Modelling and simulation of osmotic energy from salinity gradients: A case study from River Thames

Abstract

Faced with increasingly population growth and climate change, renewable energy sources are regarded as promising solutions. Recently, the osmotic energy from salinity gradients can be harnessed as for renewable power generation. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is one of the most explored technologies. In this study, we carry out a series of simulations on different configurations depending on different water conditions. The numerical result of osmotic power from River Thames generated by single PRO process indicates its promising potential capacity. Furthermore, power generation by hybrid membrane process (HMP) of PRO integrated with reverse osmosis (RO) process is investigated. The numerical results demonstrate the energy reduction on the RO process by a PRO as pre-treatment and the energy generated by PRO process in different HMPs. At last, this study simulates and compares the configurations with different available water conditions and operations based on the water samples from River Thames.