Electricity from salt water

Professor Doriano Brogioli proposed (and was granted a patent) a new, surprisingly simple and very cheap method to generate electricity from saltwater and fresh water.

The two pictures on the left are carbon electrodes (green and red negative electrode) embedded in salt water. When adding fresh water (right picture), the energy potential of the system increases and can be used as a power source. That is the invention of Prof. Brogioli, University of Milano - Italia.

There is a very simple method of generating electricity.Mixing saltwater and fresh water in a container, plugging a porous carbon electrode (often used to filter water and gas) can generate renewable energy . cheap. That is the work of Professor Doriano Brogioli, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.

(Photo: Physorg)

The main byproduct of the reaction is that brackish water may fall back into the sea, Professor Brogioli reports of his invention in a paper published in ' Physical Review Letters '.

According to GS Brogioli, if this idea is developed, it will become the operating principle for a new type of electricity generation device for coastal households where both sources of seawater (saline) and well water are available. River water (sweet), the device is capable of generating electricity with a capacity of 1 kW, enough for a family.

The material scientist Yury Gogotsi, of Drexel University in Philadelphia, responded, saying the idea was feasible, although it was only in its early stages of development. More research is needed and more effort is required to turn it into a device that can handle several cubic meters of water when operating.

Brogioli explains that his concept is the opposite of how people still use salt to dehydrate water, which must consume electricity to separate salt ions from seawater. Therefore, when he poured fresh water mixed with salt water - that is, contrary to the desalination process - will generate electricity when ions diffuse into the water.

GS.Doriano Brogioli

In principle, saltwater is first pumped into a tank with two charged carbon electrodes. Salt ions including positively charged sodium and negatively charged chlorine are attracted to a surface of the opposite carbon electrode. Next, pump fresh water into the tank and salt ions from the diffused electrode to mix into the fresh water. Like stretching a rubber band, pulling salt ions out of the charged electrode will create in a system of energy - that is, the potential for " pulling " ions out of the electrode, increasing the energy of the system. up, an amount equal to the potential of the ion. Brogioli wrote: he installed an energy-saving, '3' device to buy activated carbon as an electrode, with 2 continuous flowing and saltwater currents and calculate it to generate a source of electricity the electricity is obtained when turning a hydroelectric turbine from a 100 meter high waterfall.

Since the 1970s, people have exploited ways to collect energy from saltwater. But these methods mostly produce energy from water flowing through the permeable membrane with tiny holes to separate fresh water from saline water.

Fabrication and preservation of films is more expensive than other renewable energy sources. Therefore, these methods have not been noticed until recently, advances in materials and interest in renewable energy have led people to return to studies like this, Gogotsi said.

Cuu Long estuary - an estuary can provide electricity equivalent to a 225 meter waterfall.

A Brogioli device will certainly be welcomed in the river mouths. According to Gogotsi calculations, each river mouth when pouring into the sea, the mixing of river water into the sea creates an amount of electricity equivalent to a 225 meter waterfall. If exploited by a suitable device, it will supplement other renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy, the same energy sources in the same place without losing money to buy.

He said: ' In order to get rid of the dependence on fossil energy, people have to find ways to get an alternative energy source .'