Outline

Chapter 1: General Introduction

1.1 Motivation for Solar-Powered Water Desalination research
- Water scarcity is still a pressing issue in many regions. The application of
membrane technology through water desalination to convert brackish to
potable water is a promising technology to solve this issue. (Elma,
Mujiyanti et al. 2020)
- The energy shortage and clean water scarcity are two key challenges for
global sustainable development. Near half of the total global water
withdrawals is consumed by power generation plants while water
desalination consumes lots of electricity.(Wang, Shi et al. 2019)
- The purification of waste water and the desalination of seawater are now
current essential technologies. Especially the production of fresh water from
seawater is an effective solution to recent severe water shortage problem.
(Fujiwara and Kikuchi 2017)
1.2 Objectives
- In this research, the porous structures will be precisely designed and
fabricated by using photo-curing 3D printer, allowing us to investigate the
structure effects on energy transferring efficiency. The graphene additive
are also applied in the porous layer for further enhancement of heat
generation. The evaporation tests will be then performed under 1 sun
irradiation. The graphene-resin layers will be supposed to absorb solar
irradiation as well as transfer it to heat energy productively.
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Shortage of water – Overview
- Water scarcity is a global issue that is threatening social and economic
development. One approach to alleviating scarcity is the incorporation of
new water sources into supply systems, including desalinated seawater for
industrial and municipal use. (Alvez, Aitken et al. 2020)
- Water scarcity is an expanding climate and human related condition, which
drives and interacts with other stressors in freshwater ecosystems such as
chemical pollution. (Arenas-Sanchez, Rico et al. 2016)
- Water resources are increasingly being overexploited, such that current food
production, which relies heavily on irrigation schemes, is unsustainable.
Many steps, including improved irrigation techniques, more water-efficient
crops and animal protein production, etc., will be needed to raise water
productivity across the board. Water must in future be recognised as a
scarce resource and not taken for granted. (Brown 2001)
2.2 Seawater Desalination and Methods of Desalination
 - With the worsening water scarcity problem, seawater desalination has been
receiving gradually increasing attention. Ion adsorptive desalination was
introduced as one of the seawater desalination techniques. (Lee, Lim et al.
2020)
- The mechanism of the salt rejection in a surface-charged nanopore is
mainly attributed to the ion concentration difference between the cations
and anions induced by the surface charges. Increasing surface charge
density is beneficial to enhance ionic selectivity.(Li, Qiu et al. 2018)
- Currently, various disposal methods have been practiced, including surface
water discharge, sewer discharge, deep-well injection, evaporation ponds
and land application. However, these brine disposal methods are
unsustainable and restricted by high capital costs and non-universal
application. Nowadays, brine treatment is considered one of the most
promising alternatives to brine disposal, since treatment results in the
reduction of environmental pollution, minimization of waste volume and
production of freshwater with high recovery. (Panagopoulos, Haralambous
et al. 2019)
- Biofouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes is a critical
issue faced by the desalination industry worldwide. The major cause of
biofouling is the irreversible attachment of recalcitrant biofilms formed by
bacteria and their extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on membrane
surfaces. (Nagaraj, Skillman et al. 2018)
2.3 Solar Evaporation and Control of structure
- The main challenges of a solar steam generation device based on biomass
materials are complicated processing techniques and relatively low
efficiency. (Yang, Chen et al. 2020)
- In recent years, interfacial solar vapor generation has shown great potential
in realizing desalination and wastewater treatment with high energy
conversion efficiency. However, high evaporation rate cannot be
maintained because of the seemingly unavoidable fouling or salt
accumulation on the solar absorbers. (Xu, Li et al. 2019)
- The realization of solar-driven water evaporation by using effective
converters has attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to its
potential for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. (Wang, Wu
et al. 2020)
- Solar-driven interfacial evaporation aiming at producing clean water
without conventional energy consumption. Nevertheless, complex
preparation processes and costly absorber materials might be the
challenges for the practical application of this technology. (Yin, Hsin et al.
