The ITEWA team of Shanghai Jiaotong University proposed an energy harvesting strategy based on water vapor adsorption to achieve all-weather air water intake and temperature difference power generation

Recently, the ITEWA team of the Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University published a research paper entitled "Simultaneous Atmospheric Water Production and 24-hour Power Generation Enabled by Moisture-induced Energy Harvesting" in the international journal Nature Communications
。 In this paper, an energy harvesting strategy based on water vapor adsorption-induced is proposed by synergistic use of water vapor adsorption/desorption heat, solar photothermal conversion during the day, and radiative cooling at night, which realizes all-weather efficient air water intake and 24-hour continuous temperature difference power generation
.
Dr.
Wu Minqiang, postdoctoral fellow Xu Jiaxing, and researcher Li Tingxian of the Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering are the co-first authors of the paper, and the corresponding author is Professor Li Tingxian, and Professor Wang Ruzhu has made important guidance and suggestions
for this work.

Figure 1.
Schematic diagram of cogeneration of water-electricity based on energy harvesting induced by water vapor adsorption

Based on the new strategy of energy utilization induced by water vapor adsorption, the research team realizes efficient air water intake and 24-hour continuous temperature difference power generation through the collaborative use of energy: at night, the synergistic effect of water vapor adsorption heating and blackbody radiation cooling is used to improve the temperature difference of the energy device (SAWH-TEPG) temperature difference power generation driven, and the power generation power is increased by 346% compared with the traditional device, on the other hand, the temperature difference power generation of the energy device consumes the adsorption heat released by the adsorbent in time, and reduces the temperature of the adsorbent.
At the same time, the ability to absorb water vapor from the air is accelerated; During the day, the synergistic effect of sunlight-heat conversion radiant heating and water vapor desorption is used to increase the driving temperature difference of temperature difference power generation, the cold end temperature of temperature difference power generation is reduced by the desorption cooling effect of the adsorbent, and the waste heat released by the power generation unit is used to heat the adsorbent to achieve air water
extraction.
Therefore, based on the energy utilization strategy induced by water vapor adsorption, the synergistic utilization of "killing two birds with one stone" is realized during the day and night, so that the SAWH-TEPG device successfully achieves efficient air water intake of 750 g/m2, and day and night power output
of 685 mW/m2 and 21 mW/m2.
By connecting multiple SAWH and TEPG units in series or parallel, the combined water-power performance of SAWH-TEPG units can be scaled and improved
.
Compared with the traditional cogeneration system, the water vapor adsorption-induced energy synergistic utilization strategy proposed by the research team not only improves the output power and water intake performance of temperature difference power generation, but also successfully achieves 24-hour continuous power output, and shows good stability
in one week of continuous testing.
This work provides new ideas
for addressing shortages of fresh water and power resources in remote, arid and outlying island areas.

Figure 2.
SAWH-TEPG device outdoor air water intake and temperature difference power generation performance

In recent years, ITEWA, the "Energy-Water-Air" cross-innovation team led by Professor Wang Ruzhu, has published a series of interdisciplinary cross-papers in international journals such as Chemical Society Reviews, Joule, Energy & Environmental Science, Nature Communications, Advanced Material, etc.
The cutting-edge basic scientific problems and key technologies in the field of air intersection aim to realize overall solutions at the material-device-system level through interdisciplinary intersection, and promote breakthroughs
in related fields.

Link to the paper: https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s41467-022-34385-4

Link to the report: https://mp.
weixin.
qq.
com/s/OER68tJ9pZnSQxEUBqub0Q