On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis
Pressure-retarded osmosis is a renewable method of power production from salinity gradients which has generated significant academic and commercial interest but, to date, has not been successfully implemented on a large scale. In this work, we investigate lower bound cost scenarios for power generat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier B.V.
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107716 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0402-8185 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8375-2694 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2901-0638 |
| _version_ | 1811088607269617664 |
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| author | Chung, Hyung Won Banchik, Leonardo David Swaminathan, Jaichander Lienhard, John H |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Chung, Hyung Won Banchik, Leonardo David Swaminathan, Jaichander Lienhard, John H |
| author_sort | Chung, Hyung Won |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Pressure-retarded osmosis is a renewable method of power production from salinity gradients which has generated significant academic and commercial interest but, to date, has not been successfully implemented on a large scale. In this work, we investigate lower bound cost scenarios for power generation with PRO to evaluate its economic viability. We build a comprehensive economic model for PRO with assumptions that minimize the cost of power production, thereby conclusively identifying the operating conditions that are not economically viable. With the current state-of-the art PRO membranes, we estimate the minimum levelized cost of electricity for PRO of US$1.2/kWh for seawater and river water pairing, $0.44/kWh for reverse osmosis brine and wastewater, and $0.066/kWh for nearly saturated water (26% wt) and river water, all for a 2 MW production system. Only a pairing of extremely high salinity (greater than 18%) water and freshwater has the potential to compete with wind power currently at $0.074/kWh. We show two methods for reducing this cost via economies of scale and reducing the membrane structural parameter. We find that the latter method reduces the levelized cost of electricity significantly more than increasing the membrane permeability coefficient. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:04:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/107716 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:04:39Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier B.V. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1077162022-09-28T18:14:48Z On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis Chung, Hyung Won Banchik, Leonardo David Swaminathan, Jaichander Lienhard, John H Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Rohsenow Kendall Heat Transfer Laboratory (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Lienhard, John H Chung, Hyung Won Banchik, Leonardo David Swaminathan, Jaichander Lienhard, John H. Pressure-retarded osmosis is a renewable method of power production from salinity gradients which has generated significant academic and commercial interest but, to date, has not been successfully implemented on a large scale. In this work, we investigate lower bound cost scenarios for power generation with PRO to evaluate its economic viability. We build a comprehensive economic model for PRO with assumptions that minimize the cost of power production, thereby conclusively identifying the operating conditions that are not economically viable. With the current state-of-the art PRO membranes, we estimate the minimum levelized cost of electricity for PRO of US$1.2/kWh for seawater and river water pairing, $0.44/kWh for reverse osmosis brine and wastewater, and $0.066/kWh for nearly saturated water (26% wt) and river water, all for a 2 MW production system. Only a pairing of extremely high salinity (greater than 18%) water and freshwater has the potential to compete with wind power currently at $0.074/kWh. We show two methods for reducing this cost via economies of scale and reducing the membrane structural parameter. We find that the latter method reduces the levelized cost of electricity significantly more than increasing the membrane permeability coefficient. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Grant No.1122374) ) Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) (Project No. P31475EC01) 2017-03-27T15:00:31Z 2017-03-27T15:00:31Z 2017-01 2016-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00119164 1873-4464 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107716 Chung, Hyung Won, Leonardo D. Banchik, Jaichander Swaminathan, and John H. Lienhard V. “On the Present and Future Economic Viability of Stand-Alone Pressure-Retarded Osmosis.” Desalination 408 (April 2017): 133–144. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0402-8185 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8375-2694 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2901-0638 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2017.01.001 Desalination Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier B.V. Prof. Lienhard via Angie Locknar |
| spellingShingle | Chung, Hyung Won Banchik, Leonardo David Swaminathan, Jaichander Lienhard, John H On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title | On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title_full | On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title_fullStr | On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title_short | On the present and future economic viability of stand-alone pressure-retarded osmosis |
| title_sort | on the present and future economic viability of stand alone pressure retarded osmosis |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107716 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0402-8185 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8375-2694 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2901-0638 |
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