Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced on Monday, the invention of a new device that can boil water without electricity.
MIT compares it to sponge. It can heat water up to 212 degrees using the heat of the sun. It works on cloudy days, too and does not need mirrors or lenses to help focus the sun’s energy. It is expected to come to use for applications like sterilizing medical tools in settings without electricity.
The researchers’ current design builds on a solar-absorbing structure they developed in 2014— a similar floating, sponge-like material made of graphite and carbon foam, that was able to boil water to 100 C and convert 85 percent of the incoming sunlight to steam.
“This device offers a totally new design paradigm for solar steam generation,” Tao Deng, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University who was not part of the research, said in a statement.
The bubble wrap covers the top of the device to help trap the sun’s heat. This low-tech system isn’t, however, designed to last as long as others that need to use optics that concentrates the sun’s energy.
“What fascinates us is the innovative idea behind this inexpensive device, where we have creatively designed this device based on basic understanding of capillarity and solar thermal radiation,” says Zhang. “Meanwhile, we are excited to continue probing the complicated physics of solar vapor generation and to discover new knowledge for the scientific community.”
