Saturday, April 21, 2012
Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as carbon-free energy source
A new genre of electric power-generating stations could supply electricity for
more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global
potential of a little-known energy source that exists where rivers flow into the
ocean, a new analysis has concluded. A report on the process, which requires no
fuel, is sustainable and releases no carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas,
appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.Menachem Elimelech and Ngai Yin Yip of Yale University explain that the
little-known process, called pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), exploits the
so-called salinity gradient or difference in saltiness between freshwater
and seawater.In PRO, freshwater flows naturally by osmosis through a special membrane to
dilute seawater on the other side. The pressure from the flow spins a turbine
generator and produces electricity.
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