Performance of the first reverse electrodialysis pilot plant for power production from saline waters and concentrated brines

Tedesco, Michele; Scalici, Claudio; Vaccari, Davide; Cipollina, Andrea; Tamburini, Alessandro; Micale, G.

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2015.10.057

Cited by 212 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…[15]. Experimental work has demonstrated that the electric power output of the RED membrane can be further improved by using concentrated brines from seawater brine basins [16]. However, naturally occurring salt gradients are relatively small, their availability is geographically limited and they cause membrane fouling, which reduces the membrane performance by 40 % without pre-treatment of the feed water [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adsorption Reverse Electrodialysis system for the generation of electricity from low-grade heat

2018

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A novel process is presented to generate electricity from low-grade heat by combining a Reverse Electrodialysis membrane with an Adsorption desalinator in a closed-loop system. A Reverse Electrodialysis membrane generates electricity by controlled mixing of two salt solutions of different concentrations. An Adsorption desalinator restores the initial salt gradient by utilising low-grade heat for the separation. In this study the process is designed from optimising the salt and material selection to the development of the real system application. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the proposed system show the potential of this novel renewable energy technology. The efficiencies of 227 salts with a range of different valences and 10 adsorption materials have been investigated over a large number of system parameters. The results show that the optimised system can achieve an exergy efficiency of up to 30 %. Moreover, high salt concentrations do not significantly increase the specific energy consumption of the Adsorption desalinator, which allows operating the Reverse Electrodialysis membrane at the optimal salt concentrations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adsorption Reverse Electrodialysis system for the generation of electricity from low-grade heat

2018

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“…The channel thickness is usually ~100-500 μm, the channel length ranges from 10 cm (laboratory scale) to ~40 cm (prototype scale); the typical linear flow velocities at which the maximum net power is obtained are around 1 cm s -1 , corresponding to very low Reynolds numbers (lower than 5) [7,[10][11][12][13][14]18,20,21]. Therefore, the fluid flow regime is perfectly steady.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressure drop at low Reynolds numbers in woven-spacer-filled channels for membrane processes: CFD prediction and experimental validation

Gurreri

Tamburini

Cipollina

et al. 2017

DWt

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a b s t r a c tThe energy consumption due to pumping power is a crucial issue in membrane processes. Spacers provide mechanical stability and promote mixing, yet increasing pressure drop. Woven spacers and their behaviour at low Reynolds numbers are less studied in the literature. Nevertheless, they are typical of some membrane technologies, as reverse electrodialysis (RED). RED is a promising technology for electric power generation by the chemical potential difference of two salt solutions within a stack equipped by selective ion-exchange membranes. The mechanical energy required for pumping the feed solutions, can dramatically reduce the net power output. In this work computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of spacer-filled channels at low Reynolds numbers were carried out in parallel with an experimental campaign focused on the collection of data for model validation. Woven spacers 280-480 μm thick were investigated at the flow rates typical of RED channels. The construction of the computational domain was based on measurements made by optical microscopy and micrometer. Fully developed flow conditions were assumed, thus, periodic boundary conditions were adopted (unit cell approach). The experiments were carried out in a flow cell with one channel. Pressure drops were measured with and without the spacer, in order to quantify the effect of inlet-outlet channel and identify the distributed pressure drops due to the woven nets. Experimental results showed that the distributed pressure drop along the spacer-filled channel for the cases investigated is around 40% of the overall pressure loss. The significant contribution of the manifolds is due to the relatively high velocity of the fluid entering and leaving the channel in radial direction in the inlet and outlet holes, as in the RED stacks commonly used. However, an improved geometry of the distribution and collection system can easily result in a significant reduction of hydraulic loss in this part of the stack. Therefore, the optimization of the spacer geometry is crucial. In this regard, a good agreement between CFD results and experimental data on hydraulic loss along the channel was found, thus confirming that a simple CFD model (as the one presented in this work) can be a powerful and cheap tool, able to efficiently evaluate the pressure drops within spacer-filled channels of any customised geometry.

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“…The technical features of the prototype supposed to be installed are similar to the ones reported in [36] and not repeated here for the sake of brevity; the output parameters and the performance of this unit were predicted by making use of the model described in [37]. A 3643 m 3 /h of brine flowrate and an equal seawater flowrate were considered; taking into account that 75% of the gross electricity production is consumed by the auxiliary pumps of the unit (i.e.…”

Section: Cost Sensitivity To the Steam Extraction Pressure And To Thementioning

confidence: 65%

Exergy analysis and thermoeconomic cost accounting of a Combined Heat and Power steam cycle integrated with a Multi Effect Distillation-Thermal Vapour Compression desalination plant

Catrini

Cipollina

Micale

et al. 2017

Energy Conversion and Management

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Performance of the first reverse electrodialysis pilot plant for power production from saline waters and concentrated brines

Cited by 212 publications

References 42 publications

An Adsorption Reverse Electrodialysis system for the generation of electricity from low-grade heat

An Adsorption Reverse Electrodialysis system for the generation of electricity from low-grade heat

Pressure drop at low Reynolds numbers in woven-spacer-filled channels for membrane processes: CFD prediction and experimental validation

Exergy analysis and thermoeconomic cost accounting of a Combined Heat and Power steam cycle integrated with a Multi Effect Distillation-Thermal Vapour Compression desalination plant

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