KSC SEMINARS
KAUST
Date & Time: Sunday September 2nd, 2018 at 4pm
Venue: Auditorium between Bldg. 2/3
Light refreshments will be provided.
Abstract: Given the vast abundance and inexhaustibility of sunlight, tapping into solar energy to produce clean water is a viable solution to current global challenges of water scarcity and clean energy shortage. The presentation will cover two topics: (1) solar-driven steam generation and solar crystallizer for brine treatment with zero liquid discharge. In these systems, photothermal materials are employed to capture and convert sunlight to heat and the generated heat in turn is used to produce water vapor. The choices of photothermal materials and the evolution of photothermal architectures will be reviewed. Recent development in solar crystallizer will be presented. (2) Sunlight-assisted atmospheric water harvesting. The effective water sorbents collect water vapor from dry air and the saturated sorbents are then heated up via photothermal conversion to release and subsequently condense and produce clean water. Common salts based water sorbents, simple all-in-one devices, and their performances will be presented.
Biography: Professor Peng Wang is an associate professor in Environmental Science and Engineering program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2008. His research focuses on rational design, synthesis, and application of nanomaterials toward sustainable-energy driven clean water production.