Osmotic PowerPlant's Untapped Potential Explored By Norwegian Engineers

The world is busy trying to find alternative sources for power or electricity generation. A very rarely discussed topic in this field is osmotic power or salinity gradient power. It is the energy that can be tapped from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water. And just then, we hear from Norwegian Engineers that they are doing a bold attempt to increase the efficiency of osmotic power stations. To achieve this, they placed a separating membrane between the seawater and fresh water. The fresh water permeating through this membrane to the seawater side increases the pressure there. This is used to run the turbine and generate power.



For getting the maximum efficiency and generate on an average 25 MW, they will need about five million square metres of membrane. This membrane will comprise of two layers a dense one for water permeability and salt retention and a thin one for the  structural parameter. A challenge that the engineers are facing is making the membrane robust enough for preventing it from degradation.

SINTEF, a large independent research organisation from Scandinavia and Statkraft are carrying out R&D for such membranes at  special-purpose laboratories and the results will be tested at Statkraft’s pilot osmotic plants currently in operation. The real motive behind improving the efficiency of osmotic power plants is to bring such type of energy generation to commercial usage. We will look forward to the success of these experiments.

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