salt power_ norway project gives osmotic energy a shake.pdf
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National Geographic Daily News
Salt Power: Norway Project Gives Osmotic
Energy a Shake
The world's first osmotic energy plant has been operating for more than three years in Tofte, Norway, on the
Oslofjord inlet. Statkraft is seeking to ramp up its efforts to produce renewable energy from the physical interaction of
saltwater and freshwater.
Photograph courtesy Damian Heini sch, Statkraft
Dean Clark in Oslo, Norway
For National Geographic News
Published January 7, 2013
Few people think of osmosis as a way to help feed the world's hunger for
energy. But an experiment under way on a coastal inlet in Norway may help
draw attention to the power packed in the salty seas.
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Tofte, an hour south of Oslo on the inlet known as Oslofjord, is home to a waterfront cellulose factory and not
much else. But for more than three years, Norwegian energy company Statkraft has been rather quietly testing
the technology in the world's first osmotic power plant, in a renovated wing of the town's factory.
With a meager two to four kilowatts of capacity, barely enough power to foam a cappuccino, the plant is a
decidedly small start. But the Norwegian Center for Renewable Energy (SFFE) pegs the global potential of
osmotic power to be about 1,370 terawatt-hours per year, about equivalent to the current electricity
consumption of Eastern Europe and Russia combined. (Related Quiz: What You Don't Know About World
Energy)
So Statkraft is now seeking to ramp up its work, while researchers around the world are joining in the effort to
harness a new form of renewable energy from the saltwater that covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's
surface.
Power From Movement
Osmotic power, also known as "salinity gradient" power, relies on a rather basic physical process: diffusion.Salty water molecules tend to move into freshwater nearby. It happens wherever rivers meet the sea, creating
energy in the form of heat. Place a semipermeable barrier between the saltwafter and the freshwater, and the
diffusion of molecules through the membrane is osmosis.
For decades, reverse osmosis has been used to filter water. Sidney Loeb, the American chemical engineer who
is credited with developing a practical reverse osmosis process in the 1950s, later developed a technique for
capturing the energy in the rush of saltwater to the freshwater side of a membrane.
Statkraft estimates it spent over ten years and more than 100 million kroner (about $12 million USD) in research
funds to help develop one of these techniques, pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), in the prototype facility at
Tofte. It's a big investment for a facility that has only enough capacity to operate a coffee machine, but size of
output isn't the key metric for researchers at this point. Statkraft views the Tofte experiment as a lab for learning
how to capitalize on osmotic power´s huge potential and strong environmental credentials. (Related: "Going 'All
The Way' With Renewable Energy?")
Independent experts see the potential. "It´s a very clean process," said Friso Sikkema, senior specialist in power
generation and renewables at DNV Kema, a leading research firm in the field based in the Netherlands.
Osmotic power generation is carbon-free, and Statkraft reports that its plant´s main byproduct is brackish water.
Questions remain however, concerning future large-scale operations and their effect on salinity levels or how
pretreatment processes might impact local marine life.
Bruce Logan, director of the Hydrogen Energy Center and Engineering Energy and Environmental Institute at
Penn State University says he is "optimistic osmotic power can play an important role," but cautioned "there´s no
enough work going on in terms of developing inexpensive membranes tailored for the process."
Even though membrane technology is still in its early stages, the force currently generated by the experimental
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process can be significant. With pressures at the Norwegian test site reaching 12 bar on the seawater side, "it's
like creating an artificial waterfall of 120 meters" (394 feet), according to Statkraft's head of osmotic power,
Stein Erik Skilhagen. In this early-stage experiment, though, the flow of water is more a trickle than a cascade,
so power output at Tofte is still small. (Related: "Photos: Preserving Beauty, Providing Hydropower in Scotland"
Interest in the renewable energy source is growing internationally. NASA has been working on osmotic systems
for the treatment of wastewater aboard spacecraft, and is now investigating the PRO method with tertiary
treatment, or PRO/TT, with the aim of developing technology that can purify water and create energy at the
same time.
Hydro-Québec, the largest electricity generator in Canada and the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the
world, is partnering with Statkraft on next-stage development of PRO technology. It is looking into the feasibility
of osmotic energy along Canada's long coastline.
Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology opened its Osmotic Power Research Centre in 2010, the year before a
devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and led to a rethinking of the
nation's energy future. Akihiko Tanioka, the researcher leading the osmotic effort, argues that the flow volume ofJapan's rivers contain the potential energy capacity to replace five or six nuclear reactors if osmotic plants were
situated where rivers run into the sea.
A Natural Battery
Researchers in the Netherlands are working on an alternative to PRO—reverse electrodialysis, or RED. DNV
Kema´s Sikkema said the process, essentially, is "creating a natural battery."
In the RED approach, the osmotic energy of mixing fresh and salt water is captured by directing the solution
through an alternating series of positively and negatively charged exchange membranes. The resulting chemical
potential difference creates a voltage over each membrane and leads to the production of direct electric energy.
While less developed than PRO, the RED process may eventually become popular for a lower initial cost
structure. "PRO calls for complex machinery, chambers and turbines and generators. Economy of scale plays a
large role. In our (RED) technology, we produce electricity directly from difference in fresh and saltwater," said
Sikkema.
With all the upsides, why isn't osmotic power already warming homes around the world?
Infrastructure for the process is currently very expensive. Statkraft estimates that a PRO plant that can supply
power for 30,000 homes would need to be the size of a sports stadium and require 5 million square meters of
membrane. Add to that the challenge of creating intake water clean enough to keep from fouling the membranes,
and there are some costly hurdles to overcome.
But proponents like Skilhagen point out that the development of osmotic power will follow a curve like that of
other green energy sources. "You have to compare it with other renewables: wind, hydro and solar, for example.
There is a high level of investment in the beginning, but the technology will mature and become more attractive in
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future. Osmotic's environmental benefits will make it a useful part of the future low-carbon energy mix if costs
can be brought in line with other renewables."
Penn State's Logan says development of inexpensive membrane technology will be key to establishing a realistic
price point for osmotic energy.
The next step for Statkraft is to ramp up from the prototype at Tofte to a larger pilot plant that will generate more
energy and be connected to the grid. The company has applied for permits to construct a pilot on the west coastof Norway.
Despite his concern about the pace of development of osmotic power membranes, Penn State's Logan is hopefu
about Statkraft´s plans, calling them "a really important advance." He added: "With decent research and
advances, osmotic power could move forward in a three- to five-year timeframe." (Related Interactive: World
Electricity Mix)
This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy
Challenge.
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I was wondering if one could use mycelia as a living membrane. It could self heal and possibly live off the pollutants in
the water.
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Osmosis involves hypotonic towards hypertonic movement of the solvent, NOT the solute, through a membrane.
Thus, this article has it backwards, stating that saltwater is moving towards freshwater. In fact, the opposite occurs
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