Analysis and simulation of scale-up potentials in reverse electrodialysis

作者:Tedesco Michele; Mazzola Paolo; Tamburini Alessandro; Micale Giorgio; Bogle I David L; Papapetrou Michael; Cipollina Andrea*
来源:Desalination and Water Treatment, 2015, 55(12): 3391-3403.
DOI:10.1080/19443994.2014.947781

摘要

The reverse electrodialysis (RED) process has been widely accepted as a viable and promising technology to produce electric energy from salinity difference (salinity gradient power e.g. using river water/seawater or seawater and concentrated brines). Recent R&D efforts demonstrated how an appropriate design of the RED unit and a suitable selection of process conditions may crucially enhance the process performance. With this regard, a process simulator was developed and validated with experimental data collected on a laboratory-scale unit, providing a new modelling tool for process optimisation. In this work, performed within the REAPower project ( [GRAPHICS] ), a process simulator previously proposed by the same authors has been modified in order to predict the behaviour of a cross-flow RED unit. The model was then adopted to investigate the influence of the most important variables (i.e. solution properties and stack geometry) on the overall process performance. In particular, the use of different concentrations and flow rates for the feed streams has been considered, as well as different aspect ratios in asymmetric stacks. Moreover, the influence of the scaling-up a RED unit was investigated, starting from a 22 x 22 cm(2) 100 cell pairs lab-stack, and simulating the performance of larger stacks up to a 44 x 88 cm(2) 500 cell pairs unit. Finally, different scenarios are proposed for a prototype-scale RED plant, providing useful indications for the technology scale-up towards 1 kW of power production, relevant to the installation of a real prototype plant in Trapani (Italy) being the final objective of the R&D activities of the REAPower project.

  • 出版日期2015-9-18