Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) is a technique for treating high-salinity brine to obtain freshwater and/or salt using a solar interface evaporator. However, salt accumulation on the surface of the evaporator is a big challenge to maintaining stable water evaporation. In this study, a simple and easy-to-manufacture evaporator, also called a crystallizer, was designed and fabricated by 3D printing. The photothermal layer printed with polylactic acid/carbon composites had acceptable light absorption (93%) within the wavelength zone of 250 nm-2500 nm. The micron-sized voids formed during 3D printing provided abundant water transportation channels inside the crystallizer. After surface hydrophilic modification, the crystallizer had an ultra-hydrophilic channel structure and gravity-assisted salt recovery function. The results revealed that the angles between the photothermal layers affected the efficacy of solar evaporation and the yield of solid salt. The crystallizer with the angle of 90° between two photothermal layers could collect more solid salt than the three other designs with angles of 30°, 60°, and 120°, respectively. The crystallizer has high evaporation and salt crystallization efficiency in a high-salinity brine environment, which is expected to have application potentials in the zero liquid discharge of wastewater and valuable salt recovery.
Keywords: 3D printing; high-salinity brine treatment; salt collection; solar crystallizer; zero liquid discharge.