Site Criteria for Osmotic Power Plants

This chapter presented the rationale behind the techniques for power generation by exploiting the salinity gradient. Technologies so far proposed to this purpose rely on different effects induced by the salinity gradient and face extremely different technical hurdles. 

The most developed technologies are those based on osmosis and electrodialysis membranes, which can exploit the experience gained in preparation of conomercial membranes 

High-salinity water source Salt(g/I) Conjugate low-salinity water Salt (g/l) Lake size (km ) Potential power (MW) 

Australia Lake Torrens Salt bed Indian Ocean 35 5,698 2,000 

Lake Eyre 330 Diamantina River / Indian Ocean J-35 9,690 3,300 

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