2020)
2.4 3D Printer – DLP
 - Multi-material 3D printing with several mechanically distinct materials at
once has expanded the potential applications for additive manufacturing
technology. Fewer material options exist, however, for additive systems
that employ vat photopolymerization (such as stereolithography, SLA, and
digital light projection, DLP, 3D printers), which are more commonly used
for advanced engineering prototypes and manufacturing. Those material
selections that do exist are limited in their capacity for fusion due to
disparate chemical and physical properties, limiting the potential
mechanical range for multi-material printed composites. (Borrello, Nasser
et al. 2018)
- One of the major challenges in 3D printing of microfluidic devices using a
digital light processing (DLP) desktop printer is that the static liquid resin
trapped in the channels, once the "ceiling" is printed, still receives small
doses of light through the subsequently printed layers. This easily triggers
partial polymerisation of the resin which impedes its flushing out of the
channels after completion of the printing session. (van der Linden, Popov
et al. 2020)
2.5 Graphene & Synthesis methods of Graphene
- Surface modification of graphene oxide (GO) is one of the most important
issues to produce high performance GO/epoxy composites. In this
research, the dimethylformamide (DMF) was introduced onto the surface
of GO sheets by a cheap and simple method, to prepare a reinforcing filler,
as well as a catalyst in epoxy resin. (Lyu, Yan et al. 2017)
2.6 Solar Evaporation related to Graphene
- Solar interfacial evaporation has been recognized as a versatile energy
conversion protocol for cutting-edge applications such as water treatment
and power generation (e.g., hydro voltaic effect). Recently, to enhance
water evaporation rates, water temperature and evaporation area have been
considered as essential ingredients, and thus photothermal materials and
three-dimensional hierarchical structures have been developed to promote
light-to-heat conversion efficiency and enhance interfacial evaporation.
However, less attention has been paid to the airflow effect, because the
interfacial floatability of photothermal membranes should be considered
under air blast. (Han, Chen et al. 2020)
- Recently, interfacial solar steam generation has drawn much attention. The
technique holds a promise for developing a sustainable off-grid and
decentralized water supply system and providing low-energy solutions for
brine management. High-performance solar steam generation system
requires four components: absorbers with excellent photothermal
conversion efficiency, thermal insulators reducing the heat loss, channels
for water transport, and the well-designed steam collection device.
 Plasmonic metal nanomaterials and carbon-based materials such as
graphene, graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes are the two main groups
of absorbers for harvesting solar energy. (Huang, Ling et al. 2020)
Chapter 3: Experimental Materials and Methods
3.1 Preparation Resin/Graphene
- Graphene was chemically functionalized by hydrothermal reduction of
graphene oxide (GO) suspension in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). Then,
NMP-graphene was dispersed in N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and added
to resin (B24C30) with magnetic stirring. The 3D printer we used was DLP
(digital light processing), where the curing wavelength and time was
405nm and 12 sec per layer.
3.2 Layers Model Design
- In the first part, several porous structures, including straight channel, cone-
shaped channels with various sliding angles, zigzag-shaped channel and
interconnected pores, were fabricated for the energy transferring layer. The
pore size, porosity and wire diameter were controlled, followed by the
adjustment of graphene amounts.
3.3 Fabrication Assessment
- According to the design sketch and images of printed products, the errors
of porous structures must be less than 5%. The results should prove that the
structures create in this research was highly accurate, which is achieved by
DLP 3D printer. More important, the resin with graphene additive could be
highly printable. The density of porous layer is supposed to be much lower
than 1 g/cm3 and the glass transition temperature are very high, that can
lead to the stability of this solar-energy absorbing layer for long-term
operation
Chapter 4: Results & Discussion
4.1 Temperature Difference – Thermal Images
4.2 Floating Days test
4.3 Mass Changes over Time
4.4 Evaporation Rate
Chapter 5: Conclusion & Future Perspective
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