Influence of multivalent ions on power production from mixing salt and fresh water with a reverse electrodialysis system

Reverse electrodialysis is a membrane-based technique for production of sustainable electricity from controlled mixing of a diluted electrolyte solution (e.g., river water) and a concentrated electrolyte solution (e.g., sea water). Reverse electrodialysis has been investigated with pure sodium chloride solutions. In practice, however, in most cases also other ions are present in both feed solutions. In the present paper, the effect of multivalent ions on the performance of a reverse electrodialysis stack was investigated. Results show that, besides a higher stack resistance in presence of multivalent ions, especially the presence of multivalent ions in the dilute solution has a lowering effect on the stack voltage. This can be explained by an observed transport of these ions from the diluted electrolyte solution to the concentrated electrolyte solution. In order to prevent or hamper this transport against the activity gradient, monovalent-selective membranes can be used. This shows indeed better results with respect to the stack voltage. Therefore, it would be beneficial to use monovalent-selective membranes in reverse electrodialysis, especially in the case of a relatively high content of multivalent ions in the dilute (i.e., in the first stages of the installation where the sodium chloride content in the dilute is still relatively low).