Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4989370 | Journal of Membrane Science | 2017 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a promising technology to extract energy from salinity gradients, especially in the areas where concentrated brine and saline waters are available as feed streams. A first pilot-scale plant was recently built in Trapani (Italy), and tested with real brackish water and brine from saltworks. The present work focuses on the scale-up of the pilot plant, reaching more than 400Â m2 of total membrane area installed and representing the largest operating RED plant so far reported in the literature. With a nominal power capacity of 1Â kW, the pilot plant reached almost 700Â W of power capacity using artificial brine and brackish water, while a 50% decrease in power output was observed when using real solutions. This reduction was likely due to the presence of non-NaCl ions in relatively large concentration, which negatively affected both the electromotive force and stack resistance. These results provide relevant and unique information for the RED process scale-up, representing the first step for the feasibility assessment of RED technology on large scale.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Filtration and Separation
Authors
Michele Tedesco, Andrea Cipollina, Alessandro Tamburini, Giorgio Micale,