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Resonant energy transfer for membrane-free, off-grid solar thermal humidification–dehumidification desalination

Nature Water volume 3, pages 605–616 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fresh water scarcity is a pressing global issue exacerbated by climate change and growing populations. Current desalination technologies face limitations: reverse osmosis requires grid electrical power and specialized membranes, thermal desalination is inefficient and membrane systems are prone to fouling. Here we introduce Solar Thermal Resonant Energy Exchange Desalination (STREED)—a robust, membrane-free and efficient solar thermal desalination approach. STREED couples the basic mechanisms of humidification–dehumidification distillation to Resonant Energy Transfer, a dynamic energy recovery scheme described in the language of oscillators. Resonant Energy Transfer achieves optimized and controllable thermal gradients for passive evaporation and condensation. Dynamic tuning of system flow rates in response to varying solar intensities substantially increases efficiency, extending fresh water production over 24 hours per day. We predict week-long fresh water productivity increases of 77% with an average gained output ratio near ~1.9 at seawater salinity, depending on available solar irradiation. STREED adapts to fluctuating solar inputs, offering a scalable solution for decentralized, off-grid water treatment crucial for remote communities facing water scarcity.

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Fig. 1: STREED prototype schematics, experimental data and simulations.
Fig. 2: RET and its application in solar thermal desalination.
Fig. 3: Time-explicit simulations of increased and nocturnal production with resonant energy transfer and dynamic flow-rate control in the OS.
Fig. 4: Predicted week-long performance of OS and XS under a realistic solar intensity profile.
Fig. 5: Predicted day-long performance of the OS for recorded solar intensity profiles measured on 13 May 2022 at different locations throughout the western United States.

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Data availability

The experimental and numerical data that support the findings of this work are available via GitHub at https://github.com/multiphysicsrice/streed_data.

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Acknowledgements

W.S. acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation; this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant number 1842494. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. A.M.-O. acknowledges financial support from CONACyT (Mexico, scholarship number 2021-000014-01EXTF-00140). P.N. acknowledges funding from the Robert A. Welch Foundation under grant C-1222. N.J.H. acknowledges funding from the Robert A. Welch Foundation under grant C-1220. P.N., P.D.D., N.J.H. and A.A. acknowledge funding support from the Department of Energy’s Solar Desalination Prize. We thank W. Wolf of Localized Water Solutions for his assistance in designing and fabricating the physical apparatus.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: William Schmid, Aleida Machorro-Ortiz.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    William Schmid, Aleida Machorro-Ortiz, Peter Nordlander, Pratiksha D. Dongare, Naomi J. Halas & Alessandro Alabastri

  2. Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    William Schmid, Aleida Machorro-Ortiz, Qian Ye, Peter Nordlander, Pratiksha D. Dongare, Naomi J. Halas & Alessandro Alabastri

  3. Applied Physics Graduate Program, Smalley–Curl Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Aleida Machorro-Ortiz

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Qian Ye, Peter Nordlander & Naomi J. Halas

  5. SLB, Houston, TX, USA

    Pratiksha D. Dongare

  6. Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Naomi J. Halas

  7. Smalley–Curl Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Alessandro Alabastri

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Contributions

P.D.D., N.J.H. and A.A. conceived the study and supervised the experimental and computational work. W.S. developed the numerical models, conceived and conducted the numerical analysis, developed the figures and wrote the paper. A.M.-O. and P.D.D. conducted the experiments on the physical apparatus, analysed the experimental data and assisted with writing the paper and developing supplementary figures. Q.Y. assisted with the numerical analysis. W.S., P.N. and A.A. discussed the simulation results and interpreted the results. All authors approved the final version of the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Naomi J. Halas or Alessandro Alabastri.

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Competing interests

The authors declare the following competing interests: P.N., P.D.D., N.J.H. and A.A. are co-inventors on a provisional patent relating to the resonant energy transfer concept. P.D.D. and A.A. have a small share in Localized Water Solutions Inc., a start-up developing smart and sustainable water solutions.

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Schmid, W., Machorro-Ortiz, A., Ye, Q. et al. Resonant energy transfer for membrane-free, off-grid solar thermal humidification–dehumidification desalination. Nat Water 3, 605–616 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00438-3

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