From Laboratory to Field: Enhancing Solar Evaporation Performance through Advanced Thermal Management

From Laboratory to Field: Enhancing Solar Evaporation Performance through Advanced Thermal Management | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article From Laboratory to Field: Enhancing Solar Evaporation Performance through Advanced Thermal Management Peng Wang, Chang-ting Wang, Canjie Lin, Kai Xu, Yang Liu, Zhongtao Lao, and 10 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6929863/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Solar evaporation has emerged as a promising off-grid solution for producing potable water from diverse sources. With advanced modular designs, particularly downward evaporation and multistage configurations, remarkable efficiency improvements have been achieved. However, field implementations consistently exhibit notable performance degradation, sometimes as large as 57%, compared to laboratory benchmarks, presenting a major barrier to widespread adoption. Through comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis, we identified that wind-induced convection and sky cooling, the environmental factors routinely overlooked in laboratory studies, substantially elevate heat losses and lower water productivity. Guided by heat and spectral analyses, we designed a spectrally selective airlock (SSAL) aerogel to mitigate these losses, resulting in a maximum 78% reduction in heat loss under realistic field conditions and five-fold increase in water productivity compared to aerogelfree modules. Field tests with seawater achieved 10.88 kg·m − 2 ·day − 1 yield, twice that of the aerogel-free counterpart, and the laboratory-field performance gap was reduced to only 2%. The analytical methodology and strategic framework presented in this work offers guidance for solar distillation optimization to enhance clean water accessibility for all while demonstrating broad applicability across diverse solar thermal applications. Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Renewable energy/Solar energy/Solar thermal energy Scientific community and society/Water resources Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SI.docx Supplementary materials Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6929863","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":475628098,"identity":"219a7225-dfc1-419c-984c-1121515bc1d6","order_by":0,"name":"Peng 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