Over 10 kg m−2 h−1 Evaporation Rate Enabled by a 3D Interconnected Porous Carbon Foam

Abstract

Summary The recent advancements in evaporating water using renewable energy provide one of the promising pathways for treating water with minimized carbon footprint. Pursuing a high evaporation rate of water has been the central focus of this field, as it is directly related to the throughput of evaporative water treatment. However, in conventional designs of evaporators, diffusion of vapor into the atmospheric environment has been the limiting step for evaporation. In this work, we demonstrate that a carbon foam with a three-dimensional interconnected porous structure enables sufficient diffusion of vapor with a convective flow and therefore realizes an evaporation rate as high as 10.9 kg m−2 h−1 and outdoor evaporation of 42.0 kg m−2 for continuous 13 h. With such a high evaporation rate achieved, it shows great promise toward a high-throughput, around-the-clock, and eco-friendly technology of evaporative wastewater disposal.