Salinity gradient power (SGP), also called blue energy, is a newly emerging form of marine renewable energy. SGP is the energy available from the salinity difference between seawater and river water, which respectively have high and low salt concentrations. The SGP energy potential is estimated to be 2.4–2.6 TW, which is ~80% of the global electricity demand. Among membrane-based blue energy technologies, reverse electrodialysis (RED) has been applied practically. Recently, RED has been considered the attractive technology because this new process has huge potential and possibility to generate energy from abundant but largely unused resources. To make RED an economically attractive technology, the large scale RED stack should be developed. Recently, we have developed the kW class RED stack and evaluated the performances for the first time in Korea. And the effect of operation conditions on power density was confirmed. Furthermore, a numerical simulation has been conducted for investigating the flow distribution and pressure loss in the stack. Since the performance of RED significantly depends on the inertial fluid characteristics and the required pumping power, it is a primary importance to lower pressure drop and uniform flow distribution in the stack. The ion exchange membranes (IEMs) also strongly influences the performance of the RED stack. Generally, IEMs for ion separation processes require high strength and long lifetime regardless of the electrical resistance and thickness; however, IEMs for RED require low electrical resistance and high permselectivity. Nevertheless, most present IEMs for RED still do not possess both the thinness and the mechanical strength required for higher power density of the RED stack. To solve this problem, we have developed pore-filling-type IEMs for RED.

Development of reverse electrodialysis salinity gradient power

254th National Meeting (2017)

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