Osmosis as a physicochemical phenomenon
Introduction
A few days ago I wrote about the different ways of obtaining energy from alternative sources, which provide humanity with the option of satisfying their energy needs with environmental friendly mechanisms and that greatly reduce the destructive impact generated by the use of the use offossil fuels.
Scientists in search of solving the energy problem, investigate in little explored places, which could provide solutions to the growing need for energy. Global per capita energy consumption has been growing constantly and this will cause, at some point, that we will stop producing enough energy to meet our growth needs.
Developing
But there is another new alternative that gives us the opportunity to make a visible difference and that can truly change the world. A environment friendly energy source, low cost and more efficient than those that are currently available. This source can be osmotic energy, or as it is also known: blue energy. Blue energy is not exactly a new concept. This energy production method was first discovered in the 1970s by Professor Sidney Loeb.
This new procedure takes advantage of salinity differences between river water and sea water. As we all know the seas and rivers have always been used as clean energy sources, such as hydroelectric plants or mareomotriz. But with osmotic energy it is a technology that promises to produce an unprecedented amount of energy and also renewable.
Functioning
The process consists of a physicochemical phenomenon called osmosis where a semipermeable membrane allows only certain substances to pass, and that is present in living beings cells. Using the mouth of the rivers when fresh water flows to the seas and oceans it is intended to replicate this natural system.
Through a spontaneous movement, the molecules of the solvent water, pass through an artificial semipermeable membrane from the side with greater solute, salt, next to the side with less solute, this generates a significant increase in pressure, which can be used to generate electricitypromoted generators designed for this purpose.
Currently the countries that have opted for this new technology are Norway and the Netherlands, where there are generating plants through osmotic energy, in 2014 Holland inaugurated its first commercial plant of blue energy, and are convinced that in the future it will supply 50%of the energy that the country needs using this technology. But good news does not stay here, recently a Penn State team have managed to improve the efficiency of osmotic technology, achieving a new system that combines two different techniques used to obtain blue energy.
This is the combination of delayed pressure osmosis and inverse electrodialysis osmosis, both techniques have efficiency and effectiveness problems. Through this new method an electrochemical flow cell is obtained that produces an unprecedented energy amount and without efficiency losses. The system uses a system similar to reverse electrodialysis, but that changes the type of water that is going through each channel and is divided into two cycles, which combined produce a large amount of energy compared to the other systems.
conclusion
To put it in perspective, the new technology produces 12.6 watts per square meter of water membrane, compared to 2.9 of reverse electrodialysis and the 9.2 of delayed pressure osmosis, this means that it has the potential to supply 40% of all world energy demand. Absolutely incredible.
It is only necessary to test in real environments and observe how the variables existing in practice affect the electrochemical process produced in this process. In the future of this technology it looks promising, and scientists have their hopes on it, and perhaps become the salvation of our growing need for new sources of clean and renewable energy.
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