A Solar Evaporator Based on Waste Biomass Material for Water Evaporation and Thermoelectric Conversion Application

Abstract

High-performance photothermal materials are indispensable for interfacial solar evaporation technology. The utilization of biomass-based photothermal materials has emerged as a promising approach for interfacial solar-driven evaporation, primarily due to their advantageous characteristics, including low production costs, large specific surface area, environmental friendliness, and renewable characteristics. Biomass photothermal materials. In this study, as a kind of waste, cigarette ash contains a high concentration of carbon particles, which can exhibit remarkable photothermal conversion capability (18.30%), positioning it as a novel biomass-derived photothermal material for solar energy harvesting. In addition, a low-cost and environmentally friendly evaporator is prepared by combining a non-woven fabric with WCA (waste cigarette ash) and the evaporation rate of the evaporator reaches 1.16 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ with an evaporation efficiency of 80.55%. Then, a unidirectional salt collection device that can achieve long-term salt collection and generate electrical energy is designed. Water-electricity cogeneration is designed to efficiently utilize the thermal energy released during the water evaporation process, with voltage reaching 57.1 mV under 1.0 kW m⁻² solar irradiation. The WCA evaporator provides an innovative perspective on waste utilization in solar-driven seawater desalination.