Mitigating the influence of multivalent ions on power density performance in a single-membrane capacitive reverse electrodialysis cell

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, the energy generated by the salinity gradient has become a subject of growing interest as a source of renewable energy. One of the most widely used processes is reverse electrodialysis (RED), based on the use of ion exchange membranes and Faradaic electrodes. However, the use of real salt solutions containing mixtures of divalent and monovalent ions in the RED process results in a significant loss of recovered power, compared with salt solutions containing only monovalent ions. From an original point of view, in this work we study and explain the influence of divalent ions and complex solutions in reverse electrodialysis devices equipped with capacitive electrodes with a single membrane (CREDSM). We show that CREDSM mitigates the impact of divalent ions. From a quantitative point of view, the power recovered in a Faradaic cell drops by more than 75 $$\%$$ % when the solutions contain 50 $$\%$$ % molar fraction of divalent ions and by 33 $$\%$$ % when the solutions contain 10 $$\%$$ % molar fraction of divalent ions. For similar low-cost membranes with fairly low selectivity, recovered power drops by only 34 $$\%$$ % when solutions contain 60 $$\%$$ % moles of divalent ions in CREDSM. We show that only the membrane potential, which makes up half of the cell’s open circuit potential, is affected. The potential of capacitive electrodes which counts for half of the potential cell does not decrease in the presence of divalents. For the same membrane under the same conditions, we estimate a loss of 62 $$\%$$ % in a RED device Furthermore, the membrane is not poisoned by divalent ions because we periodically change the electrical current direction, by means of switching the feed waters. CREDSM devices do not show any variation in membrane resistance or membrane selectivity. The techno-economic analysis suggests further valorization of salinity gradients in industrial operations.