Producing electricity by seawater mixing river water

The country will be the coal of the future, the French science fiction novelist Jules Verne predicted it in 1874. More than 100 years later, Dutch and Norwegian scientists believe that they can turn their minds around. Verne's dream came true.

Equipment to produce electricity by mixing fresh water and salt made by the Netherlands

In partnership with Statkraft, the Dutch Center for Sustainable Water Technology (Vetsus) and Norway's independent research organization devised devices to produce electricity by mixing seawater with river water.

The principle of operation of the device is based on a natural process: when river water flows into the ocean, a large amount of energy is released due to differences in salt content in the water.

The device will collect that energy, and therefore people will have fuel in a sustainable way, without greenhouse gas emissions. Philippe Schild of the European Commission said: '' There is great potential for this new way of producing electricity in Europe. It can help us increase the rate of renewable energy in the energy structure ''.

These two projects use different methods to produce electricity: reverse osmosis electricity (Netherlands) and osmosis (Norway). However, both methods use thin films made of special materials. The Netherlands has not yet built a test factory. Norway has installed two small factories.

The operating principle of Norwegian-made equipment is fresh water and surface water is fed into a thin film chamber Fresh water is transported through the membrane and then mixed with pressurized seawater. Then the mixture of pressurized seawater and fresh water flowed out of the chamber, to a turbine producing electricity. It is possible to build power plants of this type in areas where fresh and salty water meet.

The main obstacle to the technology is that electricity costs are many times higher than wind or solar energy. Scientists believe it takes at least another 5 years to create cheaper films, test them and put the project into practice. At that time, this technology could compete with other renewable energy technologies.

Some people are skeptical about this new technique. However, according to Frank Neumann of the International Energy Agency's Marine Energy Program, when the first wind turbine was installed in Germany in 1985, many people in the energy industry laughed. That project failed and lost millions of dollars. Now wind power is developing very fast.

Minh Son