Maximizing Power Density Generation from Seawater Via Pressure Retarded Osmosis (Pro) Using Commercially Available Membranes

27 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2024

See all articles by Mie Thoendal Pedersen

Mie Thoendal Pedersen

Technical University of Denmark

Klaus Karlsen

Technical University of Denmark

Haofei Guo

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Lars Storm Pedersen

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Magdalena Malankowska

Technical University of Denmark

Manuel Pinelo

Technical University of Denmark

Ziran Su

Technical University of Denmark

Abstract

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a green technology for harvesting Gibbs free energy from mixing solutions with different salinity gradients. Although lab-synthesized membranes showed high PRO performance, there is no available flat-sheet industrial-scale PRO membrane production. Most of the previous studies have focused on enhancing the power density of the PRO process by using a hypersaline draw solution that potentially causes severe internal concentration polarization (ICP) and limits the enhancement of power density. Using the most accessible resources – seawater and commercially available membranes – can be a more practical way to develop a large-scale PRO plant. However, there were very few studies using such resources that reached the threshold power density – 5 W/m2 – for  a PRO process to be commercially viable. In our study, we compared the PRO performance of some commercial FO and RO membranes. We observed that, at an elevated feed velocity and temperature, the RO membrane had a significant enhanced water flux and power density. Due to turbulent flow at a high feed velocity and low viscosity at a high feed temperature (30 °C), the RO membrane was able to perform at low ICP, hence maximum power density (6.3 W/m2) could be obtained at half the osmotic pressure (15 bar).

Keywords: Salinity gradient energy, pressure retarded osmosis, commercial membrane, power density, process optimization

Suggested Citation

Pedersen, Mie Thoendal and Karlsen, Klaus and Guo, Haofei and Pedersen, Lars Storm and Malankowska, Magdalena and Pinelo, Manuel and Su, Ziran, Maximizing Power Density Generation from Seawater Via Pressure Retarded Osmosis (Pro) Using Commercially Available Membranes. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4944813 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4944813

Mie Thoendal Pedersen

Technical University of Denmark ( email )

Anker Engelunds Vej 1
Building 101A
Lyngby, 2800
Denmark

Klaus Karlsen

Technical University of Denmark ( email )

Anker Engelunds Vej 1
Building 101A
Lyngby, 2800
Denmark

Haofei Guo

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Lars Storm Pedersen

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Magdalena Malankowska

Technical University of Denmark ( email )

Anker Engelunds Vej 1
Building 101A
Lyngby, 2800
Denmark

Manuel Pinelo

Technical University of Denmark ( email )

Anker Engelunds Vej 1
Building 101A
Lyngby, 2800
Denmark

Ziran Su (Contact Author)

Technical University of Denmark ( email )

Anker Engelunds Vej 1
Building 101A
Lyngby, 2800
Denmark

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