Hydro power

 

Mixing fresh water and salt could generate energy for worldwide use if adapted on a large enough scale, researchers claim.

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Known as ‘Blue Energy,’ the principle of generating power in this way has been around for more than 100 years. There are two methods for generating blue energy: pressure-retarded osmosis and reverse electrodialysis.
 
Jan Post is studying reverse electrodialysis for this project as it focuses on generating electricity from sea or river water. Post, who hopes to obtain his doctorate on this subject, is from Wageningen University, in The Netherlands.
 
The Rhine and the Maas rivers were of particular interest to Post as the differential between its salt concentration, temperature and environmental factors make them some of the most ‘energetic’ rivers in Europe.
 
Post estimated that technical potential of both rivers to be 2.4 gigawatts per year. He believes it would be economically feasible to recover 1.5 gigawatts; enough to supply four million households in the Netherlands. According to him, the next few years will be necessary to work on bringing down the present, rather high, price of generating blue electricity.
 
He added that membrane technology should be developed and, furthermore, that such membranes should become much cheaper by introducing mass production.
 
The technique should be robust enough to work both when the water is polluted and when living organisms accumulate on the membranes (biofouling), according to the research. 

Caring for water

Meet a Role Model involved in catchment areas. 
 

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