Abstract
Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a technology producing renewable energy from the mixing of river and seawater. In natural salinity gradients, multivalent ions are present, which lead to a reduced RED power output. Transport of multivalent ions against the concentration gradient and their trapping inside the membranes leads to a lower driving force and increased membrane resistance. The present work focuses on the effect of sulfate ions on anion exchange membranes in RED. A monovalent ion selective membrane ability to retain a higher open circuit voltage is offset by the higher resistance in the presence of sulfate, leading to losses in normalized power outputs (−25%) comparable to a standard grade membrane. Longer term experiments revealed that membrane resistance increases over time. This study highlights the need to address uphill transport, resistance increase, and decreased permselectivity of anion exchange membranes in presence of multivalent ions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 29 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | npj Clean Water |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Jun 2020 |
Funding
This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology (www.wetsus.eu). Wetsus is co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the Province of Fryslân, and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. This project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 665874. The authors would like to thank the participants of the research theme “Blue Energy” for their input and suggestions and their financial support.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Marie Skłodowska‐Curie | 665874 |
| European Union's Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme |
