Journal of Energy Management and Technology

Journal of Energy Management and Technology

Performance Improvement of Solar Steam Generation ‎Systems Using the Plasmonic Effect of Titanium Nitride

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Parvin Aliakbari 1
Farzaneh Arabpour Roghabadi 2
Seyed Mojtaba Sadrameli 3
1 Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 1- Process Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 2- Optoelectronics and Nanophotonics Research Group, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University,
3 Department of Engineering, German University of Technology in Oman, Muscat, Oman.
10.22109/jemt.2022.319405.1357
Abstract
Today, with the increase in population, access to fresh water is one of the important human needs. ‎Although the conventional methods for obtaining fresh water through recycling or desalination of ‎water are very efficient; they consume high energy and are costly. Solar energy as a sustainable, ‎accessible, and pollution-free energy can be a suitable source of energy to obtain freshwater. Solar ‎steam generation through surface evaporation is a promising technology to achieve high-quality ‎freshwater without the use of solar concentrators. These systems consist of a floating substrate that is ‎covered by a photothermal material to harvest solar energy. The water is transferred to the surface ‎and evaporated by heat localization. In this study, two-layer systems consisting of polyurethane ‎foam substrate and titanium nitride light absorber are fabricated and used for desalination. The ‎studied system, in the best case, has an evaporation rate of 1.31 kg/(m^2 h^1 ) and this rate is ‎equivalent to an efficiency of 84%. According to the results, titanium nitride nanoparticles provide ‎efficient light absorption due to owning a plasmonic effect. ‎
Keywords
Solar Desalination
Solar Steam Generation
Polyurethane Foam
Titanium Nitride
Light Absorber

Subjects

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Journal of Energy Management and Technology
Volume 9, Issue 3
Summer 2025
Pages 172-176

  • Receive Date 14 December 2021
  • Revise Date 24 April 2022
  • Accept Date 27 May 2022