Reverse electrodialysis with NH4HCO3-water systems for heat-to-power conversion

M. Bevacqua, A. Tamburini, M. Papapetrou, A. Cipollina, G. Micale and A. Piacentino

Energy, 2017, vol. 137, issue C, 1293-1307

Abstract: A Reverse ElectroDialysis Heat Engine (REDHE) system operating with “thermolytic” ammonium hydrogen-carbonate (NH4HCO3) aqueous solutions as working fluids is studied. The engine is constituted by (i) a RED unit to produce electric power by mixing the solutions at different salinity and (ii) a thermally-driven regeneration unit including a stripping and an absorption column to restore the initial salinity gradient thus closing the cycle. In the present work only the RED unit and the stripping column are taken into account. In particular, a simplified integrated process model for the whole cycle was developed: it consists of (i) a lumped parameter model for the RED unit validated with experimental data and (ii) a model developed via a process simulator to assess the thermal duty of the stripping column. The effect of operating conditions as solution concentrations and velocities was investigated by a sensitivity analysis. Under the best conditions (among those investigated), a power density of about 9 W/m2 of cell pair was predicted for the RED unit, and a maximum exergetic efficiency of about 22% was found for the whole cycle. A preliminary economic analysis of the process is also provided.

Keywords: Reverse ElectroDialysis Heat Engine (REDHE); Closed-loop reverse electrodialysis; Salinity gradient power (SGP); Waste heat recovery; Ammonium hydrogen carbonate; Thermolytic salts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217311866
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:137:y:2017:i:c:p:1293-1307

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.07.012

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().