Analysis of solar-powered adsorption desalination systems: Current research trends, developments, and future perspectives

Abstract

Growing population increases freshwater demand for all vital activities: industrial, agricultural, and drinking; thereby, desalination capacity has grown significantly. The development of new adsorption desalination technologies has been getting much attention recently. These systems can be driven by low-grade heat sources such as solar energy, using environmentally friendly working fluids to generate potable water. The present study conducted a bibliometric analysis to identify current trends, developments, and future perspectives in adsorption desalination systems based on the publications between 2011 and 2022. The analysis covers seven major research indicators: annual publication trends, major contributing countries, scientific mapping of research sources, analysis of keywords, highly cited papers, most contributing institutions and authors, and research gaps. The paper additionally characterized the yearly publication trends, emphasized significant phrases such as water filtration, evaporation, and environmental impact. Also identified major contributing countries such as China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and United Kingdom. Among the notable institutions mentioned are Sohag University, Ministry of Education in China, King Abdullah University. Finally, the analysis provided an outlook on future research directions, including investigating novel membranes and adsorbents, investigating hybrid desalination systems integrated with nanomaterials, and using energy and cost analysis modeling and optimization techniques.