Energy from sea and river water

Desalinization using Blue Energy

The need for clean and safe drinking water is obvious. Over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water resources. Potable fresh water can be gained by desalinating salt water. The disadvantage is that current methods for desalinization consume a lot of energy. A method based on ion-exchange membranes can be used to desalinate salt water driven by differences in salinity. In other words, the power gained by Blue Energy is used directly to desalinate water. In this way, fresh water can be made out of salt water and brackish water, without any consumption of electrical energy!

This method seems to have a great potential for places with waters with different salinity. Is it completely new? No, this method was mentioned before by others, even recently in the news, but never extensively tested. Since improvements in the generation of power from Blue Energy have been reported recently, desalinization using the salinity gradient energy has a rising potential. The actual performance can be tested (as function of input concentrations and residence time) by a slight modification of the Blue Energy stacks at the Wetsus laboratory in Leeuwarden to address the potential of this method for the production of fresh drinking water.

Preferable background: Chemical Engineering, Environmental Technology, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Use of project: BSc-thesis or MSc-internship