Towards sustainable saline agriculture: Interfacial solar evaporation for simultaneous seawater desalination and saline soil remediation.

Interfacial solar steam generation is an efficient way to produce freshwater from saline water. This technology was further harnessed here for simultaneous saline soil remediation and enhanced agricultural sustainability. An interfacial solar evaporation and planting system was designed that uses treated seawater for saline soil washing and agricultural irrigation. In outdoor experiments the evaporator realized high freshwater production (10.95 kg m-2 day-1) with a soil washing efficiency 3 times greater than traditional distillation. Post treatment plant assays showed that initially highly saline soils could be restored to functional agricultural soils with germination rates of 65% after soil washing, where solar evaporation could continuously provide irrigation water for plant growth. This system is fully automated and uses only solar energy and seawater for saline soil remediation and irrigation. The development of this system provides a potentially useful solution to alleviate global problems associated with water scarcity, soil salinization, and desertification.