Determination of salinity gradient power potential in Québec, Canada

Electrical energy can be produced from the chemical potential difference of two liquids with dissimilar salinities. This source of energy is known as salinity gradient power. In this paper, the theory, the technologies used to exploit the power, the major challenges, and their development trends are first presented. Then a modeling of fluxes across semi permeable membranes is proposed and validated. Next, an energy balance study is done in order to estimate the power potential for a given salinity gradient system. By applying this study to several rivers in Quebec, the salinity power gradient potential is estimated to 45 TWh/yr based on the minimal flow rate of each river

Effectiveness of flow obstructions in enhancing electro-osmotic flow

In this paper the influence of obstructions on micro-channel electroosmotic flow is investigated for the first time. To carry out such a study, regular obstructions are introduced into micro-channels and flow rates are numerically calculated. The effect of channel width on flow rates is analysed on both free and obstructed channels. The solid material considered for channel walls and obstructions is silicon and the electrolyte is de-ionised water. The parameters studied include channel width, obstruction size and effective porosity of the channel. The effective porosity is varied between 0.4 and 0.8 depending on other chosen parameters. The results clearly demonstrate that, under the analysed conditions, introduction of obstructions into channels wider than100 micro meters enhances the flow rate induced by electro-osmosis