Renewable biomass reinvigorates sustainable water-energy nexus

The water-energy nexus has garnered worldwide interest. Current dual-functional research aimed at co-producing freshwater and electricity faces significant challenges, including sub-optimal capacities ("1 + 1 < 2"), poor inter-functional coordination, high carbon footprints, and large costs. Mainstream water-to-electricity conversions are often compromised owing to functionality separation and erratic gradients. Herein, we present a sustainable strategy based on renewable biomass that addresses these issues by jointly achieving competitive solar-evaporative desalination and robust clean electricity generation. Using hydrothermally activated basswood, our solar desalination exceeded the 100% efficiency bottleneck even under reduced solar illumination. Through simple size-tuning, we achieved a high evaporation rate of 3.56 kg h(-1) m(-2) and an efficiency of 149.1%, representing 128%-251% of recent values without sophisticated surface engineering. By incorporating an electron-ion nexus with interfacial Faradaic electron circulation and co-ion-predominated micro-tunnel hydrodynamic flow, we leveraged free energy from evaporation to generate long-term electricity (0.38 W m(-3) for over 14 d), approximately 322% of peer performance levels. This inter-functional nexus strengthened dual functionalities and validated general engineering practices. Our presented strategy holds significant promise for global human-society-environment sustainability. (c) 2024 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science China Press. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.