Today, most of the electricity we consume is generated at power plants that are far from the most environmentally friendly. And, despite the advances in solar energy, the introduction of new technologies in the field of electricity production remains a labor-intensive and resource-intensive process. But soon everything may change thanks to a new method - obtaining electricity from salt water.
The technology is based on the use of the familiar osmosis process to everyone from school. The bottom line is simple: the power plant has two containers - one with salt water, the other with clean water. A turbine is located in a container with clean water, which is driven by the movement of water. The containers are interconnected by a tube with a semi-permeable membrane. Then physics comes into play: thanks to osmosis, the concentration of salts in two vessels should be the same. This causes the salt molecules to rush from the salt water tank through the membrane into the clean water tank. The vibrations in the water drive a turbine that generates electricity. There is just one problem: this process of generating electricity has been known for a long time and with its help the amount of energy received is extremely small. But a group of researchers from Switzerland and the United States has found a way to increase the output energy several times.
Osmosis in action. Equalizing the concentration of molecules in the vessels
In the invention of scientists, the main component that allows to achieve an increase in output energy is a new type of membrane. Salt and pure water are contained in one vessel, separated by an ultra-thin semi-permeable membrane. The membrane allows only positively charged ions to pass through. Electrodes are connected to the membrane. When a positively charged ion passes through the membrane, it donates its electron to the membrane, which transfers the charge to the electrodes, which leads to the generation of electricity.
The principle of operation of the membrane. According to researchers, the thickness of the membrane is less than one millimeter
The advantage of the technology is that there can be a lot of such "gates" for ions in one membrane and, as the developers themselves say, a membrane of 1 square meter can generate up to 1000 kilowatts of energy, which is enough to provide about 600 apartments with electricity. …
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VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV
