Electricity could be produced through blending salt, fresh water
When salt water is blended with fresh water, a significant amount of electric energy is produced.
Ways to transform that energy into electricity have been known for years but all of them are too expensive. Italian researchers suggested a new approach: they placed two carbon electrodes into salt water and charged them. This gave them something similar to a capacitor. After that they flushed the container with fresh water forcing salt ions to leave the electrodes and cause increase in voltage between them by approximately 10 percent – from 300 mV to 333 mV. This extra voltage is easily tapped off and redirected by short-circuiting the electrodes.
The method suggested by the Italian researchers is almost as efficient as more expensive membrane methods. It allows producing approximately 1.6 kJ of energy from each litre of fresh water (some .4 kWh from each cubic metre).
Blending of salt water with fresh makes a renewable energy source. All it takes is to exploit this method, to develop prototypes into industrial devices. Largest natural blenders of salt and fresh water are where rivers run into seas and oceans. For instance, the expected amount of energy that could be produced by the Volga River alone flowing into the Caspian Sea exceeds 10 000 GW – nearly equal to what the entire world consumes in one year.
Source: strf.ru
