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Sustainable moisture energy

Nature Reviews Materials (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Harvesting energy from the ambient is a promising approach to fulfil decentralized energy demands and facilitate the transition to low-carbon economy. Moisture-sorption-based energy harvesting (MSEH) is a promising strategy for obtaining heat, cold and electricity from ubiquitous moisture anywhere and anytime. Advances in water-sorption materials have promoted the development of sustainable moisture energy. However, MSEH technology faces the challenges of low-energy productivity and limited recognition of its working mechanisms and thermodynamic analysis. We centre this Perspective article around an in-depth understanding of the underlying mechanisms and thermodynamic limitations of sustainable moisture energy. We first introduce the working principles of MSEH for heat, cold and electricity generation, and summarize recent progress in water sorbents. We then discuss thermodynamic limitations and evaluate global potential for sustainable moisture energy. We outline future challenges of water-sorption kinetics and propose technical directions for accelerating water sorption-desorption with ordered cross-scale energy transfer and mass transport. Finally, we offer an overview of future research areas for water sorbents with higher water uptake, tunable water affinity and faster water sorption for next-generation high-performance MSEH.

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Fig. 1: Schematics and operating principles of moisture-sorption-based energy harvesting for heating, cooling and electricity generation.
Fig. 2: Water-sorption capacity of sorbents and power density of moisture-sorption-based energy harvesting.
Fig. 3: Thermodynamics and energy potential of moisture-sorption-based energy harvesting.
Fig. 4: Challenges and opportunities of sorption kinetics.
Fig. 5: Perspectives on designing next-generation sorbents and future practical applications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Young Scientists (Grant No. 52206266), the National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar of China (Grant No. 52325601), the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52293412), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22035005 and No. 52022051).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jiaxing Xu, Pengfei Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Jiaxing Xu, Pengfei Wang, Zhaoyuan Bai, Ruzhu Wang & Tingxian Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu

  3. Research Center of Solar Power and Refrigeration, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Ruzhu Wang & Tingxian Li

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Contributions

J.X. contributed to writing, reviewing and editing the manuscript and creating the figures. P.W. and Z.B. contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. H.C., R.W. and L.Q. contributed to reviewing, editing and discussing the manuscript. T.L. contributed to writing, reviewing and editing the manuscript and supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Ruzhu Wang, Liangti Qu or Tingxian Li.

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Xu, J., Wang, P., Bai, Z. et al. Sustainable moisture energy. Nat Rev Mater (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00643-0

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