Energy harvesting system using reverse electrodialysis with nanoporous polycarbonate track-etch membranes

Abstract

SUMMARY Energy harvesting technology has recently gained attraction as it enables the utilization of diverse ambient energy sources. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is such a technique that converts electrical energy from the concentration gradient between a concentrated solution (e.g., seawater) and a diluted solution (e.g., fresh water). We experimentally investigated a RED device using nanoporous polycarbonate track‐etch membranes. We performed the parametric study by varying the concentration differences, the pore size, and the electrolyte types. We characterized the RED performance in terms of maximum voltage, maximum current, and maximum power. The experimental results showed that the maximum voltage has a nonlinear dependency on the concentration difference with the highest value around the 100:1 concentration ratio. The maximum current and maximum power, on the other hand, monotonically increase as the concentration difference increases. We also found that the performance of the RED cell is enhanced with the decreased pore size in the experiments for the nominal diameter ranging from 15 to 100 nm. The results with different cations show that the electricity generation of the RED cell increases as the ion mobility increases or the valence number decreases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Anomalous Pore‐Density Dependence in Nanofluidic Osmotic Power Generation

“…[7] Harvesting clean energy from the ambient environment is an environmentally and economically feasible way, compared with the fossil-based energy resources. To date, the osmotic energy conversion process has been extensively studied with polymeric [11][12][13] and inorganic materials, [14][15][16] showing superior performance due to excellent selectivity and high ionic flux. [8] Recently, inspired by the exceptional ion transport properties, ion-channelmimetic nanofluidic systems in solid-state materials become an intriguing research area in energy conversion and storage.…”

Using Smart Nanochannels as a Power Switch in Salinity Gradient Batteries

“…Compared with the previously reported membrane system, our membrane with asymmetrical structures exhibited higher power density (Table S4). With regard to the relatively low pore density of the PET membrane (10 8 cm −2 ), the power density values can be further increased by using ion‐track‐etched pores with higher pore density (10 9−10 cm −2 ).…”

Parametric study of reverse electrodialysis using ammonium bicarbonate solution for low-grade waste heat recovery

“…The variation in the concentration differences considerably affects the electrochemical performance of the RED [16,24]. We characterize our RED system for the change in the concentrations of both the concentrated and the diluted solutions.…”

“…They showed that the membrane resistance can decrease with increasing the water uptake. An extensive analysis is yet to be performed for the major parameters of the NH 4 HCO 3 -RED system, compared with various conventional NaCl-RED system study [22][23][24][25][26][27]. The power reported in the previous studies is somewhat insufficient for practical applications [19,20].…”