| Fresh and Salty Water to Produce Electricity |
| 22 September 2009 |
|
A New Technique Being Developed by Italian Researcher
A device able to produce electric energy from the mixing of salt and freshwater has been developed by Doriano Brogioli, a researcher at University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. The process of extracting freshwater from marine water requires energy. The reverse therefore should allow energy production, but so far nobody succeeded in getting the result. The prototype developed by the Italian researcher is based on the characteristics of porous activated carbon. The structure of activated carbon allows in fact one gram of it to contain a contact surface of about 1000 m2. The reaction cell is composed of two activated carbon electrodes in a salt water solution. The application of electric energy makes the positively and negatively charged salts separate and be absorbed by the two carbon pieces. When freshwater enters the reactor, ions are forced out of the pores, thus releasing energy. Electricity production would therefore be ensured by alternating fluxes of fresh and salty water. The new technique is still at a laboratory stage and more research work is necessary to obtain its industrial application. "Preliminary evaluations confirm that the setup can be scaled up to very big plants, suitable for powering whole cities", said Brogioli. The ideal location of such plants would be at the mouth of rivers, where sea and river water naturally mix. However, applications could be suitable also in deserts by employing water at different salinity grades. To read the complete article please visit the University Bicocca webpage (page in Italian, but attachments in English):" |
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