sun, mainly through absorber and device's optical and thermal regulation.

How does solar-powered steam generation work?

Cutting the optical concentration Today, solar-powered steam generation involves vast fields of mirrors or lenses that concentrate incoming sunlight, heating large volumes of liquid to high enough temperatures to produce steam. However, these complex systems can experience significant heat loss, leading to inefficient steam generation.

How does bio-inspired solar steam generation work?

In this bio-inspired solar steam generation method, the floating absorbers at the air-water interface collect sunlight and convert it to thermal energy, enabling surface heating at the interface and rapid evaporation while the bulk liquid temperature stays low.