Professor Zheng Hongfei's research team from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has recently published a forward-looking paper titled Backward-evaporating solar distillation: From efficiency promotion to practical application in Joule (IF=35.4), a leading energy journal under Cell.

This paper is the first to independently discuss and forecast the potential of backward-evaporating solar distillation technology, summarizing current research and future development directions.

Solar thermal distillation is a sustainable method for freshwater production, significant for alleviating global freshwater shortages in the context of "dual carbon" goals. The recently proposed backward-evaporating solar thermal distillation has become a research focus, showing prospects in multi-stage distillation processes, seawater salt resource extraction, and the integrated use of photovoltaic and photothermal energy. However, there is a lack of independent and comprehensive discussion on this technology, and the development path for improving performance metrics and practical production applications remains unclear.

The team coined the term "backward-evaporating solar distillation" and conducted an in-depth analysis of its energy efficiency, sustainable operation, integrated applications, practical production, technical characteristics, and economic feasibility. They emphasize the technology's potential from efficiency enhancement to practical applications.

The team has provided specific development paths and recommendations, which will strongly promote the advancement of this technology in improving performance metrics and achieving practical production applications.